Obama To Propose College-Ranking System That Could Increase Affordability

Career College Central summary:

On Thursday, President Obama unveiled a broad new plan that aims to make college education more affordable by overhauling the college-ranking system and allocating federal financial aid based on those results.
The plan, which Obama will rolled out on a two-day campus bus tour yesterday in Buffalo, would create a ranking system beginning in 2015 to evaluate colleges on tuition, the percentage of low-income students, graduation rates and debt of graduates.
Federal financial aid would be awarded based on those rankings as an incentive for schools to make improvements in these areas.
While Obama aims to create the rankings through executive action, the plan to reallocate federal aid based on the rankings would require congressional approval. The rankings would reward colleges that offer “value.” A school that holds down average tuition and student-loan debt could rise in the rankings, which means that the system would act as an incentive for colleges to keep those costs as low as possible. In addition, higher-ranking schools would qualify for larger federal grants, making them more affordable for students.

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