Roanoke College President Michael C. Maxey and 49 other presidents of Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities have taken a strong stand against a higher education rating system proposed by the Obama administration.
In a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the Virginia congressional delegation, the 50 presidents expressed “serious reservations” about the proposal. The letter bears the signatures of Maxey, who is chair of the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, and Richard Hurley, president of the University of Mary Washington and chair of the Virginia Council of Presidents.
President Obama called for the rating system in a speech last year. The system would compare schools on factors such as number of students graduating, how much debt students accumulate and how much money students earn after graduating. Ultimately, Obama wants Congress to agree to use the ratings to allocate the billions of dollars in federal student loans and grants. Schools with a high rating on the government’s list would be able to offer more student aid than schools with a low rating.
While the 50 college and university presidents support transparency of institutional data and applaud Obama’s efforts to make higher education more affordable, “we feel the proposed rating system will result in negative unintended consequences and will be harmful to many of the students we seek to serve in Virginia,” the letter states.
In the letter, the presidents cited three primary concerns:
- “Institutions traditionally serving low-income or non-traditional populations would be disadvantaged under the current proposal. Institutions would have an incentive to enroll higher income students.”
- “A rating system that places substantial weight on the income of graduates is fundamentally flawed and counter to basic principles that continue to serve the American higher education system well. In our judgment, it would be a serious error for students to receive a message that their success in life is evaluated solely, or even primarily, by their earnings, and especially so in the period shortly after earning their degrees.”
- “It would be a serious error to base a new rating system on graduation rates using the current system of calculating graduation rates – a system that is widely regarded as flawed.”
On Monday, Maxey said Roanoke College is committed to financial support and accessibility for its families and equally committed to accountability and transparency for the public.
“What does not make sense is another rating system that oversimplifies and forces a one-size-fits-all mentality on American higher education,” he said. “The public will not be served well by that effort.”
