Sen. Lamar Alexander (R – Tenn.) is expected to become chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee in the Republican-led Congress and he spoke with NPR Tuesday to outline his education priorities for the next two years.
While promoting school choice and turning Common Core over to the states were his main points, Alexander gave a couple of hints for what is next in higher education and his willingness to work across the aisle on student loan debt.
NPR asked the senator about college affordability and the kind of accountability that should be in place for federal funding at higher education institutions. He said he believed college was more affordable than most students realized, but cited the current Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as one of the biggest roadblocks to college access.
“I’m [also] working with Senator Michael Bennet, [D-Colo.], to take the 108-question student-aid application form, known as FAFSA, and reduce it to two questions: ‘What’s your family income?’ and, ‘What’s your family size?'” Alexander said. “… The complexity of the form is discouraging students from attending college. So the greatest barrier to more college graduates is this federal application form.”
As far as accountability goes, Alexander thinks that a government-operated rating system is not the way to go about it. President Obama has previously announced a plan to create a government-sponsored college ratings system based on measures like graduation rates, student-loan default rates and the percentage of academically eligible low-income students a school enrolls.
“I think ratings are fine, but the U.S. Congress and department of education don’t have any business trying to develop a rating system for 6,000 higher education institutions in the country. All we’ll get is a lot of controversy, a lot of regulations and a lot of confusion. I mean, how is Washington going to compare Nashville Auto-Diesel College and Harvard? Leave that to accrediting agencies,” he said.
“Have a lot of transparency so students and families can find out all they can about colleges. We have a marketplace of colleges and universities. It has produced the best system of higher education in the world. We don’t need the federal government over-regulating it.”
Though they differ on this front, Alexander is willing to work with Obama on lessening the student debt burden.
“We did a good job working with the president last year simplifying student loans and reducing the interest rate for undergraduates by half,” he told NPR. “We need to finish that job by simplifying the FAFSA and repayment options.”
