Obama and Snyder both talk education on Friday

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – President Barack Obama was at the University of Michigan on Friday morning, his main focus on keeping college costs in check for students.

“It is not just enough to increase student aid,” said President Obama, “we can't just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition. If tuition is going up faster than inflation, faster than health care, no matter how much we subsidize, we will run out of money.”

That message comes a year after Michigan lawmakers gave universities a big incentive for keeping college costs in check, but there's still great criticism of state government that not enough taxpayer funding is being used to help students.

Governor Rick Snyder was in Grand Rapids on Friday, and while he wouldn't comment on any new funding for schools just yet, there is a new budget coming soon and it sounds like there might be some more help on the way.

The one thing we do know in the first few weeks of the year is that there almost certainly won't be any further cuts to education in Michigan, the kids of cuts and broken promises with scholarships that have put some college students in a bind.

President Obama also had a message to Michigan leaders.

“Today we are going to launch a race to the top for college affordability,” said President Obama. We are telling the states, if you can find new ways to bring down the cost of college and make it easier for more students to graduate, we'll help you do it.”

The president was essentially offering a plan to give more federal funding support if costs are kept in check. Governor Snyder's administration made similar requests to institutions, but all these promises and deals aren't going over very well in the education community.

The bottom line is that Michigan went from the top ten in the country as far as funding levels to the bottom ten during the recession.

“I think the universities are interested in controlling their costs,” said Governor Snyder. “There are things we can do and dialogue with them to share ideas about more efficiency, can we be more efficient to help them.”

Newschannel 3 spoke with Governor Snyder one on one on Friday and he said more funding for universities could be coming.

“Again, that's part of the budget message, but I'd like to see that as something we should be seriously looking at,” said Snyder, “but again it's not just about giving dollars but how do you look into the issues of more graduates and tuition restraint.”

Governor Snyder said one of the big issues he's working on is the loss of young talent. Michigan is in the top ten in the country for college students who head out of state after graduation.