Q & A: Margaret Spellings

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006 | 7:04 a.m.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is traveling to some unusual places these days to push her higher education vision.

Earlier this month, the longtime adviser to President Bush led educators on a tour through Asia. Last week she placed second on the TV game show "Jeopardy." On Tuesday she was in Las Vegas, speaking to 3,500 financial aid administrators about how to better help students. And today she is scheduled to host a forum in Washington, D.C., on how universities can better measure how much students learn.

Once the envy of the world for the percentage of citizens with college degrees, the United States is now ranked 12th, and Spellings is pitching a five-part plan to help move us back up the ladder.

The lack of preparation, information and money are the main obstacles that keep Americans from attending college, Spellings said.

She is pushing partnerships between colleges and school districts, and wants high schools to follow the principles of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which holds schools accountable for student progress. She also wants to streamline the financial aid process, and provide grants for universities that place an emphasis on measuring student learning.

The Sun spoke with Spellings on Tuesday.

Q: What steps are you taking to enact your reforms?

Two things I can do right away are to streamline the financial aid process - to make it more user-friendly, and to work with accrediting agencies to push student learning when they review universities. We want to show the value of higher education to families and policymakers.

Tuition in Nevada is low, but its universities are ranked near the bottom. Nevada university Chancellor Jim Rogers wants to increase tuition for those who can afford it while providing more financial aid for students who need it most. What do you think of this plan?

Nearly every state got a D or an F in college affordability, and states are right and righteous to work on ways to provide more need-based aid, especially in a state like this that grows more diverse every day and is totally driven by human capital and development.

Nevada's Millennium Scholarship program provides $10,000 toward college for students with a B-plus or better GPA. Is that something you would like to see more of in other states?

Obviously you have a greater chance of being successful in higher education if you are prepared when you get there, so I'm a fan of it. But I also think there is a balance between need-based aid and programs that are more merit-based. States need to look at their student populations, their completion rates in high school and their workforce needs, and figure out a state strategy that accommodates their local needs and where they want to be in the future.

The chancellor is asking the state Legislature to provide grants, as the federal government does, to encourage students to go into math, science or technology fields. Would you encourage the state Legislature to fund that?

One thing that I like about those programs is that we are starting to say this is really critical to our state needs and our national needs. Our strategy heretofore was to put the money out there and hope for the best. But if we are going to be the innovation society and have a high-tech base and attract students who are interested in those careers, you have to reward it. And likewise with teachers.

One of the more controversial plans you are trying to enact is the creation of a nationwide data bank that would track student progress through college, when they transfer between institutions and how many complete their degrees. What steps are you taking to make that happen?

I am talking to Congress about that because there are concerns and issues and obviously we want to do everything we can to protect student privacy. But I would like to know whether it is a better deal to graduate from a private university in four years or from a state university in six. Or, if I am an African-American engineering student, which college has the best completion rate for students like me who transfer in? Pieces of information like that can help improve higher education, and we shouldn't fear that. If we do - and we take the ostrich approach - we'll have a higher education system that doesn't meet the needs of our country.