ext year with an additional 2.7% decrease in overall spending on higher education in the state.

National Context: Is Higher Education Worth the Investment?
Though President Obama acknowledged that decreases in state funding were contributing to the rising cost of college education in his 2013 State of the Union Address, he also proposed policies that implied that colleges should do more to control costs. During his February 12, 2013, Address, Obama made his intentions clear: Congress should act so that “affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.” He also announced that “ my Administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” Obama explained that “taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education” and “colleges must do their part to keep costs down” (for the transcript, see C-Span, 2013). In keepi...