Leader of the party of bad ideas

Obama outlines incentive plan to reduce college tuition costs - The Washington Post

Increasing Perkins loan funding from one to eight billion dollars is a good idea. No complaints from me there. But decreasing funding from universities where the tuition goes up? I thought it was a terrible idea during the State of the Union, and I still think it is. What good could possibly come of this? The consolidation of universities in the country? Because that's the future I see if President Obama gets his way. Which he probably won't.

Under a plan like that which universities are going to be able to keep their federal funding? The big ones, of course. OSU should have little to no problem with it. They can just jack up the price of tickets a little, charge some extra fees (maybe the graduation application fee, for example) and get by. Maybe fire a few professors. Raise the price for room and board. They have a whole slew of options for keeping tuition from going up. What can, say, Wright State University or Ohio University do? Not as much. Neither has a sports program that brings in money. So that'll get cut a good amount. Professors will be fired. Schools and maybe even colleges will be consolidated and shut down. Room and board prices could go up. The end result of all that? Nothing good.

If the schools simply raise other rates (like room and board or graduation application fee) then the students aren't being saved anything and the problem isn't being taken care of. If they fire professors and/or consolidate/eliminate programs, then the education the students will be getting won't be as good. Which doesn't help the US at all and could set us even further back in the competition over education with the rest of the world. If the smaller schools start slashing their athletics programs? That will hurt the poor most of all. Many poorer students rely on athletic scholarships to be able to attend university. No scholarship will mean less attendance. Is that what we want? I think not.

It could come down to some universities closing. If they lose their federal funding, and the states continue to cut back on their funding for the universities, they won't be able to compete with the bigger schools for students. Their tuition will go up, they won't have sports teams, their dorms and cafeterias will be old, and their libraries not updated. They'll have less programs, and they won't be able to attract the professors necessary to stay in the upper rankings of various programs they currently specialize in. It'll take longer, but such a plan as President Obama has put forth could, and probably would, lead to the closing of some universities. At best this simply means more competition for more spots at less universities. In the medium-term. Long-term, universities like OSU can only accommodate so many students no matter the funding they receive. Plus, if universities close, that will mean less people live within commuting distance of a university. Who will this hurt the most? The poor. Again. They can't afford room and board even with federal help and they oftentimes work while going to school and living at home and helping out with the house and sometimes younger siblings. Or maybe, in the case of would-be college-bound women, they got pregnant and need to stay at home for help with the baby from their parent(s). Either way, not a scenario we would want.

President Obama is right to worry about the increases in tuition. All governors should be worried about it too. As should state and national legislators. Nevertheless, the remedy isn't the one President Obama has laid out. That leads to nowhere good. Sure, some will be helped by his plans. Those who would be hurt most, though, are those most in need of help: the lower middle class and the poor.