Education secretary plots plan to improve postsecondary education

Affordability, accessibility and accountability: These are the
three main goals in a new plan to improve the status of
postsecondary education, announced Tuesday by Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings.

After receiving recommendations from her higher education
commission, Spellings launched plans to redefine the college
experience, promising less confusion regarding financial aid and a
new information-sharing system, allowing for performance reviews of
colleges and universities and for prospective students and their
families to compare institutions based on their individual
preferences.

She said she would make several changes on her own as well as
begin to find support for her more sweeping proposals, which came
from her commission’s recommendations.

There were mixed reactions to the announcement. The United
States Student Association liked Spellings’ plans to simplify
and speed up the process of receiving financial aid, while the
American Association of University Professors said the basis of her
agenda is all wrong and the emerging vision of higher education is
only a marketplace, focused on outcomes and skills.

But one point of contention regarding Spellings’ plan was
the role of federal government funding for college students. The
commission said Congress should raise Pell Grants to cover 70
percent of in-state tuition costs, as they cover less than half
now, but Spellings said it’s too soon to commit.

Jim Hunt, former North Carolina governor and a commission
member, disagreed.

“That’s the most important thing,” he said,
referring to the Pell Grants. “And that’s the federal
government’s responsibility. I hope that they get in there
and do the first down payment on that.”

Murray Haberman, executive director of the California
Postsecondary Education Commission, said his organization would
encourage the federal government to provide more grant aid to more
people.

According to the June CPEC report, the average debt of a
University of California undergraduate entering repayment in the
2003-2004 year was $17,075, while the average debt of a UC graduate
entering repayment was $34,284.

Haberman said the degree of debt students are accumulating is
resulting in a decrease of interest in lower-paying public sector
jobs.

“The key for a student debtor is to obtain a reasonably
well-paying job that has prospects for future growth,” the
report reads. In addition, it says, “some academic programs,
particularly those that do not lead to jobs with high enough or
steady enough wages, may not be worth borrowing money to
attend.”

Haberman said many students may begin to find community college
more attractive due to costs.

For students who pursue graduate school, debt can add up to over
$100,000 which, in turn, will draw prospective public sector
workers to private organizations in order to earn more to pay off
loans. He said this effect has already caused a shortage of public
lawyers.

But while the nation continues to discuss the issues surrounding
affordability, Haberman said California has already been laying
groundwork for many statewide changes that parallel those proposed
by Spellings. His organization is building a public database of
information to be available to prospective students and their
families. This sort of data allows for analysis of basic trends
important to prospective students, including duration of study and
graduate success, allowing them to find the institution that best
fits their preferences.

“We are moving very much in the same direction (as the
federal government),” Haberman said.

He said the commission has worked to develop a public
unit-specific record, compiled of aggregate non-specific student
records, which will help in the evaluation of an
institution’s effectiveness. This system is very similar to
the one proposed by Spellings, though Spellings’ commission
recommended that testing of students also be part of the nationwide
public database. The system would require vast data collection on
individual students, which some critics fear will require long-term
tracking of students and invade their privacy.

But Haberman said the system his organization is developing is
completely private, as there is no actual identification of
individual students in collecting the data.

“California is out ahead of the curve in the process of
developing that accountability structure,” he said.

In addition to developing this system, Haberman said his
organization will be addressing measures and conducting data
analysis, and it looks to make recommendations for reform to both
the California legislation and the governor this January.

Spellings said she will hold a summit in the spring to go over
all the recommendations to her plan.

With reports from Bruin wire services.