Obama's Rating system

Inside Higher Ed reports that Arne Duncan is laying out the rating system for colleges.  It states in the article:

The Obama administration expects to have a first draft of its college rating system by this spring, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.
After soliciting public input at town hall discussions and hearings at college campuses across the country this fall, the department will convene a “technical symposium” early next year to discuss ratings methodology before releasing a preliminary version for public comment at some point in the spring, Duncan said.
The administration’s goal is to implement the ratings system in the 2014-15 academic year and eventually persuade Congress to link federal student aid funding to the ratings system.

Other language that emerges in the debate is the term "outcomes."  As you can tell in this paragraph:

Many college and university leaders -- and the associations that represent them in Washington -- have been skeptical, if not critical, of measuring student outcomes based on metrics such as earnings and graduation rates. Some have also decried the availability and quality of data needed to carry out a ratings system.

The LA Times also concurs with the tying of financial aid with the college rating system.  The Wall Street Jounral has a good article describing this process.  They also published an OpEd that basically call this plan, potentially very problematic.  Mitchell Reiss stated:

If federal aid is linked to a college's rating, and a student attends a lower-rated college because it is closer to home to save money by commuting, then the student would receive less, not more, federal aid.
If you judge schools by the income that graduates earn after joining the workforce, then you discourage schools from helping students seek jobs that benefit society, such as teaching or nursing, but don't pay as well as many others.
If you measure schools by the amount of debt that graduates leave with, then you automatically favor those schools with the largest endowments, which can better afford generous financial assistance.
The list could go on, but you get the idea.

What this system could mean to the California Community College system is potentially huge.  This system also closely mirrors Gov Brown's proposals on restructuring the way community colleges are funded.