Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain outlined his higher education agenda recently.  Here is an excerpt courtesy of NCHelp.org:

Presumptive Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued his higher education agenda last week that focuses on the six policy goals, including fixing the student lending programs. They are:

• Prepare for the 21st Century in Higher Education—encourage government to support innovative approaches to education, removing regulatory barriers that prevent us from moving forward with new ideas.
• Improve Information for Parents—make institutional information available to families in a clear and concise manner to help students make more informed choices about higher education.
• Simplify Higher Education Tax Benefits—simplifying the existing tax benefits to ensure that a greater number of families have a lower tax burden when they are helping to send their children to college.
• Simplify Federal Financial Aid—Senator McCain charges that too many programs and a complicated application process deter many eligible students from seeking student aid and that the number of programs also makes it more difficult for financial aid officers to help students navigate the process. Consolidating programs will help simplify the administration of these programs, and help more students have a better understanding of their eligibility for aid.
• Improve Research by Eliminating Earmarks—eliminate earmarks to improve the federal government’s support for university research.
• Fix the Student Lending Programs—Senator McCain proposes an expansion of the lender-of-last resort capability of the federal student loan system and will demand the highest standard of integrity for participating private lenders. He also contends that effective reforms and leveraging the private sector will ensure the necessary funding of higher education aspirations, and create a simpler and more effective program in the process.