Dec 19, 2014 10:12 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

More than a year since announcing their plan, the Obama Administration has unveiled a draft of the rating system they would implement in higher education to make schools more affordable and cost-efficient.

According to Reuters, the White House released the document Friday, one of the biggest steps toward making the reform a reality since bringing it to light in Aug. 2013. For the rating system, the U.S. Education Department (ED) would mark schools in a variety of aspects with a three-tier approach: high, low and middle.

Per the Washington Post, the areas up for rating would be:

• Accessibility: how many low-income students the school is admitting.
• Affordability: net price for four years' tuition weighed against family incomes.
• Outcomes and other data: freshman retention, transfer rates, graduation rates, loan repayment and employment.

Any school that receives federal money would be subject to the rating system, but it still seems as though the White House is limiting its scope to two- and four-year schools. According to the Post, graduate-degree-exclusive schools would be excluded.

"Relatively simple metrics like the percentage of students repaying their loans on time might be important as consumers weigh whether or not they will be able to handle their financial obligations after attending a specific school," the ED said in the document, according to Reuters.

Conservatives and prominent higher education groups have tended to oppose the college rating system. Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, was not impressed.

"If after nearly a year and half of work, this is all the Department can muster, it seems to support the long held belief by many in higher education that while a college rating system is admirable in theory, it is not feasible to create metrics that definitively assess the quality of so many institutions across the country," he said in a statement.

The Obama Administration's goal for the system would be to hold schools accountable for charging what they do for an education. With college still a worthy investment, it is becoming increasingly expensive and student loans are proving to be cumbersome later in life.

Proponents for the rating system have argued that prospective students are forced to take out loans to pay for a degree they clearly need for their career.

"Right now, prospective students and their families lack access to comprehensive and useable information for one of the biggest financial investments they'll ever make," Jennifer Wang, policy director at Young Invincibles, told Reuters. "Taxpayers should not write a blank check to schools that fail to serve students."

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