We need to raise our expectations of higher education

Tom Keller, Henderson

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

Tom Jones’ letter Tuesday hit the nail on the head when he said we need more education for our money, not more money for education. He was referring to K-12 schools, but higher education is just as much a victim of poor expectations.

UNLV and UNR are two of the lowest-rated universities in the country and have graduation rates of only around 40 percent. Why? Most states limit enrollment to college-ready students by requiring minimum college aptitude test scores. But the only requirement here is a 3.0 high school GPA, which, with the sad state of our high schools, says little about a student’s readiness for college. The result is spending a lot of money for mediocre college educations.

The required higher education budget cuts could be achieved by upgrading university entrance requirements. And limiting enrollments to high-quality students would not only reduce the size of the universities, but also significantly upgrade their academic standing.