By Shannon Corrigan
President Obama is proposing a financial aid overhaul that for the first time would tie colleges' eligibility for campus-based aid programs -- Perkins loans, work-study jobs and supplemental grants for low-income students -- to the institutions' success in improving affordability and value for students, administration officials told the New York Times.
In a speech to the University of Michigan Friday morning, Obama outlined his plan increasing Perkins loans from $1 million to $8 million. The president also announced plans to create a $1 billion grant competition encouraging states to contain public tuition rates, among others, CNN reports.
In addition to the new campus-based aid programs, the administration announced plans the push Congress to maintain low interest rates for current student loan borrowers, and double the number of work-study jobs over the next five years, CNN reports.
As the New York Times reported these changes would each require congressional approval.
In President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, he said "Let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down," as the New York Times stated.
There is some opposition from education experts who say that by tying aid to cost, such as what Obama proposes, may lead to lower-quality education with larger class sizes. They also worry that those institutions that are under the most pressure to raise tuition could be further hurt by losing access to some federal aid, the New York Times reports.
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