On Thanksgiving Break, A Cheer for American Higher Ed

As American university students travel home--that is, to their own or that of a friend who lives closer--for Thanksgiving, the Economist, in its annual forecast of the coming year, offers Adrian Wooldridge's assessment that their universities lead the world, and will for sometime to come.

The reason? The US "system" leave Uncle Sugar out of the decision making. Universities define their missions and compete for resources from multiple sources. Elsewhere, universities operate as government entities. Imagine getting an education from the BMV or the IRS.

As a member of the American higher-education community who deliberately works on its fringes, and as a graduate of a European university, attracted to it because of the efficiencies of its system in one respect alone and the excellence of its product in one department of one institution alone, SWNID completely affirms Wooldridge's perspective. We say further that these are the best days for American higher education, regardless of its obvious weaknesses. Compare any American university today to its condition in the 1970s and you'll see enormous improvement in nearly every area of its operations.

What's sad is that in Washington, politicians on the right--who should be committed to less government control, more individual discretion, more institutional liberty, and more competition--are pushing for revision of the authorization of higher education funding that would actually put Uncle Sugar in the provost's office.

The solution to whatever ails education in this country is not to apply No Child Left Behind to the one part that's working well. It's to apply the successes of higher ed--institutional competition, innovation, and diversity of public and private administration--to elementary and secondary levels.