Obama Preaches Value of Education to Governors

Calls Obama academic 'snob'

(NEWSER) - Rick Santorum has a bone to pick with college. This weekend, he called President Obama "a snob" for wanting "everybody in America to go to college"—perhaps a bit strange coming from a man with more degrees than the president, the Washington Post notes. Added Santorum: “There are good decent men and women who go out and work hard every day that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them." On ABC yesterday, Santorum noted that "a lot" of Americans "have no desire or no aspiration to go to college." More»

Introduces plan to control tuition costs

(AP) - President Barack Obama today called for an overhaul of the higher education financial aid system, warning that colleges and universities that fail to control spiraling tuition costs could lose federal funds. Speaking to students at the University of Michigan, Obama said he was "putting colleges on notice" that the era of unabated tuition hikes is over. "You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down," Obama said on the final stop of a three-day post-State of the Union trip to promote components of his economic agenda. More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama will announce a plan today to pump $12 billion into community colleges over the next 10 years, USA Today reports. Most of the money—$9 billion—would reward programs that bolster graduation rates, or help graduates find local jobs. Another $2.5 billion would help seed renovation projects, hoping to spur $10 billion worth of spending. The last $500 million would be used to create free online courses. More»

Education linked to better health, longevity

(NEWSER) - Sure, college costs a lot of money and you won’t necessarily get a job after you graduate, but good news! At least you'll live longer in your loan-induced poverty, because higher education is linked to longer life. An annual report from the CDC shows that those who obtain a bachelor’s degree or above live about nine more years than those who never graduate high school. Education is also linked to other healthy habits, USA Today reports: More»

Math, science, and business students face price hikes

(NEWSER) - The tougher your major in college is, the more tuition you could have to fork over. More and more public universities are billing a higher tuition to students who major in math, business, and science programs. The schools' rationale is that it's more expensive to teach these specialties, and that graduates in these fields will find higher-paying jobs, reports USA Today . More»