Earlier this year, Gov. Pat McCrory caused quite a stir when he said he wanted to change the way universities were funded based on performance. But in some ways, McCrory’s proposals for higher education sound not unlike President Obama’s proposals.
So take a spin on a new quiz: Who Said It? Below there are quotes from both McCrory and Obama. Try guessing who said it and click on the last word to see who said it.
1. “If we’re going to connect our citizens to the jobs in demand and solve our unemployment crisis, we must stop propagating the myth that everyone has to go to a four-year university.”
2. “Now, to grow our middle class, our citizens have to have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who’s willing to work — everybody who’s willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead.”
3. “[I] will work with education leaders to expand and develop performance-based initiatives for universities and community colleges to improve accountability, program completion and overall student achievement.”
4. “Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers -– places that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.”
5. “I just want to say that just as we’re expecting more from our schools that get funding from taxpayers, we’re going to have to expect more from students who get subsidies and grants from taxpayers”
6. “Funding should not be based upon solely how many students attend your school and therefore our budget policy will reflect that philosophy.”
7. “Right now all these ranking systems, they rank you higher if you charge more and you let in fewer students. But you should have a better sense of who’s actually graduating students and giving you a good deal.”
8. “I’m a big vocational training advocate and I think some of the educational elite have taken over our education where we’re offering courses that have no chances of getting people jobs.”
Surprised?
It is true both officials use similar rhetoric, but they are not identical. McCrory’s proposals for funding colleges are based mainly on whether a student is employable whereas Obama’s are based on student earnings as well as a college’s enrolling of low-income students and advanced degrees. Still, both plans do show a desire to move toward a performance-based formula for higher education funding.
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