students, and congress must devise a permanent solution to the crushing burden of student debt. i mean, when i heard this, as a full-time college professor for nearly 20 years, i was applauding right along with those enthusiastic students. then president obama made a sudden turn. we re going to start rating colleges, not just by which college is the most selective, not just by which college the the most expensive, not just by which college has the nicest facilities. you know, you can get all of that on the existing rating systems. what we want to do is rate them on who s offering the best value to students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck. so in the subsequent week, the administration has outlined a race to the top program for colleges and universities. so when we come back, we re going to talk about whether or not it s a good idea to transform america s world-class system of higher education into a market place, judged on how quickly and cheaply it produces
rating colleges on who is offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck. we are going to jump start competition between colleges and we are going to make sure that if you have to take on debt to earn your college degree that you have ways to manage and afford it. reporter: critics like senator marco rubio of florida says college should be more affordable but imposing standards on higher education is not the way to do it. some argue that the government must get more involved in creating opportunities even if it means avoiding certain spending cuts for now. we should start by ending short sighted spending cuts to national service programs that give young people the opportunity to get training for a job. we should expand access to education and training
money. if they re burdened with tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt, in some cases it s impossible for them ever to pay it off. or they have to put off buying a home or starting a business or starting a family. and that has a depressive effect on our economy overall. so it s not just bad for the students, it s also bad for the economy as a whole. bottom line is this. we can t price higher education so prohibitively that ordinary families can t afford it. that will ruin our chances to make sure the 21st century is the american century, just like the 20th century was. so what we ve done, and i announced this yesterday, is proposed three basic reforms to try to shake the system up. number one, we want to start rating colleges based on how well they re doing in providing good value and opportunity for
we can t price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of a college education. president obama is trading in air force one for ground force one. any minute now the president will speak at binghamton university in new york, the third stop on his two-day bus tour. the president kicked off his tour with a pair of speeches in upstate new york yesterday. we re going to start rating colleges not just by which college is the most selective, not just by which college is the most expensive, not just by which college has the nicest facilities, you can get all that on the existing rate systems. what we want to do is rate them on who s offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck. it is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results and reward schools
first, we re going to start rating colleges, not just by which college is the most selective. not by which college is the most expensive, which has the nicest facilities. you can get all that on the existing rating systems. what we want to do is rate them on who s offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck. number two, we re going to jump start new competition between colleges. not just on the field or the court, but in terms of innovation that encourages affordability and encourages student success and doesn t sacrifice educational quality. that s going to be the second component of it. and the third is we re going to make sure if you have to take on debt to earn your college degree that you have ways to manage and afford it.