President lays out tuition plan, may work against public institutions
President Barack Obama was in the Midwest Friday outlining his plan to make college more affordable.
But while sweeping changes may help students, it could actually hurt public institutions.
"From now on, I'm telling Congress we should steer federal campus based aid to those college that keep tution affordable, provide good value, serve their students well," Obama said.
The President's plan also calls for an increase in funding for Pell grants and Perkins loans.
While that message may serve him well on the campaign trail, some fear it could actually hurt students and universities.
"I think he has good intentions," said William Elliott, an assistant professor in Ku's School of Social Welfare. "It makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways, but we need to find some alternatives to student loans. We need to find some way to ween us off students loans and debt in general and I think this kind of helps increase that."
Elliott says bold action is needed to avert the college debt crisis, but under Obama's proposal, a school like KU, which has raised tuition recently, would receive less funding.
The President is also calling universities to produce what he calls a college scorecard, designed to inform potential students about a school's cost, graduation rates and future earnings.