? Greg Orman, independent candidate for U.S. Senate, outlined his plan Tuesday for making higher education more affordable, including lowering the interest rate on federal student loans and putting limits on tuition hikes at universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs.

Orman outlined his plan to a group of about 50 Kansas University students at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries near campus. He said containing the cost of higher education and making it more affordable are key to the future of the national economy.

“Without college education affordability, we have a real issue in terms of growing small businesses in this country,” Orman said. “And specifically, we all know that the key to economic growth and prosperity for individuals, the key to lifting one’s self up in this country right now, is higher education.

His remarks came two weeks before the Nov. 4 general election in which he is challenging three-term incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Topping his list of steps the U.S. should take is requiring colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs to limit tuition and fee increases to no more than the general rate of inflation.

“If you receive Title IV students and the taxpayer dollars that come with them, I believe that you should sign on to the public policy goal of making higher education more affordable,” Orman said. “That means you shouldn’t be able to raise tuition, fees, total expenses by more than the rate of inflation in the general economy.

Title IV is the part of the Higher Education Act of 1965 that covers federal student financial aid programs such as Pell Grants and guaranteed student loans.

Since the 1980s, the average cost of higher education, which is measured by the Higher Education Price Index, has risen much faster than the Consumer Price Index, which is commonly used as the measure of inflation in the general economy.

But officials at the Kansas Board of Regents, the state agency that governs higher education in Kansas, said it would be unfair to peg the cost of higher education to the general inflation rate.

“The conversation around whether to increase the price of tuition at each of the universities has not been driven by the rate of inflation. It’s driven by need,” said Regents spokeswoman Breeze Richardson.

Richardson said one of the biggest factors driving up tuition rates at universities in Kansas is declining support from the state of Kansas. And she pointed to a recent analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education which said Kansas is one of 26 states where students pay more of the cost of operating public universities than the state.

Orman conceded that many states have cut back on their support for public universities, but he said universities themselves can do more to rein in their own costs. He specifically faulted universities nationwide for excessive administrative costs, saying the growth in the number of administrators has outstripped growth in student enrollment.

“So I think unless we hold colleges and universities accountable, we’re not going to put them in a position where they have to make some of the hard decisions to figure out how do we deliver better education to kids,” Orman said.

Other elements of his higher education plan include:

• Lowering interest rates on guaranteed student loans to just 1 percent above the 10-year treasury rate instead of the current 2.2 percent.

• Requiring more disclosure for students about the cost of student loans, including the total interest cost over time and how long it will take the student to pay off the loans.

• Reforming government collection practices and requiring advance notice before the government sells a loan to a private lender.

• And offering military veterans more protection from predatory lending practices.

In response to his proposal, Sen. Roberts’ campaign issued a scathing statement that said Orman was personally sued last year by a businesswoman who owed him money after he attempted to garnishee the college funds of her children.

“Orman talks about making college affordable, but tried to raid a hardworking single mother’s college savings for her children just to earn a buck when he thought no one was looking,” Roberts’ campaign manager Corry Bliss said.

Orman dismissed that criticism.

“That’s Washington as usual,” he said. “Instead of coming out with a competing policy, instead of having a discussion about what we need to do moving forward to address the issue, that’s what we do in Washington is we attack the individual instead of the problems we have.”