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Obama shifts focus to college costs, value

By Kimberly Hefling

 |  Associated Press  

  February 21, 2012

Access to college has been the driving force in federal higher education policy for decades. But the Obama administration is pushing a fundamental agenda shift that aggressively brings a new question into the debate: What are people getting for their money? Students with loans are graduating on average with more than $25,000 in debt. The federal government pours $140 billion annually into federal grants and loans. Unemployment remains high, yet there is a shortage of trained workers.

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