Spellings Launches Review of Colleges

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Education Secretary Margaret Spellings launched a major review of the nation's colleges Monday, citing slipping U.S. performance and scattershot decision-making.

We make small fixes with programs to emphasize key areas, but we don't think strategically about the bigger picture,'' Spellings told a new team of policy advisers. ''We can't afford to leave the future of our nation's higher education community to chance.''

Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education has a task as sweeping as its name. By Aug. 1, the group must recommend how to make colleges more accessible and affordable for families, accountable to policy-makers and competitive with peers worldwide.

That goal is complicated because higher education in the United States is itself complex, a mix of largely independent schools with different missions, finances and political bases.

For at least their first meeting, which largely focused on money matters, Spellings' advisers seemed pleased even to be talking about a coherent higher education strategy.

''We concentrate so much on what we're really good at that sometimes we don't look far enough out into the future and see what the problems are,'' said Charles Vest, professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the school's former president.

Spellings chose leaders from academia, corporate America and research for the panel, along with officials from the departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce and Labor.

The college review is the most significant higher education initiative by the Bush administration, which is better known for its focus on reading and math in early grades.

Part of Spellings' motivation is personal. She recently went through the college selection process with her oldest daughter and realized how confusing it is for families.

Federal policymakers are also worried that the nation's colleges are not producing enough qualified workers and researchers, particularly in math, science and engineering. A string of government and independent reports has raised alarm about U.S. competitiveness.

Commission members said that the country often doesn't know what it gets for its money because data on student learning in college are hard to find. The federal government commits about $80 billion a year to higher education in research grants and student aid.

''We don't really understand how money is used in higher education,'' said commission Chairman Charles Miller, former chairman of the board of regents for the University of Texas system. ''I think most people outside higher education don't have a clue, and my experience inside is a lot of us who govern higher education don't know a lot about it.''

Spellings added that government and education leaders often have little good information about what's working and what's not, leading to ''the accidental way that we make policy.''

She has set a goal of assuring that any students who work hard can go to college regardless of how much money their parents earn. And although she says it is time for significant federal action -- perhaps in the category of the G.I. Bill after World War II -- she has also assured observers that she is not advocating a bigger role for the government.

The commission will hold meetings across the country over the next several months. Miller told reporters that the group will find a way to get direct input from college students.