In his 2012 State of the Union address on Jan. 24, President Obama laid out general plans for the economy, energy, housing, immigration and, of course, education.

During his remarks on higher education, Obama proposed several measures to make college more affordable. He insisted that Congress stop student loan interest rates from doubling in July of 2012 and called for a permanent extension of the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

His proposal also included doubling the number of federal work-study program jobs in the next five years, and a general call was made for colleges and universities to keep costs down by "redesign[ing] courses to help students finish more quickly and us[ing] better technology."

Regarding other aspects of education, Obama had a smattering of observations: get rid of bad teachers; don't teach to the test; keep students from dropping out of school before reaching the age of 18.

In a follow-up speech at the University of Michigan on Friday, three days after the address, he called for a "college score card" that would rank institutions according to cost, graduation rates and future earnings.

Obama hit the argument on the head, as college should never put a financial burden on a student; we need to do everything we can to make college more affordable. As Obama said, "Higher education can't be a luxury — it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford." 

Luckily for us, according to Forbes Magazine, Fordham, ranked as the eighth most expensive school in the United States, extends some sort of aid to 93 percent of its students.

According to the article, the school says even the government-calculated average "net price" of $31,383 for students with some sort of aid gives a misleading picture. The weighted average cost for all students at Fordham is $33,280, compared with $40,000 at comparable private schools, where a much smaller percentage of students receive aid.

This, however, is not enough. Although many students in need are being supported by Fordham's financial aid program, there are many students who struggle to pay their way through school and still graduate with overwhelming student-loan debts.

Moreover, many potential Fordham students—just like many other college students—suffer from agonizing waits to determine whether or not they can attend Fordham based on how much the financial aid office is going to award them. Reducing interest rates while increasing federal loans and work-study opportunities definitely will help our own students make their way through college.

While seeking a more affordable college experience for the majority of students out there, we should never forget the importance of keeping up with the educational quality. The president promised to decrease federal aid for any university that raises its tuition unduly.

"If you can't stop tuition from going up, your funding from taxpayers will go down," Obama warned, putting "colleges and universities on notice."

According to the Los Angeles Times, college tuition and fees rose more than 400 percent between 1982 and 2007, due to declining support from state legislatures, increased professor salaries, newly built facilities and heavy administrative bloat.

There are, however, many legitimate reasons for tuition to increase. For instance, a university could be investing in the quality of its education and raising the standards for its current and future students.

None of us want Fordham to suddenly decrease the quality of education by increasing class and discussion section size, reducing professors' quality, cutting lab funding and eliminating certain majors just to save tuition dollars.

Ever-increasing tuition prices are a problem, but in carrying out the president's policy, we must be careful not to negatively impact students' quality education.

We, The Ram, did not agree with the entirety of President Obama's State of the Union address. As college students, however, we have to admit how glad we were to hear about a possible tuition decrease; we can only hope that Congress and state governments write the president's educational reforms into law. 

Obviously, we want more funding for college education. While colleges may need some changes, however, there is a much greater need to revise the public school system. 

Obama, along with Congress, should focus on fixing Americans' primary education before refining the system of higher education.