The plan requires approval by Congress, and reaction on Thursday tended to fall along party lines. Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota and the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement that he was skeptical of Mr. Obama’s proposed rating system.
“I remain concerned that imposing an arbitrary college ranking system could curtail the very innovation we hope to encourage — and even lead to federal price controls,” Mr. Kline said. “As always, the devil is in the details.”
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said: “I’m strongly opposed to his plan to impose new federal standards on higher education institutions. This is a slippery slope, and one that ends with the private sector inevitably giving up more of its freedom to innovate and take risks. The U.S. did not create the best higher education system in the world by using standards set by Washington bureaucrats.”
A Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, issued a statement applauding the president’s proposal.
Some higher education experts questioned whether the administration was overstepping its authority.
“The proposal would be a huge change in higher education, with the federal government asserting itself as the definer of institutional goals and policy, and doing it through need-based financial aid,” said Jane Wellman, the executive director of the National Association of System Heads. “The federal government has never been in higher education policy before — it has just administered financial aid — and I’m not sure you can just take that role and stretch it like a rubber band.”
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