CNN: Spellings plans to announce higher ed initiative

Spellings plans to announce higher ed initiative


America's system of colleges and universities is famously decentralized, producing experimentation and variety, but making it hard to tackle big-picture issues such as access and affordability on a national scale.

On Monday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings planned to announce a major initiative to address that problem: a commission charged with developing "a comprehensive national strategy for post-secondary education," according to remarks in an advance copy of a speech she planned to deliver at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The commission will be led by Charles Miller, former chairman of the board of regents of the University of Texas system....

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Spellings said she was "not advocating a bigger role for the federal government in higher education" but said the country "needs a coordinated approach to meet rising enrollment numbers and new economic demands."

Spellings outlined the commission's instructions only generally, saying it would tackle issues like affordability and how well colleges prepare students for the global economy....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/19/spellings.colleges.ap/index.html

Now they want to do for higher ed what they've done for everything else they've gotten involved in.

We're doomed.

to get their hands on academia, our colleges and universities, among the last bastions of intellect and free thought.

Kerry!

intervention, they sure like to get the government to intervene.

I'm sure we'll see a "National Standard Of Appropriate Non-Terrorist Leaning American Education For Colleges And Other Institutions That Wish Not To Be Closed By the Government" and I'm sure Bill Frist, Jerry Falwell, and Rush Limbaugh will be the education experts they bring in to write the program.

"Our colleges aren't churning out enough braindead Christian fundamentalist national triumphalist people, it's time for the government to put the hammer down on all this Osama-loving free thinking, debate, and questioning."

Thanks!

And you're right.

tell them to fuck off (especially NEast colleges and universities). They don't depend on the government for money and people from around the world are banging down their doors to get in. They'll have a good chuckle.

This guy could destroy higher ed.
First of all he has a1959 math degree from U. Texas and that's it for HIS higher ed. However he has made a fortune as manager of his private family investment partnership. Bush named him to the UT Board of Regents where he has pushed for standardized testing (multiple choice only) at the COLLEGE LEVEL ! ! ! That means that Americans don't NEED to learn to research and write on topics - research is BAD - makes people THINK! They might even ask QUESTIONS ! ! Imagine taking a journalism or writing or English comp class where all testing is multiple choice. Just shut up and memorize the class handouts.

Another big effort of this guy has been to give the Board of Regents more power over the private investment companies that manage the $$$Sixteen Billion endowment funds of the UT and Texas A & M system.

And you'll LOVE this! He worked closely with Kenny Boy Lay in lobbying for charter schools ! ! !

And may I point out that "tuition deregulation" is code for upping the prices to keeping the poor trash out! ! !
For more, see:
www.utwatch.org/regents/charles.html

on Mr. Miller (post 8).

Designed to prove we need some kind of program or other to give equal time to conservatives, or some such. The global economy? What colleges are not doing well? They aren't transparent?

They've successfully infiltrated the local school board, now they're going after the colleges.

the Higher Education Reauthorization Act, which is nothing but taking NCLB and applying it to the postsecondary level, it will be nothing but shit.

It will be anyway, but HERA especially sticks in my craw.

Count on this weasel being involved - he has been hawking his unique educational methods for some time now.