Blueprint Louisiana, a self-described citizen-driven effort to reform Louisiana government that was particularly active in the fall 2007 statewide election, testified before Louisiana’s Postsecondary Education Review Commission on Monday to offer suggestions on sustainable reform of the state’s higher education system. Amid the budget cuts and proposed changes to post-secondary education in Louisiana, Blueprint’s Chairman Bill Fenstermaker, president and CEO of Lafayette-based C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates, says there are two key issues of concern in addressing higher ed’s woes: An unacceptably low graduation rate from four-year universities, and a severely underdeveloped community and technical college system.
Fenstermaker offered the commission five recommendations to address the issues including implementing performance-based funding, raising university admissions standards, allowing higher education systems the ability and freedom to generate and maintain individual revenues, and removing all “chronically failing” post-secondary schools from control of their respective governing systems. “Today’s fiscal reality should be enough to force action,” Fenstermaker says. “With thoughtful improvements and a commitment to excellence, we believe in the potential of our higher education system to deliver an array of positive economic and community impacts for our citizens.”
