Unless you are lodged in a soundproof box at the center of the earth, you know that America has elected Barak Obama as its first African-American president. I watched in awe at the massive, worldwide outpouring of hopeful goodwill last night and I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck as Mr. Obama gave his inspiring and historic victory speech. Today, while checking out a media still giddy with endless reports on the victory celebrations, I began to ponder what Obama’s victory might mean for America’s higher education system. But the question really is what does a government dominated by the Democratic Party mean for higher education. After all, it is Congress that holds the purse strings for funding to education, not the president. While a President Obama can make policy initiatives, the hard part is getting congress to go along with those policies.
On the plus side, the Democratic Party is, on the whole, generally more likely to support funding for higher education, particularly financial aid programs, than the Republicans. On the negative side, the new Obama Administration and the Congress is inheriting one of the worst economies and the largest federal budget deficits in American history. That means we can be sure that spending on many programs may very well be cut and Mr. Obama will likely have to scale back on some of the programs he would like to create. Add to this the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we can expect that education will not be as high on the list of presidential priorities as it might otherwise have been.
All that aside, however, President Elect Obama has floated some interesting proposals for higher education during his campaign that could eventually prove fruitful. Of particular interest is Mr. Obama’s proposal to institute a new $4,000 tax credit for college tuition and fees in exchange for 100 hours of public service per year. If this becomes policy it could mean a huge discount for students attending a public college. With SUNY 4-year in-state tuition still at only $4,350 a year, that tax credit has the potential to cover nearly all of students’ tuition costs at Purchase.
President Elect Obama has discussed many other policy proposals for higher education in America, but only time will tell how many, if any, actually make it into law and improve access, affordability, and the quality of higher education for everyone. I, like so many others today, am hopeful. Yes, we can!
