Congress Scrutinizes Higher Education

CNSNews.com ^ | 5/13/03 | Christine Hall

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CNSNews.com) - Do America's colleges and universities need congressional oversight to produce well-educated adults? Some in Congress think so. The upshot could be standardized tests and reporting requirements.

The Higher Education Act, an omnibus bill that funnels $80 billion a year to institutions of higher learning, is due for reauthorization this year - a time in which state governments have been forced to scale back or make cuts.

The federal bill has sparked a Tuesday hearing by the House Education and Workforce Committee on what to do about perceived shortcomings related to "accountability and quality."

"The horror stories you're hearing are becoming more frequent," said committee spokesman Dave Schnittger, who furnished a Time magazine article describing students from top colleges unable to name the president of the United States or solve simple math problems.

Despite the fact that American colleges are widely regarded as the best in the world, a 2002 report to Congress by former Colorado Sen. Hank Brown found that many college graduates must take remedial classes, such as basic memo writing, that U.S. employers are turning to skilled foreign workers and that teaching colleges produce unprepared classroom teachers.

"Parents, students and taxpayers are paying far more money for higher education than at any other time in the history of our country," said Schnittger. "And someone has to ask what they're getting for their money."

Congress could require more information of colleges in exchange for getting tax dollars, recommends Dr. Frank Newman, director of Brown University's "The Futures Project."

"I am a big fan of assessing learning," said Newman, whether through standardized tests or published graduation rates. "I think what we ought to be committed to is that we're determined to not only assess how much students learn, but also make it public."

For example, said Newman, colleges should be required to publish graduation rates, with the data broken down by income and race. Schools already publish certain data, like the rates at which nursing and medical students pass board exams and rates of graduation for college athletes.

Newman believes that such reforms would "shift the emphasis" from "competition over prestige to a competition over successful learning."

But David Baime, vice president of government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges, is skeptical.

"We really believe that higher education is remarkably effective and remarkably efficient and remarkably high quality," said Baime.

"If you look at what people earn, if they just have a high school diploma versus what they earn if they get an associate's degree or ... advanced education degrees, certainly, their earnings ...reflect that they're much more valuable in the marketplace," he said.

According to Baime, compared to a high school graduate, an associate degree holder earns $335,000 more over their working life. Someone with a baccalaureate degree earns about $1 million more than high school.

Surveys show that graduates believe they get very good value for their money, Baime added.

"It's easier to find fault with higher education than, perhaps, providing the resources that would make it even better than it is already," he suggested.

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