January 3 Meeting Discussion Outline

First point of discussion: Kiplinger Letter on American Education
- What jumped out at you from this article? Anything you didn’t already know?
- Is this article consistent with your impression of the American Education system?
- Another pointer, just a few days ago, I read in BusinessWeek that the same shortage that Kiplinger noted in Science and engineering, BusinessWeek noticed in Healthcare.
What policy changes do you see necessary to correct this problem? Kiplinger has some suggestions on later pages of the article, but I can reveal those after we discuss.

Conclusion: It seems like one of those uneducated responses typical of the media to simply say “oh yeah our education system is awful… totally downhill,” but that just might be the informed response now that the facts are there to support it.

Additional topics on Higher Education....

Institution Rankings: This might seem insignificant, but it has been shown in numerous studies that the rankings dramatically affect admissions at institutions in the following year. [Cornell] Do we think that the rankings are valid? There is evidence of colleges buying their way into rankings in the past; why do we trust rankings if they are produced by private companies with their own interests (i.e. selling magazines).

Affirmative action in Admissions: Our system being private (and thus expensive) means that there will be a wealth gap among university students. The very wealthiest schools (Ivy league schools,etc.) can now afford to subsidize education and promote relative equality for minorities, but it still stands that only 2% of students at “highly selective” schools are from the lowest 25% of wealth. [The power of privilege] , [The price of admissions]

Public vs. Private Higher Education: How does our system being private incurs inequality more than the rest of the world’s public systems, not only in affirmative action, but also in international competitiveness?

Ultimate question of this debate: Should admissions be fair? Do we really aspire to a meritocracy (rather than an elitist system that “works”).