President Barack Obama released the 2014 budget plan last week featuring a few different proposals to highlight the importance of improving higher education in America.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Education, the president’s plan includes a request for comprehensive reforms in higher education with the goal of increasing affordability and quality. Among these reforms is a $1 billion investment for the new “Race to the Top: College Affordability and Completion” competition. This competition is meant to provide incentive for states to lower college costs so it becomes more affordable for young adults to attend college.

University spokesman Tom Hardy believes the University’s involvement in this program is part of an ongoing trend.

“The University of Illinois itself puts in more than $61 million a year in institutionally supported financial aid for students attending the University who qualify for it,” he said. “You’ve got Pell Grants and MAP grants and tax deductions that families can take, so there’s a lot of different ways and a lot of different sources to try to make college more affordable.”

Hardy said the cost of a college education has continued to rise sharply across the nation, and the cost of attending public universities like Illinois increase specifically because of declining support from the state.

“We get less and less state tax-supported funding from one year to the next, so we have to make up for that by raising tuition in order to maintain quality,” Hardy said.

Another proposal in Obama’s plan to make college more affordable is the First in the World Fund, named after the U.S.’s previous higher education ranking, which has been budgeted at $260 million. According to the U.S. Department of Education, officials named the plan after this previous ranking in hopes of returning to this status. 

According to the press release, America “just one generation ago” led the world in percentage of adults with college degrees, while now the U.S. is ranked 14th.

This program provides funds for innovation that will lower costs and leverage advances in teaching sciences and technology, but will also work to help low-income high school students attend institutions of higher education.

Charles Mayfield, associate director of financial aid, questioned the clarity of these future programs.

“These types of release statements sometimes contain too much rhetoric and ideology, without substantial tangible plans for implementation,” he said. “The administration can pitch an idea and then hand it to Congress and the Department of Education for them to determine details and a path forward.”

The final facet of Obama’s plan for higher education is his $10 billion donation to campus-based aid programs. This will provide additional scholarship opportunities to students, along with recognizing and rewarding colleges that have served high-need students well throughout the years. 

Colleges that have made an effort to help students in need in the past will see a larger portion of funding from these aid programs.

“You get to a certain point where it’s a backbreaking proposition for some students in terms of accumulating debt,” Hardy said. “Students and their families can tap into it for need-based financial aid … (because) greater diversity of the University population is obviously a welcome thing.”

The first half of Obama’s plan is primarily focused on early childhood programs and on efforts for K-12 school districts to graduate more students and promote early learning. The motive behind starting young is to eventually raise the amount of college graduates in the United States.

“We are in an economy where a college education is almost a prerequisite for just about anything that you would want to do these days,” Hardy said.

The President’s plan will now be debated by Congress.

Brittany can be reached at [email protected].