GOP presidential hopeful John Kasich is one of the many politicians weighing in on the issue of college affordability. But, the Ohio governor is going one step beyond talking points and taking action in his state to reduce college cost.
In Ohio, Kasich’s administration along with the state legislature have put constraints on the public schools’ ability to raise their tuition. The student debt levels continue to be above the national average, however.
With the debt levels not going anywhere, Kasich implemented an action plan to actually get things done.
The Task Force has directed Ohio schools to provide agendas for their plan to implement cost reduction. One of the suggestions? Get students to graduate in four years by creating incentives for them to take at least 15 credit hours per semester. Because getting school done in four years is a lot less money than taking five or even six years, as most Ohio undergraduates do, to finish school all while paying for it.
Another suggestion from the Task Force? Making use of the usually empty college campuses in the summer months. The recommendation reads “each campus must develop plans to evaluate utilization rates for summer session and consider opportunities to increase productive activity.”
“Most successful efforts to reverse the collegiate cost inflation will have to come from the outside” noted Forbes.com. “Universities have weak internal incentives to reduce costs, often putting the interests of powerful persons within the campus community ahead of those of students or society.”
It seems that Kasich’s plan of action may be the effort “from the outside” that schools need to make something happen.
The Republican governor’s suggestion is the conservative action approach to the college cost issue. On the other hand, Democrat’s would like to send everyone to college debt-free
