President Obama?s plan to make college more affordable is noble in intent but misses the mark in design. If the president and Congress were to focus on the real culprit of high college costs ? poor college completion numbers ? they could find rare common ground and make substantial headway on a problem that threatens to sink U.S. economic competitiveness.
….College presidents point to what seem like reasonable arguments for rising tuition: shrinking state budgets, for one, and the increasing costs of energy, pensions and health care. But if these circular arguments simply go round and round, an important opportunity will be missed. Data show that time, not tuition, is the enemy of college completion. Today?s college students are dramatically different from the archetype of the U.S. undergraduate.