Obama just announced a set of reforms for higher education. I’m still processing the info, so no comment here yet. Dylan Matthews has an excellent post on the topic.

UPDATE1: OK, here’s one quick point. I think that reforms need to address the problem of certain majors, not just the colleges themselves. For example, we have trained twice as many teachers as there are openings. A college that is excellent in other ways may not be properly informing students that their degree (which is entirely targeted towards to one particular profession) will give them a 50/50 shot at finding employment.

UPDATE2: Of course, student loans should be dischargable in the case of bankrupcy. Why aren’t we doing that?

UPDATE3: There clearly needs to be a better ranking system than the silly ones that currently exist, but I’m not confident that the US gov’t can accurately create a system that clearly show which schools are rip offs and student loan stealers. I would prepare to see this coming from the Gates Foundation or another outside group, but we can’t be picky.

UPDATE4: I would like to see more teeth in these proposals. Student loan money should not go towards low-performing schools.

UPDATE5: The goal of pressuring schools to provide more spots to people of low income while admirable is going to run headlong into the goal of pressuring schools to get kids done in four years and with good grades. In general, lower income people have a worse track record getting through college quickly for a variety of reasons.