March 20, 2007
The Honorable Margaret Spellings
Secretary,
U.S. Department
of Education
400 Maryland
Avenue SW
Washington,
DC 20202
Dear Secretary Spellings,
We are writing on behalf of
hundreds of thousands of college students requesting you to include students in
your higher education summit. We were
disappointed to learn today of your choice to exclude student representation
from the broad discussion of higher education.
Students are both the consumers of higher education and also a valuable voice
in local, state and federal policy discussion regarding college access,
affordability and quality. To not extend
a single invitation to students while assembling nearly 300 presidents,
administrators, policy makers and bankers demonstrates a dismaying disregard
for the very constituency you are supposed to support.
Similarly, when you assembled your
Commission on the Future of Higher Education you chose to exclude the necessary
and valuable student voice. Nevertheless
several hundred students testified before the Commission in hearings across the
country and thousands more weighed in with the Department regarding their
concerns and priorities. The
Commission’s hearings should have demonstrated the broad interest of students
in the federal education policy.
During the Commission process you
have consistently spoken of how our country needs to do better “for the sake of
our students.” Today we are writing to
say that the Department of Education needs to do better at listening to and
including those very same students in any reform process.
Sincerely,
Jennifer S. Pae Luke
Swarthout
President Higher
Education Advocate
United States Student Association U. S. Public Interest Research Group
CC:
Chairman
Edward M. Kennedy
Chairman George Miller
