BREAKING NEWS
President Obama unveils a plan focused on
higher education performance, innovation, and affordability


 
Yesterday President Obama revealed his new plan to keep the promise of higher education to the students of our nation.  The Campaign for College Opportunity applauds his focus on affordability and student success.  We also support his efforts to encourage colleges and universities to keep costs down, increase access, and improve college completion rates for a more diverse student body. 
 
"We can't price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of a college education; we're going to have to do things differently."
- President Barack Obama
-
Photo credit: Mike Groll, Associated Press 
At the heart of the President's plan is a new college rating system that will be based on measures of access, affordability, and student outcomes.  The rating system will be in place in time for the 2015 school year and, by 2018, President Obama hopes that legislation will be passed to tie financial aid to the highest rated institutions.  The President shared that opportunity will be a key measure of the rating system, rewarding colleges that help students from all backgrounds succeed, and that we need to encourage states to fund colleges not just on enrollment, but on completion.

We look forward to watching the President's plan unfold and providing feedback during Education Secretary Arne Duncan's conversations on this topic.  First and foremost, we will continue to work on behalf of students in California to ensure that they have the opportunity to go to college and succeed in order to keep our economy strong.

For more details, please read the fact sheet on President Obama's college affordability plan here.  For a detailed analysis of the President's proposal, read these articles by The New York Times and Inside Higher Ed.