Lamar Alexander On Education In The New Congress

“Higher education, preschool funding, the Common Core and the future of No Child Left Behind are just a few of the education policies that will be in play under the new Republican-controlled Congress. How will these things change? We called Sen. Lamar Alexander to ask,” NPR reports.

“The Tennessee Republican is expected to become chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. There, he’ll preside over the Republicans’ education agenda, an issue he’s been deeply engaged with for decades as a governor, presidential candidate, university president and U.S. education secretary.”

When asked about his higher education agenda, Alexander said, “The cost of higher education is more affordable than people think. At a community college, average tuition is $3,600. At a four-year public institution, it’s $8[,000] to $9,000. Many students can get a Pell Grant they don’t have to pay back, up to $5,000. We lend $100 billion every year in student loans at an interest rate of about 4 percent to people with no credit history. Tennessee is the first state to say two years of community college is free. I expect more states to do that.

I’m [also] working with [Colorado Democratic] Sen. Michael Bennet 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?’ … The complexity of the form is discouraging students from attending college. So the greatest barrier to more college graduates is this federal application form. …

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 [currently known as Lincoln College of Technology] and Harvard? Leave that to accrediting agencies. 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 overregulating it.”