Paula Dwyer , Columnist

Mitch 'The Blade' Daniels Takes on Higher Ed

The college business model, says Mitch Daniels, is all wrong and deserves to be toppled.

September 19, 2013 at 4:13 PM UTC

Paula Dwyer is a senior editor with the New York editing hub, focusing on daily and long-form enterprise. She was London bureau chief for Businessweek and Washington economics editor for the New York Times, and is a co-author of “Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future.

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The college business model, says Mitch Daniels, is all wrong and deserves to be toppled. Other than that, he seems to like his new job as Purdue University's president. On Wednesday, he sat down with Bloomberg News reporters and editors for a discussion about college costs, online education and inequality.

Daniels is a former Indiana governor and White House budget director under President George W. Bush, who nicknamed him "The Blade" for his budget-cutting skill. He supports President Barack Obama's call for a better college-rating system. "The ratings of today are worse than none at all, because they tend to encourage bad behavior," he says, "like the more you spend, the better your ratings tend to go." A lot of schools have decided to chase the ratings, he says, resulting in serial tuition hikes.