The rating system, which the president wants implemented before the 2015 school year, would evaluate colleges on several criteria, including average tuition and student loan debt, graduation rates, and the average earning of graduates. Obama says he will ask Congress to link the new rating system to the way federal financial aid is disbursed, with students attending highly-rated schools receiving larger grants and more affordable student loans.
“It’s time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results and reward schools that deliver American students of our future,” Obama told a crowd of more than 7,000 at the University of Buffalo.
Obama detailed his proposal on the first stop of a two-day bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania. The tour underscores the White House’s desire to stay focused on domestic issues, even as foreign policy crises in Egypt and Syria vie for his attention.
Throughout the summer, the White House has been seeking to keep the president’s public agenda centered on middle-class economic issues as a way to rally public support for his positions ahead of looming fiscal battles with congressional Republicans. Obama said a big part of middle-class security includes fundamentally rethinking how to pay for higher education.
“Higher education cannot be a luxury, it’s an economic imperative,” he said. “Every American family should be able to get it.
“Rather than seeking, keeping focus on a growing economy that creates good middle-class jobs, you know, we’ve seen a faction of Republicans in Congress suggest that maybe America shouldn’t pay its bills that have already been run up, that we should shut down government if they can’t shut down Obamacare.”
