U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan emphasized the policies the Obama administration has implemented to help higher education while calling students and state governments to action during a conference call Monday with college journalists.
Duncan said all the administration’s policies are centered around the president’s plan for the U.S. to have the highest proportion of college graduates by the year 2020. Duncan said the U.S. currently ranks ninth.
“A generation ago, we were No. 1. Now we’re No. 9. That’s a sad state of affairs,” he said.
Duncan said the president’s plan was “the north star of all our efforts.”
When asked about what the administration could do for higher education institutions suffering from huge state budget shortfalls — like those in Louisiana — Duncan said he “didn’t know how much he could do” to affect state policy.
“It’s interesting to me that taxpayers don’t challenge money going to prisons, but they challenge every little dollar for higher education,” he said. “We have an election coming up. You students need to get out and get involved.”
Duncan said step one of achieving the president’s goal is to make higher education more affordable.
Duncan emphasized the administration’s revamp of the federal Pell Grant program, increasing funding and putting the program directly under the federal government.
He also emphasized the administration’s passage of a law that caps loan payments at 15 percent of a student’s discretionary income.
That law also forgives the remaining debt held by students who go into public service for 10 years.
Students who don’t go into public service will see their debts forgiven after 25 years.
Duncan also emphasized filling the many scholarships that students miss. “We know that there are currently many scholarships that go unused or unfilled,” he said.
He pointed to the administration’s streamlining of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the paperwork necessary to apply for government scholarships.
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Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]