Crude and Thoughtless

In this UPI story, Spellings claims she just doesn't understand all the commotion over her plan to introduce the same crude and thoughtless policies into higher education that now inflict K-12.

Unfortunately for American students, you go to college with the education secretary you have, not the education secretary you wish you had.

What the American taxpayers don't need is more information on colleges but rather more information and transparency on the cronyism and scandals going on over at the Department of Education while Maggie and friends run around the country stirring up "a false sense of crisis."


Spellings said she does not understand objections to her plan, which she says would give families, taxpayers and policymakers more information about the schools they plan to attend or fund, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"If you want to buy a new car, you go online and compare a full range of models, makes and pricing options," she says. "The same transparency and ease should be the case when students and families shop for colleges, especially when one year of college can cost more than a car."

However, David Ward, president of the American Council on Education and a member of the commission that authored the report that Spellings' plan is based on, has accused the education secretary of creating a "false sense of crisis." He said he refused to sign the commission's final report.

Douglas Bennett, president of the Quaker-founded Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., expressed concern that the recommendations, which include tracking individual student progress, could open the door to standardized testing "in a crude, thoughtless way."