he argued that students should not expect government handouts to fund their education. In response to a high school senior who had asked what kind of college tuition assistance Romney would seek to provide as president, Romney replied, "I know that it would be popular for me to stand up and say I'm going to give you government money to make sure you pay for your college. But I'm not going to promise that. What I'm going to tell you is shop around, get a good price. ... Don't take on too much debt, and don't expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on. Recognize that you're going to have to pay it back." He similarly told a law student who had asked what kind of federal assistance might be available in a Romney presidency for graduate students struggling to repay education loans: "I wish I could tell you that there's a place to find really cheap money or free money and we could pay for everyone's education. That's just not going to happen." He encouraged young people to be entrepreneurially-minded and to take risks, even to consider borrowing money from their parents if necessary to further their careers. Romney laid out some of his proposals for higher education reforms in May 2012. His platform called for simplification of the federal financial aid system, which he described as "needlessly complex." He further proposed abolishing the current federal student lending system that was put in place by the Obama administration, under which the Department of Education makes loans directly to students; Romney proposed returning to the previous arrangement in which private banks and other third-party financial institutions would make the loans and be paid federal subsidies for the service. He also proposed plans to "refocus Pell Grant dollars on the students that need them most." While he did not provide details explaining how he would reform the Pell grant program, some commentators noted that Romney had been generally supportive of federal budget proposals offered by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives that would be likely to reduce the total number of students eligible to receive the grants. Evolution As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney supported the teaching of evolution, and opposed the teaching of intelligent design, in public school science classes, stating so in December 2005 during his term, and then in May 2007 – shortly after