Congressional Timeout for Spellings

Original Article

US Department of Education may not handle the situation correctly, but the need for leveling the playground remains.

Yes. I agree with Fred's observation on the 'tradition' role of higher ed institutions. However, that does not mean tradition is all good.

For one thing, all organizations are part of the society and should response to the society and this is the basic idea why governments do control private organizations through law and regulations. But in essense, all organizations are lived to serve the society's need. The consumer model may not describe the relationship between students and institutions properly. But it does put it in prospective. The argument that higher ed should be exempt from federal requlation is simply not sustainable especially when what accreditation agencies hold on to is the federal recognition.

In society, capitalism is simply a proved way of offering services in an effecient way. At the core of the capitalism is the idea of leveling the playing ground. Law and regulation are introduced to level the playing ground if necessary. The best way level the playground is to set the objective rules and set institutions free to explore they options.

In recent years, higher ed had become hot items in the society. Society began to pay attention to how to make it more efficient.
Like all industries, the idea of leveling the playground come to mind. Currently, accreditation agencies are membership based and are self regulated. This creates the environment that set those traditional institutions in a prestige status and prevent the leveling of playground.

So. US Department of Education may not handle the situation correctly, but the need for leveling the playground remains.

My second post:
The client model do shift most of the responsibility of learning to the students but it does not shield institutions or professors, for that matter, from respond to the need of the society. (I do not reject that model as was shown in my post First on the Docket: Accreditation.

But, that is really not the main point of the accreditation. All professional are still compete on the same ground. When I looking for professionals I will check their references and I would not necessary buy a package. I will negotiate my deliverable. Even though not all records are readily available, it does possible to check Doctors' malpractice.