Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060121
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The sharply worded report, ``Investing in American Higher Education: An Argument for Restructuring,'' warns that decreases in public funding have made the nation's colleges less and less accessible to nonwhite, nonwealthy students.
But the report stresses that higher education's problems go far beyond the need for more money and require dramatic changes in how resources are used and perhaps even in the public's expectations about colleges and universities.
``How ironic that education is enshrined at the heart of this nation's historic promise of opportunity, yet our public policy fails to provide adequate subsidy for it,'' says the report, which describes as ``perverse'' the current system that saddles many low-income students with massive debt.
The report's release accompanied the announcement of a new 14-member panel, formed by the New York-based Council for Aid to Education, that will attempt to find ways to make high-quality college education more affordable to all.
The panel, called the Commission on National Investment in Higher Education, will be headed by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean and McGraw-Hill chief executive officer Joseph Dionne. It includes other corporate and higher-education executives.
Over the next several months, the commission will consider the problems described in the report - among them, reduced public funding, rising tuition and fees, and a growing confusion about what a high-quality education really is.
By fall, Kean said the commission will draft its report, including a detailed blueprint to restructure the way public, private and corporate money is used in higher education.
by CNB