Obama pushes affordable, accessible higher education in Iowa visit

DES MOINES - In an appearance Monday with implications for the race to replace him, President Barack Obama stressed the importance of affordable higher education and decried an 'anti-immigrant sentiment' on the campaign trail.

Obama sidestepped many of the 2016 campaign questions that arose during his appearance before about 1,400 Iowans at the North High School auditorium.

His stop there ostensibly was to tout his administration's plan to make it easier for college applicants next year to apply for financial aid. But he seized on chances to talk presidential politics.

'I can't tell you who to vote for - not now but later I will - but I can tell you who to vote against,” Obama said at one point. 'If you hear a candidate say the big problem in education is teachers, you should not vote for that person.”

When a student asked whether the higher education plan he was there to outline would help students who are undocumented immigrants - prompting shouts of 'Trump!” from the back - Obama pivoted to immigration policy, a focus of Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

'This whole anti-immigrant sentiment that's out there in our politics right now is contrary to who we are, because unless you are a Native American, your family came from someplace else,” Obama said, calling some of the debate 'un-American.”

Obama mostly used the Des Moines appearance to unveil an administrative change in 2016 that will allow students to apply for financial aid in October as the college application process gets underway - rather than wait until January.

The president said the college financial aid process is 'too complicated and time consuming” and causing students to 'leave money on the table in a 21st century economy” where education is key.

Starting next year, students applying under the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2017-18 school year will be able to do so beginning Oct. 1, using tax information already filed for the previous year. Under the current system, a student could start the process Jan. 1 but would have to wait until the family's tax information for the previous year was filed or revise an application later.

Obama administration officials hope that by moving up the FAFSA process, they will enhance students' chances of finding affordable higher education.

White House officials also said they have streamlined the FAFSA application form to significantly reduce the time it takes to complete the process used to determine eligibility for Pell Grants, federally backed student loans, scholarships and grants.

'This administrative effort is going to mean an easier and earlier FAFSA,” said Cecilia Muñoz, White House domestic policy council director.

Obama flew to Iowa to meet with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is traversing seven Midwest states, including making a stop Tuesday in Cedar Rapids.

Along with the administration's streamlining efforts, Obama called on Congress to further simplify FAFSA given that many of the most time-consuming questions - required by law - ask information that is not reported on tax returns.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama's stop in Iowa during primary campaign season coincided with Duncan's tour, but said 'the president would really like to see a robust debate in the context of the 2016 campaign about what we can do to strengthen our economy and open up a college education to more middle class students.”

But the Republican Party was not biting.

'Whether it's Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama, the Democratic Party is out of solutions and are simply repackaging the same stale partisan attacks and old ideas,” said a statement from Republican National Committee spokesman Fred Brown.