---

President Barak Obama’s plan to reduce the cost of higher education has caused an overwhelming mix of criticism and approval among educational authorities across the nation.

Obama gave a speech to the students of University of Michigan Jan. 27, addressing concerns for the rising cost of education and his plan to give incentive to colleges to cut costs.

Obama announced that he would work with colleges that could keep costs down, but would withhold federal subsidies to colleges that cannot or will not work harder to keep tuition from rising.

“Since most of you were born, tuition and fees have more than doubled,” Obama said. “That forces students like you to take out more loans and rack up more debt. In 2010, graduates who took out loans left college owing an average of $24,000 — that’s an average.”

Obama announced that his administration is increasing federal student aid, and that he would shift taxpayer subsidies from the banks that administer loans to instead the students, and provide more grants and lower interest rates.

“We can’t just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,” Obama said. “No matter how much we subsidize it, sooner or later we’re
going to run out of money.”

Greg Hand, UC spokesman, said, “This message resonates very well here at UC because cutting costs is what we’ve been attempting to do.”

Obama announced that his plan would allow college graduates to pay 10 percent of their monthly income until their loans are paid off, regardless of the amount owed.

He also called on Congress to extend the tuition tax credit that his administration has put in place and wants to keep student-aid interest rates from doubling, which is scheduled to happen in July.

Obama called on colleges to do better, and not to assume they can raise tuition every year without being held accountable. However, his critics feel this message is hypocritical.

“The main thing federal student aid does is let colleges raise their prices with impunity,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director for the Center of Educational Freedom in Washington, D.C. “That’s why it’s so troubling that the President, at the same time has asked Congress to raise student aid.”

While critics point fingers at increasing federal aid for rising tuition, state funding has played a large role in college budgets by cutting aid dramatically over the past few decades.

From 2010 to 2011, state funding for higher education in Ohio has dropped 11.8 percent, and it dropped 7.6 percent nationally, according to a study done by the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University.

“While state and federal funding has dropped about 12 percent consistently over the past few years, our tuition [at UC] has only increased 3.6 percent each year,” Hand said.

UC has made a lot of sacrifices and strategic maneuvers to keep tuition at a manageable level.

At the latest board meeting, a contract to lock in prices on natural gas is estimated to save the university $1 million per year.

However, hundreds of jobs have been eliminated and administrative staff hasn’t seen a pay-raise in 2 years.

“UC is absolutely dedicated to holding down costs and not dumping this on the students,” Hand said.