Last week, President Obama unveiled his 2013 proposed budget, including his plan for higher education. This year President Obama’s proposal called for a variety of new expensive programs, from $8 billion in additional funding to community colleges, to additional money for the Perkins Loan program and a $1 billion “Race to the Top” for higher education.

Under the President’s proposal, funding for the National Science Foundation would increase by 5 percent, to $7.4 billion and the National Endowment for the Humanities  would get a slight increase, from $146 million to $154. The American Opportunity Tax credit is also made permanent – providing up to $2,000 per year for tuition.

With a goal for the US to “lead the world in college graduates by 2012,” specifics include:

• Sustaining the maximum Pell Grant award of $5,635 through the 2014-2015 award year.
• A one-year measure to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling this summer and doubles the number of work-study jobs over the next five years.
• New reforms that shift federal aid away from colleges that do not keep tuition low.
• Making permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

Libby Nelson of Inside Higher Ed notes, “College leaders may not like all of the president’s proposals,” including, the recent controversial idea of tying campus-based federal financial aid to measurements of “value.” In this proposal, federal aid would be shifted away from colleges that do not keep net tuition low. She also notes that subsidized loans for financially needy undergraduate students would take another hit in the President’s proposal – “borrowers would lose eligibility for the program if they stay enrolled full-time longer than three years for an associate degree, or six years for a bachelor’s.”