N.C.S.L. REPORT: STATES FAILING HIGHER EDUCATION
The U.S. higher education system is in crisis and is no longer the best
in the world because the federal and state governments have failed to
ensure that all eligible students obtain college education, a report
released this week by the National Conference of State Legislatures
said. Failing to invest more and improve the higher education system
has grave consequences for the overall U.S. economy, the report said.
No Michigan legislators were a part of the blue ribbon panel of the
NCSL report, which said that because other nations are more rapidly
changing higher education by both making it a greater national priority
and including the product of higher education as part of their overall
economic planning, the American higher education system is no longer the
best in the world.
"Although the United States has some of the best institutions in the
world, we do a poor job overall in our mass education production," the
report said.
This is a major challenge for state legislatures because they fund the
bulk of public spending on higher education, some $70 billion, and
because the largest universities in the United States are public, the
report said. "But states are not maximizing that investment," the
report said. "It is imperative to do better."
There has become a giant complacency about America's higher education
system, which affects the universities themselves, the report said.
Legislators are loath to criticize the system and encourage innovations
in education and on the campuses themselves the faculty appears
unchallenged to find new ways to teach.
One problem, the report said, is that legislators draw more political
visibility by championing issues like K-12 education, crime and economic
development than they do higher education. In addition, the public
rarely makes an issue of the overall quality of higher education, the
report said.
In Michigan, the higher education commission led by Lt. Governor John
Cherry several years ago already outlined a series of steps designed to
double the number of college graduates in Michigan over time.
The state has also had to struggle with funding for universities
because of the continuing economic problems.
By and large, universities are still focusing their attention on the
traditional student just out of high school, but the demand for higher
education has changed with larger numbers of older students who had to
delay their education or are seeking new skills, the report said.
Universities must adapt to this changing student body.
States and universities are also not doing enough to recognize the
increasing diversity of the American population. African Americans and
Hispanic students are the most underrepresented populations in higher
education today, the report said.
Across the nation, the report said, not enough is being done to ensure
that low- income students have access to college.
And overall, more and more students feel the doors to colleges are
being closed to them. Efforts to keep students in school are not going
far enough, the report said. Of every 100 students who now enter high
school, only 18 finish college in a six-year time span, the report
said.
The report called on the states to set clear goals, understand its
demographic trends going 30 years ahead, find ways to reduce borrowing
and debt by students and their families, rethink overall funding for
universities as well as student aid and hold schools accountable for
their overall performance.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2006/pr061127.htm
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