The high cost of higher education is clearly a very significant problem facing our society today. Obama's plan to offer a $4,000 credit per year in exchange for community service seems an excellent step along the path of reducing expenses for students while also instilling an ethic of national service in these young people. This credit will go a long way towards making state schools affordable for those paying in state tuition and will also help mitigate the cost for those paying out of state tuition or attending private schools. However, many students will still be limited to their own state's public universities as the cost for other options will still be quite a bit higher. I believe that our best students should have the opportunity to attend our best schools, or at the very least our best public schools. In addition state schools should have to compete for the best students rather than receive a significant number of them by default from their own state. I therefor would propose an additional program perhaps called the National Scholar Program. The purpose of this program would be to allow the countries top students to attend any of our countries public schools at in state rates. (more below)
For students selected into the program the program would pay the difference between in state and out of state tuition (perhaps alternately providing a small grant should the student choose a private school). The student would still be eligible for the $4,000 grant and other private, local, state or federal scholarship programs or financial aid. I would propose a multifaceted selection process in which students would have several ways to be selected for the program:
- Rank in high school class- This would allow for the selection of students who have shown promise in their high school years and will give a clear incentive to attempt to achieve. This would also open doors from students in weaker schools who may have a hard time competing nationally due to the weakness of their school system. Perhaps the top 10% or 20% would receive entry into the program; perhaps more for competitive entry magnet schools or private schools.
- SAT or other test score- This would help capture those who don't perform as well in their education thus far but if put in the right situation might overcome this and succeed. I think this is an important group (by this I mean those who meet this criteria but not criteria 1) for whom an opportunity to attend a challenging university program could make a huge difference in the course of their lives. Perhaps this for some would be the first time they are told that they have promise for their future.
- Other selection methods- I would also consider other methods of selection. These could include performances in state or national competitions such as science fairs, music performance competitions, history competitions etc. Also included would be those who distinguished themselves in the areas of leadership and community service. These would include substantial overlap with category 1 and 2 but would allow more opportunities for young people to show promise. A national application process could also be used to allow students the chance to show themselves deserving as well.
- Annual Performance at University or College A student who was not selected for inclusion in the program could be selected on the basis of his college work and use the credit at his/her current school or transfer to a school where it could be used.
I feel such a program could be beneficial in many ways. As I mentioned above our best students should be able to attend our best universities. For students in small states they are often limited to only one large public university regardless of whether the school offers the best opportunities in the field they would like to pursue. They should have the opportunity to learn from the best Professors and graduate students, conduct research as an undergraduate with the top academics in this country, and have the opportunity to learn and work with other similarly motivated people. This is important both for their benefit and for the benefit of society as a whole as these students are likely to become the leaders of academia, industry and business. In addition this program would introduce a new incentive for state schools to pursue the top students nationwide. Winning the National Scholars from other states would likely become a badge of honor for these universities and they would likely desire to improve their educational systems to appeal to them and perhaps compete more with private universities for these students.
Updated: Edited to add community service and leadership as criteria for selection.