MIAMI ― Addressing what he calls a “growing opportunity gap” between people with and without advanced educations, Sen. Marco Rubio is calling for state-accredited alternatives to four-year colleges and income-based repayments for college loans.
The Florida senator and possible 2016 Republican presidential contender also says Congress should establish an independent accrediting agency to assess free courses offered over the Internet and elsewhere as transferrable credits.
“Those with the right advanced education are making more than ever. But those that do not are falling farther and farther behind,” Rubio said in remarks prepared for an education forum Monday at Miami Dade College. “The result is a growing opportunity gap between haves and have-nots, those who have advanced education and those who do not.”
College students, he added, also should be offered cost-benefit analyses comparing how much they can expect to earn in a particular field to how much they will owe after earning a degree in the subject.
“You have this new economic era, where higher education of some form is really a requirement to make it to the middle class and stabilize yourself,” Rubio said in an interview with The Associated Press before the conference sponsored by the National Journal. “But we have an old and stagnant education formula that doesn’t meet the demand that is being created.”
His education initiative comes as Republicans are aiming to offer an alternative to President Barack Obama’s agenda and shed the baggage of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid and Romney’s suggestion that 47 percent of Americans view themselves as victims who won’t take responsibility for themselves. Last month, Rubio proposed ideas for retooling federal anti-poverty programs, arguing that states could run them better.
“I want to add more options to the menu. And the more options we have, the more affordable it will be and the more people we’re going to be able to empower,” he told the AP.
