Annotated Bibliography

Letter to the Editor: Annotated Bibliography

"Obama's Plans to Rein in College Tuition Costs (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies. Facts On

File News Services, 5 Apr. 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

150212>.

This article deals with the process of President Obama’s plan to improve primary and secondary education in U.S. The article provides fact-based information, summarizing current situation of the college tuition fee and further plans that President Obama wants to pursue. Although President Obama wanted to decrease sharp increase of tuition cost for university, the college tuition has become more and more expensive. To solve the situation, President and government are pursuing various plans, which may alleviate students from paying much tuition. The article is important to include as research, because it is written in 2010; it can develop an analysis of how effective the government plan has impacted the tuition fee. Also, This article only provides facts, which makes the article reliable source.

Rubenfire, Adam. “Snyder’s budget proposal to increase higher education funding.” The

Michigan Daily. 9 Feb. 2012. 12 Feb. 2012

recommends-31-percent-increase-higher-education-funding>

The article talks about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s proposal to increase funding for higher education and a response from the president of University of Michigan. Snyder’s proposal aims to invest $36.2 million in higher education budget, and the level of funding will depend on the universities’ ability to keep their tuition affordable to students. Moreover, the improvement of the performance formula-growth in undergraduate degree completion, undergraduate degree completion in “critical skill areas,” the number of undergraduate Pell Grants awarded and the ability of the university to comply with tuition restraint standard-will vary the amount of funding. Mary Sue Coleman, the president of University of Michigan, is concerned about the proposal’s longevity and its unfairness. This article is helpful to my research, because it provides a perspective of the president from the largest university in Michigan. It is interesting to notice the reaction from the most well established university in Michigan.

Batterman, Joel. “Education is overrated.” The Michigan Daily. 2 Feb. 2012. 12 Feb. 2012.

Batterman, a graduate student of University of Michigan, describes universities’ education as overrated. Not only high tuition fee, but also the much time that the ‘proper’ education consumes, Joel says, “… is engineering the erosion of middle class and our generation’s lives.” He insists that the proposal made by President Obama to reduce tuition fee for higher education cannot be an achievable solution, because the president is not considering the deeper root of the problem. ‘Credential Inflation’ is what the author insists as a problem; society put exaggerated emphasis on educational credential, which causes the overrated education. Although the information it provides is biased assertion, the article is helpful for the research since it states another possible cause of unstopping increase of higher education’s tuition fee.

The Michigan Daily. “From the Daily: A class divided.” The Michigan Daily. 5 Feb. 2012. 12

Feb. 2012.

socio-economic-students>

The Michigan Daily suggests an interesting perspective about the high tuition fee and its impact on the socioeconomic background of students attending universities. The Michigan Daily suggests that students with low socioeconomic background do not even attempt to apply to the universities that require high tuition fee, automatically separating students with socioeconomic background. The Michigan Daily refutes the argument that students with higher socioeconomic background have higher possibility of admission; since only few students with low socioeconomic status apply to top universities that require much tuition fee, the argument is illogical. Although the article is entirely based on one perspective, it provides the impact of high tuition fee.

Souleles, Nicholas S.. “College tuition and household savings and consumption.” Journal of

Public Economics 77.2 (2000): 185-207. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

Souleles performs a test to study the adequacy of household savings and other resources available to fund college. To test the adequacy, the test studies households’ standard of living as the households pay for tuition fee. Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the author find out despite the high tuition fee, the households do a good job of maintaining the finance and their consumption. Although the households that send their children first time to college seems to have a consumption decline, but in general, the decline is considerably small. This article gives a new perspective of looking the college tuition; although people claim tuition fee is unaffordable, many households seem to endure the tuition fee and maintain the households.