Romney’s higher ed overhaul in Mass. fizzled

Romney has stayed largely silent on higher education issues.

Mitt Romney took over as Massachusetts governor in 2003 with a sweeping plan to overhaul the state’s public college system to cut waste, reduce costs and boost efficiency.

“This is my opportunity to be bold,” he said in announcing the plan.

But when Romney left office four years later, not a lot had changed. His strongest mark on higher education was for a merit scholarship program he championed for top high school students.…Read More

College cost website raises questions about Romney’s higher-ed stance

Full Sail's CEO has donated nearly $50,000 in support of Romney's presidential campaign.

The for-profit Florida university that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports as a model for holding down college costs is one of the country’s priciest schools, according to a new Education Department (ED) website that helps prospective students compare tuition costs.

The College Affordability & Transparency Center, launched June 12, compares college and university net prices, or the tuition and fee costs minus grant and scholarship money given to its students. The federal website also lets students see where net college prices are rising at the fastest rate.

Full Sail University, a school based in Winter Park, Fla., has the third highest net price of all U.S. for-profit colleges, and it costs more for students than any public or nonprofit college, according to the Transparency Center’s online calculator.…Read More

Affordability of college becomes campaign fodder

Romney said he supports the effort to keep federal student loans at their current rate.

President Barack Obama will try to add the cost of college to the campaign debate this week as he travels to campuses in three swing states calling on Congress to prevent a hike in student-loan interest rates this summer.

But the Republicans’ presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, moved quickly to forestall the issue, indicating that he would rather let Obama claim a victory on student loan rates than risk a political pummeling for his party on the subject.

More than 7 million students who need to take out new loans this year face a doubling in student loan interest rates under the popular Stafford loan program unless Congress votes to keep current rates in place.…Read More

Santorum competes with Romney for support from for-profit colleges

Santorum said “the corruption of culture” in America could be traced to the country’s most prestigious campuses.

Surging Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a longtime critic of public education, said at a recent campaign stop that President Obama has “waged war” against for-profit colleges that could serve as job-training centers in the recovering economy.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator who has vaulted to the top of the Republican primary polls in recent weeks, outlined a plan for for-profit schools – many with vast online programs for nontraditional students – if he were to win the presidency.

Santorum’s advocacy for companies that operate for-profit schools comes just weeks after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney presented Orlando-based for-profit campus Full Sail University as a model for how higher education should operate.…Read More

Romney’s support for Full Sail University raises eyebrows in higher ed

A Full Sail official gave money to a ‘super PAC’ that supports Romney.

Adrian Davila Saenz, a recent graduate of Full Sail University in Orlando, did a double take when he read this week that Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has touted Full Sail as a paradigm for American higher education.

Saenz, who took seven online classes on his way to a film degree from Full Sail in October, wasn’t alone in scratching his head after Romney mentioned the 15,000-student for-profit university by name several times on the campaign trail during the fall and winter, saying Full Sail was able to “hold down the cost of education” and serve as an example of how competition can improve higher education.

Romney’s praise for Full Sail—sometimes without being prompted by Republican primary voters or reporters on the campaign trail—comes as for-profit schools face scrutiny from the Obama administration, which pushed through “gainful employment” rules in 2011 to enforce basic graduation and student debt standards as a condition for for-profit colleges to receive federally-backed student loans.…Read More

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