LSU President F. King Alexander came out in support of President Obama’s new plan to make higher education more affordable Thursday, saying many parts of the plan are similar to ideas he has promoted for years.
The plan, unveiled on the first stop of a two-day bus trip through New York and Pennsylvania, aims to make a college education more affordable by rewarding high-performing, low-cost universities with greater federal funding. It would establish a rating system for universities, judging them based on criteria such as tuition, student debt and post-graduation earnings.
Alexander said the University would benefit from this system.
“If it works the way we hope, it will give us more money and allow us to remain affordable,” he said. “It also rewards keeping students out of debt compared to other institutions nationwide.”
Alexander said the University has been proactive in trying to keep costs down for students while maintaining high academic standards, but he added that state cuts in funding for higher education have made that difficult.
The University’s average in-state undergraduate student paid $6,989 in tuition for the 2012-13 school year. According to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the national average tuition at public universities was $8,655, regardless of residency.
In-state undergraduate tuition grew 9 percent between 2011-12 and 2012-13, and out-of-state tuition rose 13 percent to $22,265. Alexander said the main reason for this was a decrease in appropriations from the state.
He said federal funding has become more important to universities in recent years, with the federal government providing $150 billion to states compared with $70 billion last year.
“I do think the federal government has a right and an obligation to use that $150 billion as leverage to make sure states stay in the game of funding higher education,” Alexander said.
Alexander said if the trend of decreasing state higher education funding continues, tuition will continue to rise and more students will be in greater debt after graduation.
A statement from White House officials said under the new plan, the federal government would implement a “race to the top”-style program that would create incentives for states to fund universities and keep tuition low. The program would give greater federal funding to states that base appropriations on performance and value rather than enrollment, which is currently the most common method.
Though Alexander said he is hopeful the President’s plan will help with the University’s financial problems, he said much of the fate of the plan will depend on the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in Congress.
“We’re going to be very engaged in the dialogue, very engaged in the language,” Alexander said. “This will come to fruition with the next reauthorization, which will come in the next nine to 12 months.”