You’ve probably heard by now: Wednesday was President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office, and the entire nation has become caught up in evaluating his potential for future success by what he’s accomplished in office thus far. This measurement is arbitrary, to say the least; however, it’s never a bad idea to examine the promises a president made during his candidacy and regularly scrutinize his adherence to those promises.
But it seems that amid the panic surrounding our nationwide economic meltdown, keeping tabs on one of Obama’s most important promises – the one to reform higher education – has been put on the back burner. It’s understandable that the catastrophe of more than 5 million jobs lost and nationwide unemployment hitting its highest level in more than a quarter-century would be forefront in the nation’s collective consciousness. But it’s of vital importance to remember higher education is a key ingredient to economic stability and growth.
“As the United States has moved from an industrial economy to a post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, American higher education has emerged as the premier system for preparing the highly skilled workers our nation requires,” wrote Donna Desrochers, vice president and director of education studies for the Committee for Economic Development in Washington, D.C. “In the twenty-first century, America’s ability to produce and disseminate education will increasingly determine its economic competitiveness.”
So, in the spirit of the 100-day check-up, we ask the question: What has Obama done for higher education since taking office?
One of his primary campaign promises was to make higher education more affordable for average Americans through such measures as tax credits and loan reforms. He has taken decisive steps on both fronts.
In his first 100 days, Obama has enacted legislation to make college more affordable by making working families eligible for a $2,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition, and expanding the Perkins Loan Program. He also plans to reform the Pell Grants, which he said “roughly 30 percent of students rely on to put themselves through college,” by adding $500 to Pell Grants for the 2009-10 academic year, raising next year’s maximum grant from $5,350 to $5,500, and giving Pell Grants a fixed rate above inflation to ensure they increase as costs rise. And, on Friday, Obama announced his plans to reform the nation’s student loan system by decreasing the role of private lenders and placing the responsibility on the federal government.
Obama is calling for a shift from the private Federal Family Education Loans to federal Direct Loans, because he said the country cannot afford the billions of dollars in premiums that banks receive from taxpayers each year. Ending the FFEL program and relying solely on Direct Loans would make tax dollars directly responsible for helping students pay for college and ultimately “save tens of billions of tax dollars over the next 10 years,” he said.
Clearly, Obama has concrete goals for making higher education more accessible, and since taking office he has made significant progress toward achieving them. However, the issue of affordability is not the only plague for which the American higher education system must find a cure. Mark C. Taylor, chairman of the religion department at Columbia University, wrote in a recent New York Times opinion piece, “Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market … and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand … all at a rapidly rising cost.” Add to these problems the antiquating forces of rapidly changing technology and the shrinking job market and it’s not just graduate students who are facing the prospect of degrees that hold little to no real-world value.
Many experts such as Taylor argue that rather than a departmentally divided, one-size-fits-all model that so many universities adhere to, curriculum should be structured like a “web or complex adaptive network” that makes teaching and learning a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural experience. Taylor also calls for such measures as expanding the range of professional options for students to help them prepare for work in a broader range of fields, and imposing mandatory retirement and replacement of tenure with multi-year contracts, which he argues would allow colleges and universities to “reward researchers, scholars and teachers who continue to evolve and remain productive while also making room for young people with new ideas and skills.”
The path to reform for colleges and universities is clouded, to be sure. But the fact is, American higher education is in a state of crisis. Obama has taken strong action toward improving the system, but simply making it cheaper is not enough. We hope that over the next 100 days, as well as throughout the coming four years, he continues to make good on his promise of “change” by enacting the reform that American higher education so desperately needs.
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Progress in higher ed reform not enough
Daily Emerald
April 29, 2009
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