LSU President F. King Alexander is calling for fundamental change in the nation’s higher education system. In a national forum this morning sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Alexander said students need more outcomes-based information about public four-year institutions so they can make better decisions when choosing a school.
“Making outcomes-based information easily accessible and easy to understand is critical in allowing our students to make the right choices for their education,” Alexander said. “When you purchase a car, you check out the Blue Book and check its performance. Why can’t we do the same thing for higher education?”
Too many students either don’t finish college or graduate with an unsustainable level of debt, Alexander said in his remarks at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County. To address that situation, he called for a three-pronged approach that “prioritizes outcomes, incentivizes states to maintain or increase their support of public universities, and ensures accountability through the regulatory process.”
Alexander, who begins his third year at the helm of LSU this fall, has long been a leader in national higher education circles and an advocate for the nation’s public four-year institutions. He has argued that private universities are overpriced, and that state colleges and universities are underfunded and, all too often, underappreciated.
“Higher education must change in order to serve our students, our states, and our society in the manner it was originally intended to,” he said at this morning’s forum, which was moderated by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Historic levels of investment in Pell are admirable, but when those taxpayer dollars flow to for-profits and incredibly expensive private universities with no evaluation of mission or outcomes, this investment isn’t reaching its full potential—just like millions of Americans aren’t able to reach theirs in the current environment we find ourselves in.”
Joining Alexander on the panel this morning were leaders from the University of Maryland, LaGuardia Community College, North Carolina Community College and State University of New York, among others. Topics included how colleges and universities across the country are equipping students to be successful and how the U.S. Department of Education can help ensure that all Americans can earn an affordable, high-quality college degree.
—Stephanie Riegel
