In releasing a new report about the "exploding tuition" in higher education, U.S. Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., is sounding the bell for Round 2 of federal education reform. This time, the target is no longer elementary schools.
It's universities.
"America's higher education system is at a crisis point and dramatic action must be taken to restore the dream of a college degree for our nation's young people," McKeon said. "I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle take heed . . . and start demanding accountability for the cost increases that have long plagued college campuses across our country."
Note the word "accountability" here. What we are seeing are the first shots fired in a new White House assault on education. As Congress considers reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, President Bush and Congressional Republicans want to take "No Child Left Behind" to young adults.
Republicans in Congress, led by McKeon, have floated proposals that would drastically overhaul the way college tuition is set and federal financial aid distributed. According to reports in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the president is expected to hit the campaign trail criticizing institutions for unaffordability and low graduation rates.
Under McKeon's bill, colleges, both private and public, would lose federal funds if they raised tuition by a certain percentage keyed to the rate of inflation for three years in a row.
The law would solve nothing. Colleges could get around it by passing steep tuition increases two years in a row and then coming in well below the rate of inflation the third year.
As they consider university access and accountability, though, federal policymakers are overlooking the role their counterparts on the state level have played in driving tuition up and quality down.
After all, the president's own brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and the Republican-controlled Legislature have been hard at work squeezing the Florida university system.
Florida's state universities are crowded, cash-strapped and slipping in national reputation.
Their tuitions have been increased as a matter of a state policy, pushed by Gov. Bush, to load more of the cost on families. Even with tuition increases, the financially strapped institutions aren't sure they can offer enough courses to meet immediate demand, much less ensure students graduate on time.
The damage Florida politicians have done is particularly severe, but public universities nationwide have sustained severe cuts in state appropriations during the current economic downturn.
It is a bad trend that began during good times. Nationally, state funds constituted 36 percent of universities' budgets in 1997, down from 46 percent in 1980.
If the overall quality of American universities has in fact declined, state politicians bear much of the blame.
McKeon is calling for federal price controls on university tuition, and his report asserts that "no longer can college cost increases be blindly accepted part and parcel." While his proposal may make for good political theater, rising tuition is but one of the many variables affecting the quality and cost of university education. For a different perspective, he might want to chat with the president's brother, Gov. Bush, a serial tuition increaser.
