Commission report leaves Higher Ed questions unanswered.THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION'S COMmission on the Future of Higher Education The formation of a Commission on the Future of Higher Education, also known as the Spellings Commission, was announced on September 19, 2005 by U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. issued the final draft in August of recommendations to improve access and affordability in higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. . Six drafts of the report had been released in preceding weeks, with some versions eliminating or toning down controversial passages. An early proposal for a national standardized exit exam, for example, was ultimately replaced with a recommendation that schools measure student learning on their own. The commission also recommended increasing the purchasing power Purchasing Power 1. The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy. Purchasing power is important because, all else being equal, inflation decreases the amount of goods or services you'd be able to purchase. 2. of Pell Grants, raising them to cover 70 percent of public college tuition The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. College tuition . Whether this proposal would ever be acted on in the current political climate is unclear. The Pell Grant, which in 1986 could be counted on to pay for as much as 98 percent of an average college tuition, now covers less than 25 percent of tuition, and hasn't been increased since 2001. Although the report's authors argued against price controls, they acknowledged that a Pell increase addresses only part of the problem. The report urges higher ed leaders to find new ways to control costs, saying tuition should grow no faster than median family income: "Even with significant additional federal investment, there is little chance of restoring the Pell's purchasing power if tuition increases absorb most or all of the new money." Eighteen of 19 commission members voted to accept the final draft. The lone holdout hold·out n. One that withholds agreement or consent upon which progress is contingent. Noun 1. holdout - a negotiator who hopes to gain concessions by refusing to come to terms; "their star pitcher was a holdout for six was American Council on Education Established in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is a United States organization comprising over 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations. President David Ward David Ward may refer to:
"There remain several issues of serious concern to me--particularly as I look ahead to the challenges of implementing the report's recommendations, with which I will inevitably be directly involved," he said in a statement. "For example, many of the problems cited in the report are the result of multiple factors but they are sometimes attributed entirely to the limitations of higher education. The recommendations as a whole also fail to recognize the diversity of missions within higher education and the need to be cautious about policies and standards based on a one-size-fits-all approach." Download the full report at www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion