Ranking Colleges, Federal Government Style

The nation agrees that the cost of higher education is spiraling out of control. While the cause remains debatable–conservatives point to ubiquitous loan availability courtesy of the federal government which allows colleges more than most would agree to pay sans-loans– many are predicting a serious overhaul in the way college education works for American students. The divergent strains of technical training and the liberal arts, increasingly at odds while housed in the same institutions, lead to confusion for high school graduates over what to study, where to study it, and how to pay for it.

As with most problems recognized on a national scale, the federal government has now proposed a national, sweeping solution. President Obama announced a plan to rank colleges according to national metrics–tentatively: tuition cost, percentage of low-income students, graduation rates, and debt of graduates– in order to distribute federal financial aid by merit. The plan, in principle, means the federal government will begin to decide which colleges sink or swim, and thus, what colleges teach and who they allow to matriculate. This is certainly unnerving. One highlight of the President’s proposal, however, is the tightening of loan availability to students who are not passing their classes in school. This is just common sense practiced by non-government lenders– if someone is not making good on a past loan, don’t issue them a new one. Of course, the debate is just beginning about which of these policies will sink or swim.

While those in power in the nation’s capital certainly don’t tend to shy away from new realms of influence, it’s hard to pin the blame for the overreach solely upon them. Those in Washington are villanized for inaction by the public whenever something of gravity troubles our culture’s wellbeing. The real problem is the loss of faith by the American people in the ability of anything smaller and more local than Congress and their President to address the issues surrounding them, no matter how personal. Conservatives can gripe about overreach as much as they want, but until they convince the public that it will be worth their while to look for community-driven, federal (in the true sense of the word) solutions instead of to Washington, D.C., further national government intrusions are inevitable.