Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan elaborated on President Barack Obama’s higher education blueprint in a conference call Thursday with The Daily Reveille and student journalists across the nation.
The ultimate goal is to bring America’s rank in graduation rates from 16th place in the world to first by 2020, Biden said.
“That’s not for bragging rights. That’s for economic necessity,” Biden said.
Biden said the value of higher education is indispensable, which is why he, Obama and Duncan have given it a high priority.
“It’s about the national interest, it’s about the basic bargain with the middle class, it’s about the American dream, and it’s about the dignity of your parents and the opportunities for all of you,” Biden said.
Many Americans are no
longer in the position to pay for college, and they need help, Biden said. The Obama administration plans to implement several measures to keep higher education affordable.
Obama proposed an initiative that will make student loans easier to pay back by keeping interest rates low. Biden said students who took out loans will never have to repay with interest rates more than 10 percent of their disposable income.
Biden also said money earned by the government from student loan interest will be funneled back into the public higher education system by spending $10 billion toward creating campus-based aid.
There are also plans to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit — a tax return write-off for paying for college — as well as double the number of work-study jobs and provide a College Scorecard for all institutions.
The Scorecard will provide data on college costs and value, graduation rates and potential earnings to promote transparency and help
students make the right decision when selecting a college, Duncan said.
Another important aspect of the administration’s plan is rewarding schools that keep tuition low. A “fair formula” will be invented to determine if states are spending responsibly, Biden said.
Schools will be required to develop innovative methods to cut costs and can receive a portion of the federal government’s dedicated $1 billion budget for doing so.
“If universities are doing creative things [to save money], we want to not just recognize it, but incentivize it,” Duncan said.
Biden said Obama plans on utilizing the nation’s community colleges and establishing a clear branch of communication between those entities and state universities so that all credits will be transferable.
Biden said he plans to ensure that no academically qualified students are kept from attending college because of an inability to pay.
 
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Contact Emily Herrington at [email protected]