ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, appearing before thousands of cheering students at the University of Michigan, touted his plan on Friday to reward colleges that keep their tuition under control with more federal aid as he makes school affordability a top election-year priority.
Obama, seeking to reform federal aid for students to pay spiraling college costs, unveiled fresh details of a proposal to make higher education affordable for more families that he first announced on Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
His plan is aimed at helping students pay for a higher education, which is seen as crucial for employment as the country is grappling with an 8.5 percent jobless rate. It also specifically targets the issue of income and access, a central focus of the November 6 presidential race that has zeroed in on the nation’s widening wealth gap.
Obama’s plan would have his administration redistribute campus-based aid, which is handled directly by schools, based on schools’ performance: colleges that keep tuition costs in check and get students to graduate would get more money than other schools that do not.
“We’re putting colleges on notice: you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down,” the Democratic president said at the speech that had all the trappings of a campaign event with striped