The federal government, he said, “can’t just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,’’ which has roughly doubled the pace of inflation in recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt for the first time. And students who graduated in 2010 had an average student loan debt of $25,250 - up 5 percent from the previous year - while facing a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, the highest jobless level for new graduates in recent history, according to the Project on Student Debt.
Obama is pushing his multipronged college affordability plan in the midst of his campaign for reelection. But although this is a “bread-and-butter middle-class issue,’’ Obama’s bid for voters affected by high college costs will not come easily, given the complexities surrounding tuition levels and the limited levers that government has, said Andrew P. Kelly, a research fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
None of the candidates for the Republican nomination has responded to Obama’s initiative. Political analysts expect the eventual GOP nominee to cast the president’s plan as an overreach of the federal government into the business of higher education.
“It’s a bit of a communication challenge for the president,’’ Kelly said. “The real thing to watch is whether it’s cast in a way that resonates with the middle class, who are watching their purchasing power in higher education slowly erode.’’
While Obama sought to allay parental concerns by announcing additional billions in financial aid to be distributed to schools that best hold down costs and graduate the neediest students, the president has set off alarms among higher-education officials sensitive to any proposals that resemble price controls.
