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A generation ago, state leaders collaborated to fix a K–12 nation at risk. Universities today need the same gubernatorial guidance.
A large swath of the America public has lost faith in higher education. Worse, colleges and universities are facing new and growing challenges related to funding, enrollment, artificial intelligence, athletics, and more. Higher education needs a strategy, fast.
Given their powers over public education, governors are uniquely positioned to take the lead. This is not a novel proposition. In fact, they can learn from a gathering of their predecessors nearly 40 years ago that energized an era of bipartisan reform in K–12 education.
In 1989, 49 of the nation’s governors assembled in Charlottesville, Virginia, to address the national crisis in K–12 schools. Several years earlier, the jarring government report A Nation At Risk catalogued the deterioration of student achievement, underscoring the results of other depressing studies.
Those governors understood that public education is a state responsibility. They couldn’t wait for Uncle Sam to come to the rescue. They also knew good schools are key to healthy communities and job growth. Governors have a natural ability to find pragmatic solutions.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Education Next
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Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here. This piece is based off a recent issue brief.