Presidential Candidates on Financial Aid

Offering more financial aid to improve the retention rates of college students is morally right.

Both presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, recognize the importance of Higher Education in America and have different ways of addressing this moral argument.

McCain's objectives to address the issue of higher education are based around the philosophy that it is in the best interest of our country to have successful college students- which implies high retention rates. High retention rates directly relate to high graduation rates. "We must rise to the challenge and modernize our universities so that they retain their status as producers of the most skilled workforce in the world". McCain plans to address the moral issue of improving retention rates by making adjustments to the current financial aid standards. These changes include "simplifying the higher education tax benefits to make it easier for more families to claim them. McCain also wants to try to simply the process for applying for and administering federal financial aid by consolidating government programs" (The Chronicle). Other ways that McCain plans to improve financial aid availability for college students is to attempt to fix problems in student lending by "expanding the government's 'lender of last resort' system, in which the federal government makes sure students can find loans if a loan emergency was declared, and by demanding the highest standard of integrity for private lenders that participate in the federal system" (McCain).

Senator Obama supports pre-paid tuition contracts that lock in a tuition rate for students so they know exactly what they will be paying each semester, therefore, finances are less likely to be a cause of falling retention since students are prepared for financial expectations. This also supports students to stay in school longer even with the fluctuation of the economic state of the country. When speaking about higher education changes that Obama supports he mentions that the Senate proposed "a compromise to hold colleges more accountable for their cost increases that I believe will work. The proposal creates a watch list of colleges whose costs are increasing faster than costs at other colleges, develops a higher education price-comparison index, as well as a price calculator to clarify the cost of attendance for students of different income levels" (The Chronicle).