How higher education will contribute to greater access

In At last, a Democratic alternative to the McKean tuition cap proposal (May 18, 2007), I suggested that although Democratic and Republican approaches to assuring access are somewhat different on the surface, at heart they are quite similar - the universities should pay for increased access, not the government.   The Boston Globe report today on the latest Democratic ideas for increasing access further emphasizes the role that both parties expect higher education to play in assuring affordability and access:

Congress to look at college endowments

By Reuters  |  October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON - Congressional tax writers are taking a hard look at elite US universities' multibillion-dollar endowment funds and considering steps to make them spend more of their riches to help students.

In legislation being developed in the Senate Finance Committee, top universities such as Harvard or Yale might be told to spend at least 5 percent of endowment funds annually, as private foundations must do to keep their tax-free status.

Other steps being considered could slap new endowment rules on colleges that raise tuition above certain annual limits; require more money to go to student aid; or require endowments be more open about operations.

The measures are being hammered out as part of a bill focused on education tax credits that Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, has said he wants to consider this year.

Glittering profits - earned in large part through investments in hedge funds and private equity - and tax breaks at endowments are a talking point in the House, as well, said Representative George Miller, California Democrat.