It is time we rock the Ivory Tower...maybe long overdue.

How do parents prepare for the high costs of college? It could be that jumping on the bandwagon to reform higher education would be the best way to enhance affordability.

More parents are saving money for their children’s college education…in2010; $9 billion has been put in government-run college savings plans. It’s a good thing. In 2010 public university, average undergrad college tuition $7,605.

But that money is not enough. The average student graduates with a debt of between $22,000-$27,000. Rate of default in student and parent loans is 5-10% per year. About 41% of people with student loans get in trouble and at some time become delinquent.

Pew poll reveals 75% say college is too expensive for most Americans to afford it.

Average cost of a college education has tripled since 1980.

While parents are struggling to find a way to pay for their children’s college, and almost half of those who have taken out loans are struggling to make their payments, this is money that is not in the economy and is a drag to our economic growth.

A well-educated workforce is important to our economic well-being. But with college costs growing (in Texas, costs have gone up 70% since 2003), we should be looking for ways to make college more affordable and accessible to Texas students.

Texas Governor Rick Perry challenged the university community to come up with a way to offer a quality college degree in 3 or 4 years for $10,000. The Texas Public Policy Foundation has taken a lead in proposing reforms which would lower the cost of a college degree, and a recent study found that even the University of Texas could cut their tuition rates in half if they enacted some reforms.

At the crux of the debate are the Seven Solutions:

1. Measure teaching efficiency and effectiveness.
   Goal: Improve the quality of teaching by making use of a public measurement tool to evaluate faculty teaching performance that makes it possible to recognize excellent teachers.

2. Publicly recognize and reward extraordinary teachers.
   Goal: Create a financial incentive to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching at Texas’ colleges and universities that will help attract the best teachers from across the nation.

3. Split research and teaching budgets to encourage excellence in both.
   Goal: Increase transparency and accountability by emphasizing teaching and research as separate efforts in higher education, and making it easier to recognize excellence in each area.

4. Require evidence of teaching skill for tenure.
   Goal: Highlight the importance of great teachers by evaluating teaching skill in nominating and awarding faculty tenure.

5. Use “results-based” contracts with students to measure quality.
   Goal: Increase transparency and accountability to students with learning contracts between Deans, department heads, and teachers that clearly state the promises of each degree program to each student.

6. Put state funding directly in the hands of students.
   Goal: Increase college access and make students the actual customers for higher education with student-directed scholarships for undergraduate and graduate education with funding from the state’s current appropriation that goes directly to colleges and universities.

7. Create results-based accrediting alternatives.
   Goal: Encourage greater competition in higher education and more choices for students by creating an alternative accrediting body that would focus on results and the college’s or university’s ability to uphold any obligation or promise made to the student.

For people who have been in business, and taxpayers, these recommendationsm make sense. Reform suggestions are available online at www.improvehighered.com.

How were the recommendations met? As said before, you would think the Governor demanded Beevo be castrated (okay, we know Beevo is a steer and UT has already done that deed!)

As university administrators have resisted change, the main stream media and big-government advocates are circling the wagons. Joining them appears to be Texas Lt Gov. David Dewhurst, considering some of the senators he named to a new committee.

Speaker Joe Straus (San Antonio) and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst established the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency on May 6th. Members of the joint oversight committee include: Sens. Judith Zaffirini (Laredo), John Carona (Dallas), Robert Duncan (Lubbock), Kel Seliger (Amarillo), Rodney Ellis (Houston), Kirk Watson (Austin); and Reps. Dan Branch (Dallas), Dennis Bonnen (Angleton), Joaquin Castro (San Antonio), Eric Johnson (Dallas), Lois Kolkhorst (Brenham), and Jim Pitts (Waxahachie).

In a recent front-page article in the Austin American-Statesmen (http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/house-senate-panel-gearing-...), Higher Education Committee Chairman Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) made clear that she would stonewall any reforms and she was in it for the long-haul:

“There appears to be little doubt that the oversight panel is in for the long haul. Straus and Dewhurst instructed the 12-member committee to make its initial report no later than Jan. 7, 2013. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who leads the panel with Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said this week that she expects the issue to remain a live one for up to six years — long enough not only for Perry to finish out his current term but also to cover the terms of regents he recently appointed to the boards of the UT System, the Texas A&M University System and other institutions.

"Clearly, oversight committees are established when there's a problem that has to be solved," Zaffirini said. "We have some regents who have taken on the role of CEOs," instead of leaving that function to chancellors and focusing instead on broad policy.”

Actually, the Board of Regents does have fiduciary responsibility and oversight.

And it is clear that Sen. Zaffirini wants to circumvent that oversight and in doing so, supporting the status quo. She doesn’t think anyone without a PhD should have any say in higher ed reform – so pay up and shut up.

Sen. Zaffirini is quoted as saying:

"Governor] Rick Perry doesn’t understand higher education. He doesn’t have a graduate degree, and he graduated a long time ago with a major in something like agriculture. I have a PhD, so I understand the value of research and teaching. He just doesn’t understand it. In the legislature, we’re used to dealing with regents who love their universities, who bleed orange or red or whatever their colors. These new regents appointed by Perry don’t seem to have any school spirit. They seem suspicious and cynical. They haven’t taken time to understand what the status quo is; they just want to change it.

Some of her supporters have claimed she didn’t say that, but here it is – and it wasn’t from a reform-friendly source: http://www.traviscountydemocrats.org/2011/05/zaffirini-defends-ut-agains... Yes, it was on the Travis County Democratic Party website. And to further affirm that Sen. Zaffirini felt comfortable with her comments, she was one who “liked” the blog posting: You like Zaffirini defends UT against Perry pals and slams redistricting | Travis County Democratic Party. •Judith Zaffirini and 49 others "liked" this.

Most troubling is that Hispanics are among those most in need of increased higher education access and greater affordability. Those are Zaffirini's key constituents.

This is not a partisan issue and though Texas may be ahead of the pack, other states are also looking at ways to reform higher education. The obstacle is obstinance, greed and who-knows-what-other reasons folks are supporting the status quo. But the status quo is no longer acceptable.

It is time we rock the ivory tower!