The problem is university's will just boost tuition costs up to soak up all this extra grant money...

The problem is that the university's (especially the U of M) have not agressively looked at ways to manage their finances and proactively looked at ways to reduce expenses and tuition costs. College loans have surpassed credit card debt which is an absolute crime for the kids graduating (or not) with huge debt and a soft job market. Simply giving more money will not solve the problem and secondary education is not a govt entitlement it is a personal choice. Mark, we need major reform and a long range plan WITH METRICS prior to investing that kind of dough.

"New numbers from Daytons office show the average total loans for those who graduated in 2011 with debt reached $29,800. That's third-highest in the country. About 71 percent of the class of 2011 graduated with loans, the fifth biggest share of any state."

We have a tuition problem at our Universities. Instead of going after the "root" of the problem ( The University) the liberal solution is to throw more money at the problem, more tax payer money for grants, more kids getting loans!

Can't Dayton think of anything without it being followed by a dollar sign?

The liberals and the unions wanted him in there now you get what you voted for Dayton=unions=more spending.

Our politicians needs to quit trying to solve the symptoms instead of the real problem. The problem for higher educations costs is not the fact that student loan interest rates are too high and not the fact there is not enough aid, the problem is tuition at institutions like the U have increase by over 150% over 10 years. If you have a hole in your gas tank, you don't keep putting more gas into it, you fix the hole. Instead of focusing on interest rates and aid, lower the tuition costs at schools.

This article clearly illustrates the difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin. In Minnesota, Dayton wants to spend more taxpayer dollars to pay ever higher tuition and fee costs. In Wisconsin, Walker and the UW system have joined (imagine that!) to develop the Flexible Option program for Fall 2013 that will lower tuition and fees and also allow students to complete college degrees without ever setting foot on campus. [Wisconsin's Flexible Option program is "quite visionary," said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, an education policy and lobbying group that represents some 1,800 accredited colleges and universities. The charges for the tests and related online courses haven't been set. But university officials said the Flexible Option should be "significantly less expensive" than full-time resident tuition, which averages about $6,900 a year at Wisconsin's four-year campuses.]

Truckman182 You took the words right out of my mouth!