I know that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is running for President, and the natural inclination is to speak as if he will personally transform things. But the higher education reforms laid out in his recent Des Moines Register op-ed – not just his repeated use of “I” to say who will make the reforms – lend credence to the concern that, rather than getting government out of college funding and out of the way, he will retain, even if in some possibly improved form, federal control.

Rubio starts off on a good note, saying that, “I will reform our accreditation system to welcome low-cost, innovative higher education providers, which are currently being blocked by the existing institutions that control accreditation.” That’s a fine inclination, but keep in mind that the accreditation clot is primarily a symptom or an insidious root disease: federal student aid. The main reason accreditation is de facto required is that it is needed to get access to Pell Grants, federal student loans, etc. And, of course, the price of not having access to those things is a gigantic competitive disadvantage.

It is the next two paragraphs that really fire my fear neurons, both with how autocratic they sound, and more importantly, what Rubio proposes to do…or not do:

Read the full article at SeeThru EDU: Rubio Misses Cutting Subsidies for Student Loans