WHAT SPELLINGS GOT RIGHT AND WRONG The education secretary and her higher education commission started the right conversation, but missed some key themes, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy writes. Oct. 3, 2006 What Spellings Got Right and Wrong By Edward <mailto:[log in to unmask]> M. Kennedy Last week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings laid <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/26/spellings> out a promising agenda to keep our colleges and universities strong in this demanding age. As she rightly noted in her <http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2006/09/09262006.html> comments on the report of Commission on the Future of Higher Education, America's public and private institutions of higher education are the envy of the world. But as we work to deal with the immense challenges of this rapidly changing time, it's vital for our colleges and universities - fine as they now are - to be open to change, and Congress, the Department of Education, and the higher education community will need to work well together to find the way forward. The commission <http://insidehighered.com/news/focus/commission> and the Secretary are right to call attention to the nation's unfinished business on college access, affordability, and accountability. It's unacceptable that the average student now graduates with $17,500 in student loan debt, 73 percent of all colleges still find it necessary to offer remedial classes for entering students, and that only 15 percent of African American students and 10 percent of Latino students obtain bachelor's degrees today, compared to 30 percent of white students. Continue: http://insidehighered.com/views/2006/10/03/kennedy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask]