In a statement to TPM, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said that the senator would oppose President Barack Obama’s plan to make college more affordable.
“While I share the President’s goal of making college tuition more affordable, I’m strongly opposed to his plan to impose new Federal standards on higher education institutions,” Rubio said. “This is a slippery slope, and one that ends with the private sector inevitably giving up more of its freedom to innovate and take risks.”
Obama announced his plan Thursday in a speech in Buffalo, N.Y. The centerpiece of the president’s plan is a new rating system for colleges, which the administration hopes to eventually tie to federal student loans. But that would require approval from Congress.
Administration officials told reporters Thursday morning, in response to a question from TPM, that they would rely on “a solid bipartisan conversation” to get the proposals through Congress.
In background materials provided to TPM before Rubio’s statement was issued, the White House noted Rubio’s prior sponsorship in May of a bill that would, according to Rubio’s office, “ensure that a wide range of accurate, comparative and easy to understand data about colleges would be readily available online for prospective students and their families.” The bill never left the Senate Commitee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
