MINNEAPOLIS - President Barack Obama wants higher education to be more affordable and believes the Congress should make it a high priority.
It was one of many topics he touched on in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
College students across the region held viewing parties to listen to the president's ideas, and Minneapolis was no different.
About a half dozen students watched in the University of Minnesota student union hoping to hear concrete ideas on how to make college more affordable.
Obama urged the Congress to extend the tuition tax credit for college students that he believes would save families thousands of dollars.
"At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July," he said.
Obama also wants to double the number of work-study jobs over the next five years.
He asked colleges and universities to do their part to keep costs down or in his words taxpayers would not continue to pay up.
"Higher education can't be a luxury - it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford," he said.
He also wants states to fund higher education a top priority.
They are ideas students appreciate, but they're skeptical anything will change in this political climate.
"A lot of this is something that a lot of people believe but it's hard for them to incorporate to make it popular for both sides," said U of M student Jared Sinkula.
He uses aid and has a job to help pay for college, which he says is getting tougher each year.
"Like the President said I don't think we can keep spending, keep subsidizing higher and higher tuition prices. The root of the problem is that tuition keeps going up and up and why is that happening because the quality of education isn't going up and up," asked U of M student Drew Christensen.
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