Last Friday, North by Northwestern Editor-in-Chief Amanda Litman and the Huffington Post sat down with Arne Duncan and Melody Barnes to discuss higher education policy at the White House. While many questions were asked, much went unanswered. Here’s a look at what the White House may have held back.
Repayment of student loans
One video-question raised the issue that most of the benefits from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 would be effective in 2014 and not useful to current students. Duncan responded that, effective today, students would have to pay no more than 15% of their income towards loan repayment, which is true according to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009.
Duncan, however, went on to mention a program in which students go into the public service, saying “after 10 years of public service, any debt you have will be erased, will be gone.” While this may be true, this program is not effective until 2014. Duncan did not specifically say that this program was currently the law, but he did make a misleading implication by prefacing it with a reference to current law regarding income-based loan repayment.
Regulating the price of college
When asked about how the federal government can “regulate the actual price ticket for a college education,” Melody Barnes made a reference to President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address. Said Barnes, “[Obama] also said that colleges have to do their part, and asked colleges to engage with us and think about ways — creative ways that they can drive down their cost. ”
Really though, that’s all the federal government can do. No current law says that the federal government can force private institutions like Northwestern to set a certain tuition price, nor can they currently do the same for state schools – state governments decide that. Barnes did, however, mention the American Opportunity Tax Credit which can give a family a $10,000 boost. The key here is that it isn’t $10,000 per year, but over four years, composed of a yearly max of $2,500. So it is indeed possible for a family to obtain $2,500 one year, but not guaranteed for the next three years.
Class-based affirmative action and admissions
On at least two occasions, Duncan and Barnes were asked about class-based affirmative action policies or other measures to increase minority enrollment. Duncan stressed increasing the quality of K-12 education in order to ensure that all students become more competitive. “Today, there are not enough highly qualified African-American and Latino students to go to the Northwesterns of the world. I want to expand that pool dramatically,” said Duncan.
But when pressed about changing admissions standards, Duncan said, “admissions standards are a piece of it.” But this “piece” has not actually been addressed in the last two major education reform bills signed by the President. Instead, an emphasis on the administration’s “Race to the Top” program conveys the federal government’s plan to increase minority enrollment. One flaw is that Race to the Top, if successful, would universally produce better students and not necessarily focus on minority students.
Updated: A previous broken link has been replaced. Thanks to commenter Priya for pointing out the error.