President Obama was at Henninger High School in Syracuse on Thursday evening to discuss plans to make higher education more affordable for students. Congressman Dan Maffei, whose district includes Syracuse, says the president's speech included the introduction of a new college grading method that could influence how federal financial aid is distributed to the nation's colleges.
"I actually think it's going to be more along the lines of some of the things that U.S. News and World Report do, but something that is a little more standardized," Maffei said. "It gives us good metrics of whether colleges and universities really are providing the bang for the buck that they should be providing."
Maffei noted that the government has to do more to make college affordable for students, and that when they graduate from college they can use that education to get a good paying job. Obama's visit to Syracuse is part of a two-day bus tour. He was in Buffalo earlier on Thursday and will spend the night in Auburn before traveling to Binghamton and Scranton, Pa. on Friday.