Sixteen years ago today Caitlin was sick. Although I usually can’t recall what happened last week, much less a decade and a half ago, this event has stuck with me. It was probably an ear infection considering her many bouts with those during her first year. It was her first Valentine’s Day and, being a first-time mother, I bought her a special outfit – white with red hearts and a frilly lace collar. Rebellion against which probably accounts for her current attire of hemp jeans and t-shirts.

In a relatively incoherent interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Margaret Spellings has these helpful statements to make about her views on higher education:

“There's more to be done to help policy makers know what the state of the world is, what are the issues: Can you get in and out of State U. within four years? What are the completion rates? And just some more information for consumers.”

Getting “in and out” of any university, as she so eloquently calls matriculation through graduation, is based on many variables, including in no small part the student’s dedication to the “getting out” part. Completion rates are already publicly available via a service called IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Service), a service of NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), a part of the Department of Education. Which Ms. Spellings runs!

“What I found lacking personally was, Is it a better deal to pay more to attend Northwestern or some private school and get out in four years? Or does it take longer to get out of State U., and can you get the courses? So just trying for more-complete information about how long it's going to take, how much it's going to cost, and how is my kid going to do through that process. What's the likelihood that they'll still be in there after two years? That kind of thing.”

So what Ms. Spellings appears to want is, um, A CRYSTAL BALL! A PSYCHIC! AN EDUCATIONAL OUIJA BOARD! Note - the first use of the highly descriptive term “thing”.

This will get back to my information thing. I think it'd be useful for parents to know kind of what is the culture of an institution. And I think some institutions do, and some institutions don't, have a liberal bias. There's lots of institutions and lots of different cultures, and so that's the kind of thing that parents need to be able to evaluate, and students themselves, when they make a selection. That's not something that the federal government is going to get into. We've got the local-control thing. That's something for states and governing boards and academic faculties to see about.

Three more “things” (not counting the “something”). Grammatical problem (“There’s lots…”). Plus the fact that this comment (in answer to a question about liberal bias on campuses) is rather rambling. Of course you and your child need to understand the culture of the institutions to which they apply – this is why you visit the campus, talk with students and faculty members, visit classes, etc. Which has nothing to do with “the local control thing”. Whatever she means by that.