College Crunch

I am usually not a very political person, but I think one of the many things that students should be taking into account is what the next president may do to the education system. Both are promising many different things related to energy, jobs, health care, and many other things that will effect our lives, but with education prices becoming more expensive than buying a house, how will things change?

Obama’s Higher Education Policy

Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.

Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct one hundred hours of community service.

Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama and Biden will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.

John McCain’s Higher Education Policy

Prepare for the 21st Century in Higher Education: America is facing increased competition from overseas like never before. Higher education is as much a part of that competition as the job sector, and we must rise to the challenge and modernize our universities so that they retain their status as producers of the most skilled workforce in the world. The answer is not to impose more regulations on institutions, but to encourage the government to support innovative approaches to education, removing regulatory barriers that prevent us from moving forward with new ideas.

Improve Information for Parents: Institutions report on hundreds of factors to the U.S. government every year, but the government does nothing with the information. Making this information available to families in a clear and concise manner will help more students make more informed choices about higher education.

Simplify Higher Education Tax Benefits: The existing tax benefits are too complicated, and many eligible families don’t claim them. By simplifying the existing benefits, I can ensure that a greater number of families have a lower tax burden when they are helping to send their children to college.

Simplify Federal Financial Aid: Too many programs and a complicated application process deter many eligible students from seeking student aid. The number of programs also makes it more difficult for financial aid officers to help students navigate the process. Consolidating programs will help simplify the administration of these programs, and help more students have a better understanding of their eligibility for aid.

Improve Research by Eliminating Earmarks: Earmarking is destroying the integrity of federally funded research. Billions of dollars are spent on pork barrel projects every year; significant amounts come from research budgets. Eliminating earmarks would immediately and significantly improve the federal government’s support for university research.

Fix the Student Lending Programs: We have seen significant turmoil in student lending. John McCain has proposed an expansion of the lender-of-last resort capability of the federal student loan system and will demand the highest standard of integrity for participating private lenders. Effective reforms and leveraging the private sector will ensure the necessary funding of higher education aspirations, and create a simpler and more effective program in the process.

Conclusion

I won’t say which one is better, nor who you should be voting for, but I do think that everyone should be informed, and this is just one of the many policies and platforms that the candidates are running on, and so I recommend reading and understanding as much as possible before you head to the polls.

For me, I believe that the problem can’t be fixed by student loans or grants, but needs to be dealt with at the cost to value proposition that most schools provide. I don’t think we as students are getting the value that we should be for the amount of money we are spending.

What are your thoughts on their higher education policies? Let me know in the comments below.

Sources: JohnMcCain.com and BarackOboma.com