"For generations, a college education has meant the difference between a life lived on the edge of promise and one lived in the full embrace of the American Dream."

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Greencastle, Indiana — U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today delivered remarks on educating our citizens to compete and succeed in the new global economy at the DePauw Discourse 2006 at DePauw University's Performing Arts Center. Following are her prepared remarks:

Thank you. I'm pleased to take part in the third annual DePauw Discourse. What a program—sorry I can't listen to all of it. I've enjoyed my visit here this afternoon, and my only regret is that I didn't get to sample a Garlic Cheeseburger from Marv's!

Thank you, Joyce Green, for that kind introduction and for all your work to create this lecture series. And, I also want to thank Dr. Robert Bottoms for inviting me and for your 20 years of leadership at this great university. It's an honor to be here tonight with distinguished guests, alumni, and faculty who are all a part of this discourse.

More than 150 years ago when DePauw was founded, our world looked a lot different than it does today. Communication was delivered by snail mail instead of e-mail; crossing the ocean took weeks instead of hours; China and India seemed the farthest corners of the Earth instead of merely the click of a mouse away.

And, in just the past decade alone, technology has connected us in ways unimaginable to past generations, transforming the way we do everything from managing a business to buying airplane tickets to listening to music.

The world is changing faster than ever, shrinking distances and barriers between people. And the ramifications are felt across every aspect of our society. For example, issues we have always put in a domestic policy box, such as healthcare and education, have taken on global dimensions. This is seen in our efforts to combat diseases such as pandemic flu and AIDS and also our work to prepare students for a world where what you know means far more than where you live.

Today, a job can be done just as easily in Bombay as it can in Boston. And in this new, flat world, knowledge is the critical currency needed to succeed and thrive. In a few weeks, I'll be leading a delegation of college presidents to Asia; including Indiana University President Adam Herbert. We'll discuss the common challenges we face to ensure our students get the education they need.

Here at DePauw, you recognize the importance of providing students with a global perspective. Your efforts to increase international student enrollment, encourage study abroad, and emphasize language proficiency will help produce graduates better prepared to engage and lead in the new global economy.

For generations, a college education has meant the difference between a life lived on the edge of promise and one lived in the full embrace of the American Dream.

That's even more true today. It used to be that you could earn a good living off the sweat of your brow but that's not so much the case anymore. A college diploma is rapidly transforming from a nice-to-have to a must-have.

Ninety percent of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education, and 60 percent of Americans have no postsecondary credentials at all. Among college graduates, the unemployment rate is a mere 2 percent—compared to 4.6% overall. And the earnings difference between a worker with a college degree and one with a high school diploma is almost 40 percent.

Higher education has long been one of the undeniable strengths of our nation. In quality, diversity, and character, it's the envy of the world. American universities have been the incubators of great ideas, the birthplaces of great inventions, and the testing grounds of great individuals.

But times have changed. Where we once were leaders, now other nations educate more of their young adults to more advanced levels than we do. At a time when more Americans need a degree, we're stagnating. And that has worrisome implications for the future of our students and our country.

The problem begins in our high schools where one million students drop out of school every year. And those who do graduate often aren't prepared for college. As a result, colleges, students, and taxpayers spend over a billion dollars a year on remedial education just to teach students the basic skills they should have learned in high school.

Another issue is affordability. This is an issue that affects all of us here today—whether you're a student taking out loans or a graduate trying to pay them off or a parent, like me, wondering if you'll be able to pay for your child's education and save for your retirement.

Over the last 25 years, college tuition has outpaced inflation, family income, even doubling the cost of health care. And in the past five years alone, tuition at four-year colleges has skyrocketed by 35 percent. Just this week, the College Board announced that tuition rose another 6 percent this year. As a mother of a college sophomore, I want to know why ... and I know other parents do too!

We can't answer these questions without better information on where our money's going and what we're getting in return. In almost every area of our government—from prescription drug programs to welfare to K-12 education—we expect transparency and accountability for our tax dollars.

But over the years, we've basically invested tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money in higher education and just hoped for the best. As a result, we don't have a very good picture of how the system works today and what can work better.

The absence of information also means we can't answer basic questions families have during the college selection process. For example, how long will it take to get a degree? And how much is this education really going to cost? When my daughter applied to college two years ago, I found it challenging to get the answers I needed. And I'm the Secretary of Education!

You can find plenty of rankings and college guides, but you're out of luck if you want to find an answer to the question that matters most: How much are students learning?

To address these and other issues, last year, I formed a bipartisan Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Some of America's best and brightest came together across many sectors to launch a national dialogue on higher education. And last month, in response to the Commission's recommendations, I announced my plans to make higher education more accessible, affordable, and accountable.

First: To expand access to higher education, we must better prepare our students—starting with high standards and accountability in our public schools. These principles are the pillars of No Child Left Behind.

We've made great progress in the early grades toward our national goal of every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014. Our youngest students have made more academic gains in reading the last 5 years than the previous 28 combined. And now we must extend the benefits of this law to our high schools where we've made almost no progress in 30 years.

We'll also continue working with states and others to align high school standards with college coursework and encourage students to take more rigorous classes in critical subjects like math and science.

Indiana is a leader in this area. State legislation made the college-prep curriculum known as "Core 40" the high school curriculum for all students.

And when the percentage of Indiana students graduating with the "Core 40" diploma skyrocketed from 13 to 65 percent; Indiana moved from 34th to 10th in the nation when it comes to percentage of high school students going straight to college.

That's not a coincidence!

Studies show that one of the top reasons cited for dropping out of high school is a lack of challenging coursework. We must challenge more of our students the way Indiana has with a rigorous curriculum that will not only help keep kids in school but also better prepare them to succeed when they graduate.

A high school diploma must be a ticket to success not a certificate of attendance.

Second, we must make sure college is affordable. As the Commission noted, the entire financial aid system is in urgent need of reform.

At the federal level, it's a maze of 60 websites, dozens of toll-free numbers, and 17 different programs. I'm directing my department to streamline the process, cut the application time in half, and notify students of their aid eligibility earlier than the spring of their senior year to help students and families plan.

We also must increase need-based aid. At the federal level, we've worked with Congress to strengthen financial aid, and we've made progress. This includes making available four and a half billion dollars in scholarships for low-income students who take challenging courses in high school and study fields such as math and science.

I look forward to teaming up with Congress again to improve the financial aid process and help the students who need it most.

Third, accountability. We must improve the way we collect data on higher education, so we can give policymakers, administrators, and families the information they need to make good decisions. We live in the "Information Age." If you want to buy a new car, you go online and compare a full range of models, makes, and pricing options. And when you're done, you'll know everything from how well each car holds its value down to wheel size and number of cup-holders.

That same transparency and ease should be the case when students and families shop for colleges. That's why I want to work with colleges and universities to pull together privacy-protected data to create a higher education information system. It would build on the efforts of more than 40 states that already have similar data systems in place; including Indiana.

Using this data, we can re-design my Department's existing college search website and make it much more useful. Families will be able to visit the site and compare different options for college: in-state versus out of state, public versus private, community college versus four-year.

Better information will also help policymakers and college administrators do a better job managing the system and serving our most important clients—these students.

My plan calls for providing matching funds for colleges, universities, and states that collect and publicly report student-learning information. This will give us a better picture of how well the system is working and what we must work to improve.

To meet the challenges I've outlined today, we all must work together. The federal government can't do this work alone. Just as the commission reflected a cross-section of higher education stakeholders, finding the right solutions will take a similar partnership. We need your help and leadership.

And I'm glad to see higher education leaders here in Indiana answering that call. This spring, I'll convene a summit to discuss the full slate of recommendations, our progress, and specific responsibilities going forward, and I want the leaders of our nation's universities to be front and center.

We want to continue this national dialogue on how we can strengthen higher education to best meet the needs of our students in the 21st century. Our aim is simply to ensure that in a new era of global competition, higher education remains the path to the American dream and that more Americans have access to it.

Thank you, and I'd be happy to answer your questions.

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