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Colleges experience backlash in a cyclical process. As we know, there has been a strong crusade for “college for all” and this is being questioned by politicians and experts. This crusade has gained momentum especially after the on-going recession and the up-coming presidential election.

Looking at it closely, we find that both the foundations that lead the completion agenda and President Obama are not for everyone going to college. Rather, they say that all must go through some form of post-secondary education and those who do get to attend college must complete and enhance rates.

Further analysis is required on what exactly do they mean by college? According to critics, in the “college for all” agenda, the focus is more on bachelor’s degree. What about certificates and other credentials being pushed by our President? On the whole, it looks like our President and the foundations want every single American to complete Liberal Arts College. No one has yet proposed this far-fetched idea.

Lumina Foundation’s CEO and President Jamie Merisotis say that no one is making an argument for “college for all” which seems more a false premise. It is a waste of time focusing on and defending a false premise.

You cannot discount the powerful social pressures that have led to the backlash. You cannot mistake the populist and bipartisan underpinings that give rise to anger over college costs. The situation is such that even state lawmakers cannot deny the fact that students are being unrealistically pushed towards higher education.

This can lead to grave consequences with regard to value of colleges even if special claims support it. To justify budget cuts, we have to question the value of colleges. According to Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association president Claude Pressnell, politicians have sat up and started noticing this backlash.

State legislators and business leaders are now describing higher education as elitist. States find this description convenient as they can now reduce funds allocated through financial aid programs. 

Pressnell says that the state has been severely set back by this national discourse. The state has for years been moving in the right direction as far as higher education is concerned and this setback is very unfortunate, he says.

The focus on moving away from encouraging higher education access and completion is not a healthy trend especially in view of the fact that Tennessee is at a historically important threshold. Gov. Bill Haslam has announced his intention of giving top priority for higher education especially in terms of tuition costs in the near future.

The ball was set rolling by Rick Santorum during the period when he was a possible Republican Presidential nomination candidate. He criticised President Obama’s statement that every American should go to college.

Santorum called Obama a snob for saying this. He said that in our country, there are many decent people who go out to work hard every day and the skills they use to earn their living is not got from any liberal college.

Fact checking services were quick to call Santorum’s opinion wrong. Even though it was very early in the campaign, President Obama was quick to fire back and said that four-year degree was not the only thing he was talking about when he says higher education.