Administration targets higher education

Re “Education Secretary Has Collegiate Shake-Up in Mind,” Sept. 27

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she wants a broad shake-up of higher education. This comes from the head of a growing bureaucracy that has forced No Child Left Behind on the nation’s schools since early in the first Bush term in office. This federal program has been run just about like other federal programs, which are manifestly ineffective and managed by incompetent people.

Anyone wondering what would happen under a federal school system now has the answer. The first students contaminated by the program are now in college. What did Spellings expect?

DAVE MARESH

Yucca Valley

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Spellings correctly identified the necessity of need-based aid for students who want to go to college. Making the financial aid application process more straightforward is commendable, but we also need to increase the value of federal Pell Grants to help students cover the cost of college.

Here in California, qualified students are promised by the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education access to a college education. Fully funding federal programs, such as Pell Grants, could certainly go a long way in helping keep that promise to the next generation.

ABDI SOLTANI

Executive Director

Campaign for College Opportunity

Oakland