GOP Plank: ‘The Status Quo Is Not Working’ When It Comes To Higher Education
Republican delegates here formally approved on Tuesday a party platform that outlines several policy goals affecting higher education, including calls for expanding alternatives to traditional colleges, increasing private-sector participation in student loans, and combating liberal bias at public institutions.
“The status quo is not working” when it comes to dealing with the rising cost of college, the document says, lending support to new learning systems that compete with traditional four-year colleges.
Those alternative programs include “community colleges and technical institutions, private training schools, online universities, life-long learning, and work-based learning in the private sector.”
In addition, students and their families ought to be armed with better information about colleges—such as degree-completion rates, loan-repayment rates, and future earnings—to make choices about their higher education, the document says.
The platform says that “federal student aid is on an unsustainable path” and appears to support an end to the federal direct-loan program.
“The federal government should not be in the business of originating student loans,” the document says. “However, it should serve as an insurance guarantor for the private sector as they offer loans to students.”