College costs too much

Opinion: February 6, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Philadelphia Inquirer: President Obama is right to put more pressure on colleges and universities as well as the states to make a college education more affordable.

A nation that keeps telling its children they need more than a high school diploma to succeed in this increasingly high-tech world shouldn’t make it so hard for them to pay for college.

Obama wants to boost the Perkins federal loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion and change the formula for how the money is distributed. Colleges that fail to reduce costs will lose federal aid, an aggressive incentive for the schools to find practical ways to reduce the cost of an education.

The president’s plan also calls for a $1 billion grant competition that would reward states that keep college costs down. An additional $55 million would be earmarked to help colleges find ways to increase their productivity.

It shouldn’t be so hard for the state legislatures or Congress to understand how much harm they are doing by failing to adequately fund education. They need to keep in mind the price tag for a poorly educated generation.