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Higher education not a top priority on either presidential candidate's to-do lists

Higher education is not a top priority on either of the presidential candidate's to-do lists. It isn't even high on their to-talk-about lists.

But who is elected on Nov. 2 might affect how much grant money students can receive and how quickly nation-wide tuition rates continue to rise.

"Higher education has hardly even come up," said John Jackson, a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute. "There has been almost no publicity given to it, but there are some differences."

The candidate elected will help shape the Higher Education Act reauthorization, which was supposed to have been reviewed and authorized this year. Congress, perhaps trying to prevent controversy so close to the election, has delayed doing so.

The mammoth law partially regulates colleges and universities by authorizing most federal aid programs.

"If Kerry wins, he would push for more expansion [of the act] than Bush would," said Richard Vedder, a distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University and the author of "Going Broke By Degree."

"But I don't know that it matters."

Because both houses of Congress are likely to remain Republican, it will be difficult for Kerry, if elected, to get substantial changes approved by the legislature.

Nonetheless, both candidates have views on educational policies, which mostly focus on elementary and secondary education.

While neither campaign was willing to speak on the record about the candidate's platforms on higher education, their websites address the issue.

Neither candidate has specific plans to increase the minimum Pell Grant, which is currently set at $4,050, or to reduce the nearly $4 billion deficit in the program's budget.

However Bush wants to provide grants to low-income students who study math or science and proposes a $33-million program that would reward low-income, high school students taking specific college-prep courses $1,000 toward their first year of college tuition.

"And because higher education is a dream for so many people, he wants more Pell grants to be available, so that many more Americans can earn a college diploma," said Laura Bush of her husband during a campaign rally in Iowa last month.

Kerry's plans include spending $100 million to reward colleges and universities that expand the number of grant recipients they graduate to at least 10 percent.

Bush plans to make student loans available for workers who are paying for short-term job training. Bush advocates tax breaks to help parents pay for college costs, while Kerry proposes a tuition tax credit.

Kerry also proposes $10 billion of funding for higher education in states that do not increase tuition more than the rate of inflation. And he proposes a plan for students to pay for college by doing community service.

"If you will serve America for two years - working in a school, a health center, or strengthening America's security - we will make sure you can attend four years of college tuition-free," Kerry's website says.

Kerry wants to restore federal funds to a recently eliminated program that improves distance education at community colleges. Bush proposes the creation of a $125 million program that would, in part, allow more high school students to earn college credit.

Despite the candidates' plans for the future of higher education, neither is making education a pressing issue on the campaign trail.

"Education is always relevant to governance, but at the tail end of a presidential campaign, you have to analyze what voters who haven't made up their mind will vote on," said Terry Michael, the executive director of the Center for Politics and Journalism in Washington, D.C. "It isn't education, jobs or health care. It is Iraq."

Bush advocates his plan, "No Child Left Behind" as a success for education, although Jackson said the jury is still out on its actual achievement.

Nonetheless, Bush's approach to education reform has focused almost solely on elementary and secondary education. Some of his critics say he has completely ignored higher education.

"I don't see much involvement either way," Jackson said. "The only place I would fault the administration would be in the area of visas and keeping out international students, which of course was because of 9/11."

Mike Lawrence, the director of the Public Policy Institute, said the government tends to be reactive and since there is a perception that elementary and secondary education is in trouble, policy makers are more likely to focus on it.

"The higher education system has been stronger here than higher education overseas," Lawrence said. "The same has not been true for elementary and secondary education."

Lawrence said this puts higher education in danger of losing its pre-eminence, especially if it continues to take a distant back seat in the issues being addressed and funded by the federal government.

"The federal government has played a role in higher education in promoting research and enhancing affordability," Lawrence said. "But the primary responsibility of higher education is a state responsibility."

Vedder said higher education might get some notice tonight, as the candidates come together for their second debate in a town-hall meeting format at Washington University in St. Louis.

"I think there is a reasonable probability that one or the other candidate, if not the monitor, will bring it up," Vedder said. "If you listed 10 or 12 things that most concern Americans now, college tuition is on the list, not high on the list, but on it."

 

 

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