Todd Finkelmeyer, higher education reporter at The Capital Times, published a very nice interview with Terry Hartle, a senior vice president at ACE, the American Council on Education. Hartle, who works with all sectors of higher education to provide a coherent voice to the federal government, was in Madison Friday to speak to the Board of Regents.
Hartle acknowledges that public higher education is in a tough spot right now, and support for public sector investments is not high. Finkelmeyer specifically asked Hartle about President Obama’s goal for the United States to have the largest share of college graduates by 2020. Hartle thinks the goal will not be met: ” . . . we’re just not going to do that, because as a country we don’t want to mobilize the great amount of public resources needed. We only do that for war, and then we try to hide the costs of it. So I wish this is a goal we could reach, but it isn’t going to happen.”
The interview also addresses underutilized degree programs and the economic benefit of public universities. It can be found here.