Alexander Statement on the President’s Higher Education Proposal

WASHINGTON, August 22 – Senator Lamar Alexander (R- Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate’s education committee today released the following statement in response to President Obama’s higher education proposal:

“The president and Congress took a good first step last month in helping students afford college by lowering interest rates on student loans and reducing college costs by billions of dollars.

“I'd like to hear the president talk about how he's going to work with Congress to reduce all the new federal Medicaid mandates in his health care law that are soaking up state higher education dollars and forcing states to raise tuitions.

“A number of states, including Tennessee, are taking innovative steps to reduce college costs by tying state aid to graduation rates and other measures. But Washington needs to be careful about taking a good idea for one state and forcing all 6,000 institutions of higher education to do the exact same thing, turning Washington into a sort of national school board for our colleges and universities.”

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