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From NYT:

Deploring the rising costs of a college education, President Obama vowed on Thursday to try to shame universities into holding their prices down and to eventually use federal student aid as leverage in that effort.

Speaking at the University at Buffalo, where tuition and fees now total about $8,000 per year for New York residents, Mr. Obama said the middle class and those struggling to rise out of persistent financial struggles were being unfairly priced out of the higher education market.

“Colleges are not going to just be able to keep on increasing tuition year after year and passing it on to students,” Mr. Obama told an enthusiastic audience of about 7,200 students and others in the university’s auditorium. “We can’t price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of college.”

The president said rising prices at colleges were partly driven by the distribution of $150 billion in federal assistance to students. He said that colleges that allowed tuition to soar should be penalized by getting less aid for their students, while colleges that held down costs should get more of the money.

He announced plans to create a federal rating system that would allow parents and students to easily compare colleges. And he said he would urge Congress to pass legislation to link the student aid to the rating system.

“It is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results,” Mr. Obama said to a roar of applause from the students in the audience.

The president offered his college affordability proposals at the beginning of a two-day bus tour through upstate New York and Pennsylvania. It is part of a campaign to highlight proposals that his administration says will help the middle class economically.

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