Obama's next income-inequality pitch: Access to college

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at a White House summit Thursday will announce commitments from dozens of institutions of higher learning to expand college access for low-income Americans.

 

The push by the president is his latest attempt to put the spotlight on income inequality, an issue that Obama says will serve as the centerpiece of his State of the Union address later this month — and the rest of his second term.

 

“We do not have a more clear ladder of economic mobility than the obtainment of a college degree for someone born into a low-income family,” said Gene Sperling, Obama’s top economic adviser, previewing the White House event.

 

“We have to do much more as a country,” Sperling added about giving younger people a greater chance for success.

Sperling said that the colleges and universities attending the White House gathering made a commitment to increase access for prospective students from low-income families.

Education leaders from some of the nation’s most prominent universities agreed to do more to enroll low-income students and ensure they graduate. Among the measures being taken are an increase in advising and test preparation, early interventions for middle-school students and remediation for those struggling once they get to college.

 

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Breaking The Higher-Ed Monopoly

Writing in The Federalist, Utah Senator Mike Lee goes to bat for a new bill which would attempt to break the federal monopoly on higher-ed accreditation. As Lee notes, current federal law forbids agencies from accrediting schools that do not grant formal degrees and forbids students at non-accredited schools from receiving federal aid. This effectively pushes students toward four-year residential colleges despite the fact that many would likely be better served by something else, be it a vocational training program or a specialized MOOC that a working person could take over the weekends.

 

Lee’s bill would circumvent this problem by allowing the states to create their own accreditation bodies in addition to the federal one, which, crucially, would not be limited to degree granting programs. Instead, these could accredit any courses they deem fit be they MOOCs, corporate training courses, or even knowledge certification tests:

 

(Snip)

 

If it works as planned, this change would give students a number of alternatives to the traditional college model and give them considerably more choice and control of their education. More importantly, many of these alternative programs could be much cheaper than their traditional counterparts, and could be completed without encouraging students to stay out of the workforce for years. Although we’re reserving judgement on the final bill, Lee’s diagnosis of the problems facing higher-ed is spot-on, and this looks to us like a serious attempt at addressing them. This is exactly the kind of creative thinking we like to see.

[Valin]

Jan 16, 2014

InstaVision host Glenn Reynolds discusses education policy with Michelle Fields. Reynolds has a new book entitled "The New School". Reynolds see alternatives as the the future of U.S. education. Will online learning crowd out traditional schools and colleges?