Now that the administration has launched the No Child Left Behind initiative, the Department of Education is turning some attention to higher education.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings formed a 19-member Commission on the Future of Higher Education to examine issues such as skills students need to learn to compete in the global economy, and the assurance of a quality education for all students.
And community colleges are represented on the commission, with Dr. Charlene Nunley, president of Montgomery College in Rockville, Md., getting the nod.
Nunley says that when Spellings’ chief of staff called and “invited me to be on the commission, I said I’d have a very hard time saying no because I’ve been so outspoken about the serious issues of access and affordability in education. He said ‘Yes, we’ve heard that.’”
The commission plans to conduct hearings around the country, and deliver findings and recommend strategies by Aug. 1, 2006. In announcing the commission, Spellings said “unlike K-12 education, we don’t ask a lot of questions about what we’re getting for our investment in higher education. And as a result, we’re missing some valuable information to help guide policy to ensure that our system remains the finest in the world. And parents have a tough time getting answers about the way it all works.”
Although Nunley recognizes that she can’t set the commission’s agenda, she does have some recommendations. “I’d like to see the commission wrestle with the issues of access, affordability and diversity. There is a much larger group of students coming out of high school today and a much higher proportion want to go to college. The group is much more diverse than in the past,” in terms of income levels, ethnic makeup and range of ages, she says.
“The price is going up, and more and more students are finding it hard to go to college. In quite a few community colleges, students are being turned away. I think that’s bad national policy and I want to have a chance to say so and make sure that doesn’t get worse,” Nunley says.
She says the commission should also take a look at NCLB’s effects. “If students are being prepared for college and we are not doing more to create capacity, are we creating false hopes and expectations?”
And maybe the commission should look at adjusting education delivery methods to adapt to changing learning patterns, she says.
