NEA Leaders Attend Regional Summits

NEA leaders attended a series of regional summits held by the Department of Education to discuss the Department's action plan for higher education. These follow a national summit held last March where NCHE President Kathy Sproles represented the NEA. The Department’s action plan is drawn from the recommendations contained in report of the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of US Higher Education” released September 2006. At that time, NEA President Reg Weaver said

"This report should be a wake-up call for lawmakers who continue to cut away at financial aid and expect higher education to remain accessible and affordable. We welcome the Spellings Commission’s strong recommendation for an increased commitment to need-based student aid. Yet to give the proposal teeth we need a commitment from lawmakers to provide adequate funding."

The five regional conferences held in June 2007 concentrated on the themes of “affordability, accountability, and accessibility.” There was a subtext of the interrelationship of primary and secondary education with post-secondary, something that NEA and its leaders of been advocating for some time. NEA’s message on these points is direct and forceful. Access and affordability are fundamental and require adequate levels of support to make higher education available for all. Preparation is equally essential, but to preserve the quality of education at all levels, educators must be the ones making the academic decisions on admissions, alignment, and articulation agreements. Finally, NEA welcomes accountability, but demands that accountability systems be appropriate to the mission and population of a diverse range of institutions. Simplistic accountability measures such as graduation rates by themselves simply perpetuate problems, they do not correct them. Higher education institutions can best deliver results when they have the freedom to cater to diverse student populations and their needs.

Roger Davis, University of Nebraska-Kearny and member of the Advisory Committee on Membership attended the Kansas City summit on June 5; Sally Pestana, University of Hawaii and NEA Board Member attended the Seattle summit on June 7; Teresa Montana, California State University-Northridge and NEA Board member attended the Phoenix summit on June 12; and Jim Rice, Quinsigamond Community College in Massachusetts and NCHE President-elect attended the Boston summit on June 14.

It is expected that a report from the summits will be issued this fall, with additional summits taking place next spring. Meanwhile, Congress is moving ahead with the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which may pre-empt many of the steps the Department is attempting to take.