Senate committee urges administration to keep college costs down

WASHINGTON – Republicans and Democrats showed support this week for the president's plan to cut the cost of higher education. However, the lawmakers could not agree about how the plan should be put into practice.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing Feb. 3 to listen to a panel of speakers discuss college affordability.

This comes a little more than week after President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union address, when he put colleges on notice to keep the cost of higher education from rising.

Leading off discussion at the hearing was Martha Kanter, under secretary of the US Department of Education. She highlighted Obama's goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

The president's plan to tackle rising college costs includes increasing the money awarded to Pell Grant recipients, making loans more affordable and providing incentives for states to make commitments to higher education.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., questioned Kanter about the present, not what the administration is looking for in the future.

"We've always got goals in the future that we're going to work with," Mikulski said. "The time is now. I believe in the power in now."

Mikulski pressed Kanter to talk to the committee about legislation. Kanter said she had lots of ideas and proposals, which include the state tool kit for college completion that was introduced in March 2011.

Kanter said the administration is looking forward to finding the best way to propose legislation on college affordability, but she did not elaborate.

There is a wide range of support at every level for cutting the cost of college. On Jan. 31, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which  represents more than 1,000 nonprofit, independent colleges, gathered to discuss strategies and concerns about the president's plans.

"Sometimes, pressure on tuition puts pressure on large classes. It results in pressure to take online courses," said Bernard Fryshman, executive vice president of the Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools. "These are all things that are not helpful to students who need help. What happens is the tuition might be kept low, and at the same time students don't do as well as they could do."

Many of the college officials shared Fryshman's opinion and said legislation has to cut the cost of higher education without cutting quality.

Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, has dealt with these issues at her school. During her tenure, she has taken Trinity from the brink of failure to an accredited university that reaches out to minority women.

"It is just impossible to say reduce college cost, which is the expense side of the ledger, and increase the number of low-income students," McGuire said. "We have to come to a happy middle on the actual price tag involved with broad access."

One of Obama's proposals is to keep the interest rate for student loans at 3.4 percent, instead of letting it rise to 6.8 percent, which it will do in July unless Congress acts. He wants to continue the Race to the Top plan, which gives grants to school districts for innovative proposals. Together, these programs will cost an estimated $4.5 billion.

With the president set to release his 2013 budget Feb. 13, Kanter said Obama is firm on funding higher education and having a proposal that would not cost taxpayers more money.

The Senate committee questioned Kanter on what would happen if states did not hold up their part of the bargain to keep costs down.

"We can't, as you know, restrict tuition increases. That's not the role of government," Kanter said. "But we want to look to the states and provide innovation funding so they can look at the polices that will stabilize tuition in the long term."

Kanter said the administration hopes to invest in colleges that provide good value and to take funds away from schools that do not. She said the administration will assess value by examining cost, service and outcomes.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., emphasized the country's need to spend more money on education and infrastructure, rather than wars and military bases overseas. He said the country spent $120 billion in Afghanistan last year.

"What would a third of that buy in terms of affordability in colleges across America?" Merkley said. "We must make choices as a nation. … We are systematically undermining our investment in our intellectual infrastructure. We are weakening this nation."

Salvador Guerrero, senior print media major at UTEP, is an intern at the Scripps Howard Foundation's Semester in Washington program. He may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.