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July 27, 2008U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Delivers Remarks at the 2008 Higher Education Summit, "A Test of Leadership," in Chicago |
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From Education Newsfeed: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today delivered remarks on the progress that her Commission on the Future of Higher Education helped to facilitate, as well as discussed global competitiveness and the workforce needs of the 21st Century in Chicago, Ill. Their report was a test of leadership not only for the academy, but also for my department. Take the GI Bill: millions of soldiers returning to America as civilians, looking for the opportunity to achieve the American Dream they fought so hard to protect. At first, University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins warned that by opening the ivory tower to 10 million World War II veterans, the legislation would convert colleges into "intellectual hobo jungles." The law would provide loans to more than 1.5 million college students, producing 15,000 new PhD's a year over the next 10 years. Too often, high school coursework is not rigorous or varied enough to act as a springboard to success in college. As the Secretary of Education, I'm obligated to speak for students and families, and for we federal taxpayers who are one-third investors in higher education. They rightly expect us to knock down barriers to progress - like an opaque accreditation process that often inhibits innovation instead of encouraging it, or discourages new players from entering the system. In May I saw students from more than 150 nations graduate from Miami Dade College. We see the tremendous potential of increased transparency in MIT's new free open courseware, and in Stanford's podcasts of hundreds of free courses. I have been proud to lead delegations of university presidents to nations around the world.
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