Abstract

No-Brainer

The author argues that the Bush Administration's plans to introduce measures aimed at controlling costs at college and universities will make it more difficult for students from low-income families to complete degrees. Since taking office, George W. Bush has been nearly mute on the topic of higher education. But with the Higher Education Act, which provides more than $80 billion in grants and loans and is up for renewal in 2004, this is soon to change. The White House plans to pin the blame on universities for making higher education unaffordable to students from low-and middle-income families, as well as for allowing too many students to drop out. A new report from the College Board finds that public universities and community colleges raised tuition by 14 percent this year, the highest rate in three decades. Although these increases mainly compensate for declining government support, the GOP believes that bashing colleges for what Boehner assails as "hyperinflation" is a political winner. The Bush Administration and its friends in Congress have one thing right: Higher education is in deep trouble. But their proposed remedy would make things much worse. The trickledown economic mess has obliged almost every state to cut back on support for public universities, but Republicans are telling these cash starved institutions to hold the line on tuition or lose millions of dollars in federal grants and loans. Nationwide, college enrollments are steadily growing. But because state support and tuition don't fully cover the cost of providing an education, each new student means more red ink for the university. That's why many universities are turning away eligible students or ratcheting up their admission standards.