More Resources Secretary's Plan for Higher Education

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, today met with about 100 business leaders at the Churchill Club in Mountain View, Ca., for a discussion about the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and strengthening higher education to meet our students' needs in the 21st century.

"The world is building 21st century learning environments, while America is focused on fixing 20th century schools," Spellings said. "Technology can provide a platform to transform education to meet the demands of the 21st century. With education so crucial to our country's future, we must focus the same level of energy, effort and investment into transforming this critical sector."

Secretary Spellings talked about the importance of reauthorizing No Child Left Behind and the need to make higher education more affordable, accountable and accessible to all Americans. Last year, Secretary Spellings created the Commission on the Future of Higher Education to develop a comprehensive strategy for postsecondary education that will meet the needs of America's diverse population and also address the economic and workforce requirements of the country's future.

In September, the Commission provided its final report to the Secretary and she quickly acted on the recommendations with her higher education action plan—calling for, among other items, making college more affordable and simplifying the financial aid process, better preparing students by ensuring that high school curriculum is aligned with college level work and demanding the same transparency from higher education that we expect from almost every other area of government.

###

Top

Back to December 2006