Richard K Vedder, Columnist

Obama’s Underwhelming Ideas for College Reform

February 13, 2013 at 9:16 PM UTC

Richard Vedder, an economist, directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and teaches at Ohio University. He is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

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President Barack Obama’s State of the Union remarks on higher education last night were modest in magnitude and tepid in ambition compared with promises in previous years. In 2009, for example, he suggested the U.S. would regain the planetary lead in the proportion of young adults with bachelor’s degrees.

I sensed either that the higher education establishment that supported him enthusiastically in the last election has indicated its opposition to major reform, or that other issues (immigration, gun control) are perceived to resonate better with the public or the Democratic Party base.