Obama, according to http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/#higher-education has proposed to allow for a $4,000 tax credit for the first $4K of a student's tuition for most students using historical tax data to allow for the money to be available when the tuition is due. I'm not sure if this means every year or just the actual first year. I'll have to assume he means every year. There are no specifics as to the degree level, etc. If it's every year I'm all for it so long as it does not take the place of the Life Long Learning Credit which is about $1K to $2K per year for every year a student is in school. Combined that'd be in the neighborhood of $6K per year for school…not bad.
Additionally Obama states that he wishes to streamline and simplify the FAFSA process, which I'm all for. Under his plan when you file your taxes you can simply check a box on your tax form which will then make your information automatically available to FAFSA. One of those “why didn't we think about this 10 years ago” kind of ideas.
John McCain according to USA Today wants to cut the student loan interest rates in half, to 3.4 percent and then increase funding to Pell Grants from $4,310 to $5,400 (which was part of a failed proposed legislation he attempted once before) and of course increase the GI Bill benefits (which is new for McCain). I am somewhat disconcerted that none of this was on McCain's website though that I could find. Maybe it is but you certainly wouldn't be able to tell from the “search” function. If McCain can cut the student loan interest rates in half, to just above that of the average inflation rate, McCain would be my pick of the 2 candidates if higher education were the only consideration.
Anyhow, I just thought my blog readers would be interested…