“He said, ‘The best thing you can do is shop around’. That’s it. That’s his plan. That’s his answer to young people who are trying to figure out how to go to college and make sure that they don’t have a mountain of debt.”” (Obama, New York Times, 2012)
President Obama also mentioned how, as newlyweds, he and his wife Michelle were burdened by the loans that they took to enroll in law-college. Mr. Obama attacked Romney’s election manifesto for proposing to cut student loans and grants, keeping away from regulating and controlling escalating tuition fees, etc. Such a policy framework, he asserted, would put higher education out of reach of most students from the middle-class.
In the State of the Union address earlier this year, when his nomination for re-election was not yet sealed, Mr. Obama had fleshed-out the details of the student financial aid program. A key component of his plan is “requiring all schools that receive federal financial aid, which is nearly all of the more than 4,000 colleges and universities in this country, to justify tuition increases or risk losing federal financial aid funds.” (Huffington Post, 2012) This method translates to applying price controls. In his own words, “if you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down” (Obama, State of the Union Address, 2012)
In terms of President Obama’s performance during his current tenure in improving the education system, there are no substantive contributions. Though some changes were implemented, the education system continues to be in distress.
References:
On trail, Obama attacks Romney on Student Aid, New York Times, 21st August, 2012, retrieved from <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/us/politics/obama-attacks-romney-on-student-aid.html?_r=0> on 23rd September, 2012-09-23
Obama’s financial aid reform comes with strings attached, The Kansas City Star, 10th February, 2012, retrieved from http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/10/3422283/obamas-financial-aid-reform-comes.html#storylink=cpy on 23rd September, 2012
Huffington Post, Full text of President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention Speech, 6th September, 2012, retrieved from < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/barack-obama-speech-text-_n_1849133.html> on 23rd September, 2012