From Deseret News archives:
Spellings backs simplifying of college choices
Her overarching theme is to make everything about college — choosing one, affording one, succeeding in one — easier for families. Parents should be able to shop for a college as simply as they shop for a car, she said, with a clear expectation of what they will get.
But higher education in the United States is a diverse field, and finding the will and the money for the agenda may prove difficult.
High on her list is the creation of a massive information system — a way to judge how colleges and universities are doing in helping students succeed. It would require a vast collection of data on students, with a promise that their privacy will be protected.
The Education Department would work with states and colleges to make that happen, Spellings said Monday, commenting for the first time on a national commission's ideas.
The department would then use the data to overhaul its college Web site. The idea is for people to compare one school to another, right down to the typical salaries of graduates.
She also pledged to make applying for financial aid easier and speedier.
"Some of this stuff is so commonsensical, and the urgency is so great," Spellings told The Associated Press. "We need to get going on this."
Spellings outlined her plans ahead of a Tuesday speech at the National Press Club. The Bush administration is getting more aggressive on college issues, a popular area for voters.
Spellings' comments were warmly received by the commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education.
"We're trying to do this stuff in Utah, for the most part," commissioner Rich Kendell said.
His office recently helped kick off the Utah Scholars initiative, directed at getting eighth-graders to commit to taking a full regimen of math, science and English, social studies and foreign language to prepare for jobs or college. It wants more state financial aid for "the working people of Utah that are struggling with college costs." Utah also has a new law allowing for a student ID to track students from public schools through colleges, envisioned to help the state learn where students and programs might need a boost.
Yet Spellings would not commit to one of her advisory panel's most specific ideas: increasing Pell Grants to cover at least 70 percent of in-state tuition costs. Pell Grants, the main form of federal aid for low-income students, now cover less than half the costs.
The idea would cost billions of dollars, either in new spending or cuts elsewhere.
