"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Maggie's Final Frontier

Spellings is putting the final touches to a speech planned for the end of the month, when the Commission to Meddle in Higher Ed issues its final report. Here's some preview clips from Maggie's visit to Pittsburgh this past week:
Federal officials are taking the No Child Left Behind Act to the next frontier -- higher education.
In Pittsburgh yesterday, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said she will be making a policy speech about higher education at the end of this month.

She noted the federal government pays about one-third of the bill, in the form of grants, and basically puts "the money out and hopes for the best."

She said, "That was fine and dandy when higher education was kind of nice to have as opposed to must have. But that's changing more and more. . .

. . . . "The next part of the debate on higher education is for us to ask why does it cost 7 percent more this year than last year. Is it a better deal to get out of Ohio State in six years or some private college in four?

"All sorts of things that parents want to know and deserve to know and can know and find out about buying a car or going to a restaurant or ordering a book online, you can't find out about on one of the most expensive decisions and one of the most important decisions that you and your child are going to make. ...

"I think we have to start challenging that."

Are these incompetent fools the ones we want fiddling with a higher ed system that is the envy of the world?

1 comment:

  1. We need to wake up our higher ed colleagues. I hope such concern as expressed here can become more than vox clamantis in deserto.

    Hahahahaha: The Commission to Meddle in Higher Education!

    ReplyDelete