By Charles D. Ellison. A White House college event was an opportunity to confront college administrators about rising tuition costs.
Seeking a reprieve from Republicans, Edward Snowden and the website that couldn’t, President Obama and the first lady held a feel-good event to push the issue of expanding college opportunity. There were lots of smiles, bucket-loads of remarks on heavy policy lifts and the sense that the White House would do its best to guarantee no child—at least none of those lucky enough to graduate from high school—would be left behind. More...

When college costs rise, everyone is hurt. But the bigger price tag takes a particular toll on students from low-income families.
For them it means more than digging deeper to pay for higher education. It can mean opportunity lost, once and for all.
The College Board reports that the average cost of a year’s tuition, housing and meals in 2013-14 is $18,393 per student at a public college or university and $40,924 at a private institution. No wonder college students these days graduate with an average debt of $29,400. Read more...

State Treasurer John Kennedy has made some good suggestions for better allocating scarce state money.
Kennedy has proposed a plan by which state government agencies would be required to cut the money spent on consulting contracts by 10 percent.
The cuts would not be across-the-board. Instead, each department would be able to identify the contracts and expenses it could cut.
The overall effect would be a savings of more than $500 million, money that under Kennedy’s plan would be devoted to the state’s higher education. More...