"By far, I believe the skyrocketing costs of tuition at colleges and universities across our nation is the biggest obstacle facing those who want to continue their education. Over the last 20 years, the average tuition at public educational institutions has increased by 400 percent, while tuition at private institutions has increased more than 440 percent. These are unnerving statistics for parents just starting their families, but they are a terrifying reality for parents with college-bound children.

Congress has taken steps to improve the availability of financial assistance for college tuition. The 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which I supported, made student loans more affordable by increasing the allowable level for Pell Grants and setting the lowest loan interest rates in nearly two decades. The bill also provided loan forgiveness for college students who agreed to teach in high-risk schools, while also strengthening the training of future teachers. In addition, I will continue to support significant funding for literacy-, vocational-, and technical-education programs, and broadening opportunities for high-school and adult students through strong educational initiatives, including the Carl D. Perkins Act...

I supported the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act that created the Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits to make college and higher education more affordable. Both of these programs are currently playing an important role in helping make college and postsecondary education more affordable for many American families, and I will continue to support them.

We must do more to make college affordable for all Americans. That is why I have proposed a tax plan that allows Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money to be used for their priorities, including higher education. In addition, I will increase the annual amount families can save in tax-free Education Savings Accounts for college expenses. I will encourage and reward savings and investment by establishing new, tax-deferred Family Security Accounts which can be used for higher education. And I will continue to support funding as generously as possible federal programs, such as Pell Grants, that help make higher education affordable for all Americans."
Feb. 25, 2000 John McCain

"And so, as I stood in those Illinois colleges listening to students tell me about their problems, I started thinking, when did the cost of college stop becoming our problem? When did the headlines about skyrocketing tuition start getting crowded out by Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart, and when did this national priority start playing second fiddle to the latest partisan food fight in Washington?

I'm not sure, but I do know that I've met enough good citizens who think about the other guy and want to change this. And I believe there are enough members of both parties who want to start this country down the path of making college affordable and accessible for every American...

I believe it's time for Congress to follow your lead. This week, I'm introducing the Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion Act - the HOPE Act. This bill will make college more affordable for 430,000 Americans by increasing Pell Grant awards."
Apr. 6, 2005 Barack Obama

"College is on the verge of becoming a luxury good. Rising costs are putting college out of reach for more and more Americans...If we expect to maintain our status as a leader in the global economy we must do more for our students."
May 15, 2007 Joe Biden

"...[T]he most important doorway into the middle class is education beyond high school. Today a college graduate earns twice as much as a high school graduate. That is a million-dollar bonus over the working lifetimes of today's college seniors. We used to rank first in the world in our percentage of young people with a post-secondary degree; now we have fallen to seventh, not because our young people don't try but because too many don't finish. Think of that.

The most overwhelming obstacle to finishing college is the expense. College costs have increased faster than inflation for 25 years in a row. The result is that college graduation rates have stayed flat for years. About 70 percent of Americans own their own home. About 85 percent have healthcare. About 42 percent own retirement accounts, but only 30 percent have a college degree. Just because many of us from this room think everybody we know has a college degree, that is not the case. The percentage is higher for Americans under 35, but it is still less than half...

Within a decade, more than half of our young people could finish college with a degree, and any student willing to work part time or perform community service to go to a four-year public college practically free, because we propose a new performance-based American dream grant that will award states money each year based on the number of students that attend and graduate from their colleagues and universities."
July 24, 2006 Hillary Clinton

"Today's passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act is a long overdue investment in the future of the United States. At a time when our world is growing more complex and interconnected, it is essential that higher education remains within reach of every American so that all of our students are prepared to compete in the global marketplace. We live in a time when far too many students and their families are getting priced out of college and the American dream."
Sep. 7, 2007 Chris Dodd

"Over the past 20 years, tuition has risen by far more than family income and, this year, it has increased by as much as 30 or 40 percent in some states. College debt now averages $17,000, the most ever, and it is increasing rapidly."
Jan. 23, 2004 John Edwards

"Yes. Major funds now appropriated for the Pentagon should be redirected to pay for higher education."
Oct. 19, 2007 Mike Gravel

"Yes, and I have proposed a government certified online college education available to everyone that wants one."
Nov. 30, 2007 Daniel Imperato

"...[T]he skyrocketing costs of higher education. These costs -- which have been far outrunning inflation -- are now beginning to put higher education out of reach for more and more American families, and saddling far too many students who do go to college with a crushing debt burden after graduation. If something doesn't change, we are in danger of returning to the days when a college education was largely the province of the rich and upper-middle classes."
Jan. 23, 2004 Dennis Kucinich

"To a certain extent I agree that this statement is true, for while I believe that many public colleges are still within a reasonable grasp of the middle class, the cost of a private college education or even the experience of going away to college at a public institution is quickly becoming far beyond the means of most middle class Americans. As the father of two teenage daughters I am acutely/painfully aware of what it will cost me for their college educations depending on where they decide to go to school."
Oct. 30, 2007 Frank McEnulty

"...[T]hese days, too many of our young people are unprepared for college. And too many of those that are prepared ... cannot afford to go. Only 57 percent of those who graduate high school enroll directly in college the following year.

The Bush Administration has presided over soaring college costs. Between 2001 and 2010, two million high school graduates will have been priced out of a college education. And those that do go get to go ... will graduate with extraordinary debts. It is unacceptable.

As a nation, we cannot abide the status quo, and we cannot afford fewer college graduates. The cost is simply too high."
Oct. 11, 2007 Bill Richardson

"Yes, and the reason the costs are always rising is due to the ever increasing amount of public/taxpayer/government money provided as subsidies. A truly competitive marketplace would keep costs low and increase productivity as it does in all other free market enterprises. Subsidies do not help - they hurt. I favor ending government involvement in education."
Nov. 12, 2007 Christine Smith

"The problem of rising tuitions is known to many of us, but it is worth restating for the record. From 1990 through 1996, average tuition for a full-time resident undergraduate student rose 43.8 percent. But during that same period, the consumer price index rose only 15.4 percent and median household income rose a mere 13.8 percent...

But there are enumerable other factors that make up the cost and price of a college education: administrative costs; faculty salaries; technology; federal regulation; endowments; state appropriations; and many more. This is clearly a case where not one single factor works in a vacuum to affect the cost and price of a college education. Just as not one single factor affects the cost and price of a college education, there is not one single answer to the problem.

Colleges and universities must work to control costs. Public officials must ensure that public aid programs work to the public good. And we must all work together to ensure that purveyors of fraud do not take advantage of students and their families."

Feb. 9, 2000 Fred Thompson