The candidates on collegiate issues
Brandon K. Jones
Issue date: 9/29/08 Section: News
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year and the time to vote is just
around the corner.
This means that the time for college
students to become aware of where
the candidates stand on key issues, is
growing short.
Statistics from the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES) show
that between fall 2000 and fall 2006,
enrollments at community colleges increased
by 9 percent and the majority
of community colleges enroll between
1,000 and 10,000 students.
During that same span of time, average
tuition and fees at community
colleges increased by 25 percent, and
public 4-year institutions increased
by 41 percent. Their projections indicate
that these pa??erns will continue
steadily all the way through 2017.
In light of these figures, it may be
time for students to take a more active
role in determining who will make the
decisions that will shape the rest of
their college careers.
According to their official websites,
both the Republican candidate John
McCain and the Democratic Candidate
Barack Obama seem to have strong
views on education and the reform of
the current systems policies and procedures,
particularly on the issues of
student loans, financial aid and tuition
cost.
McCain believes that too many programs
and the complicated application
process of financial aid may be contributing
to less students seeking financial
aid.
His remedy for this is to consolidate
the programs. "Consolidating programs
will help simplify the administration
of these programs, and help
more students have a be??er understanding
of their eligibility for aid."
Obama has a similar idea in regards
to simplifying the application process.
He intends to streamline the financial
aid process by eliminating the current
federal financial aid application
and enable 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.
Obama has stated his intention to
create the American Opportunity Tax
Credit, a universal and fully refundable
credit that will ensure that the
first $4,000 of a college education is
completely free for most Americans,
covering two-thirds the cost of tuition
at the average public college or university
and making community college
tuition completely free for most
students.
McCain intends to simplify the existing
higher education tax benefits to
ensure that a greater number of families
have a lower tax burden when
they are helping to send their children
to college.
McCain proposes an expansion of
the lender-of-last resort capability of
the federal student loan system and
claims he will demand the highest
standard of integrity for participating
private lenders. He has also stated his
intention to eliminate earmarks
which he believes will significantly
improve the federal government's support
for university research.
Obama plans to implement programs
to "Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and
Reward America's Teachers". These
programs will offer various incentives
to future and current teachers, including
scholarships that cover the costs of
college for those studying to become
teachers, and salary increases for establishe teachers who are willing to
mentor new teachers.
Obama also claims he will create a
new Community College Partnership
Program which will "help schools determine
what skills and technical education
are needed to help local industry
expand new degrees for emerging
fields; and reward schools that graduate
more students."
All the above information and
much more can be found on the candidates'
websites, www.BarackObama.
com and www.JohnMcCain.com.
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