With his campaign for reelection shifting into gear, President Barack Obama has ruffled a few feathers with a controversial announcement regarding the issue of rising college tuition rates. In a speech delivered recently at the University of Michigan, the President addressed a concern on the minds of millions of American students: the constantly escalating cost of college tuition. With paychecks shrinking, the cost of living rising every year, and the job market diminishing by the day, students have been forced to shoulder the weight of their college’s financial imprudence at the worst possible time. The result has been as worrisome as one would expect, with student loan defaults on the rise and many students simply choosing to forgo their education as an unattainable expense. President Obama’s plan, which calls for colleges and universities to rein in their tuition costs or face the loss of federal funding, has predictably become a source of derision among leaders in the education field. Decrying what they view as an unacceptable governmental overreach, deans and presidents of universities across the county are up in arms over the latest salvo in the new era of political class warfare.
The root of the President’s tuition plan, like with many of his other initiatives, is the reduction of waste and inefficiency within institutes of higher education. With bloated budgets, massive bureaucracies and outdated methods, many major universities have simply become financially irresponsible because they have grown accustomed to foisting the burden on the student body. Any college student will readily tell you that their tuition costs have risen nearly every year for the past decade, and for many the point of no return has already been reached. The numbers simply do not lie, and with many students forced to endure tuition rates which have nearly doubled in the last five years, a critical tipping point appears to be near. The President’s announcement that his administration intends to provide a check within the insular system of colleges and universities should be heralded by students as a move in the right direction.
The plan will undoubtedly face stiff resistance from the entrenched heads of America’s major universities. In today’s modern economic atmosphere, higher education is just another big business, and many of the top schools in the country have become more concerned with profit margins than with academic achievement. Necessities like teacher evaluation, curriculum refinement and diversity outreach have been shoved aside by corporate raiders who have transitioned to management positions within universities. When massive new buildings are erected to please alumni and donors, or research programs are launched to attract national headlines, the student body is forced to subsidize these misadventures. With his controversial announcement, President Obama has shrewdly added the issue of educational costs to the overall debate, a move sure to garner him the support of student voters. More importantly, however, he has made it clear to universities and colleges that their aim should be to educate and shape young people’s lives without compromising their financial future.
