Chronicle article: Politics and Higher Education

Ok, I could spend forever just highlighting (and reading) Chronicle of Higher Education articles. But they cover so many important issues!

So another one. This is a bit of a catch all, but I think it touches on some important issues about community colleges, college access, politics and the purpose of higher education.

Highlighted Excerpts:

" “If we really care about access, then we should do something about community colleges,” but not nearly enough additional federal money was spent in this area, Ms. Jones said. In her Education Department post — as well as in other positions she has held, as a National Science Foundation program officer and as a Congressional staff member dealing with research — she found that “there is no political bang for your buck when you fund community colleges,” mainly because they are viewed as state and local entities and their students are too busy to be much of a political force, she said."

"Ms. Jones said the Education Department had placed too much emphasis on job training provided by colleges, and not enough emphasis on liberal-arts education. “Higher education is not, and should not be, job training,” she said. “Job training should be extra.”"

Chronicle of Higher Education
January 9, 2009
Former Top Official at Education Dept. Criticizes How It Approached College Access

Link:
http://chronicle.com/news/article/?id=5767&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en