Observations Concerning Dignifiable Questions about American Higher Education

The United States is blessed with thousands of institutions of post secondary education. Integrity is alive at all levels. Learning takes place. American higher education is a stupendous achievement with a proud tradition. No area in the world is likely to claim better schools and a better record. Hundreds of small institutions with less than 1000 students, some public, some private, independent, some denominational, some comprehensive, others program selective, represent and live the spirit of a community of learning. But it is also true that the system of American higher education, just as American democracy, is confronted with challenges and threats. As the the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education has recently, in August 2022, observed, " The system was never completely right-side up". He talked of a "post-secondary purgatory", of a ranking system that is "a joke", and called for a "cultural change in higher education, NOW". These challenges and threats need to be addressed now, while it is still, hopefully, time to avert potentially catastrophic consequences. Just as democratic institutions are likely to be misused and need constant critical vigilance, so educational institutions need , active, constant attention and engaged maintenance.The experiences described in these chapters, while accurate, do not reflect comprehensively the "state of post-secondary American education". But glaring defects and negative tendencies do exist and continue at all levels and to a degree that demands informed awareness and action. The quantitative leap in the student population after 1945 accelerated positive and negative developments. Opportunity of education is available, but hardly equal opportunity. Higher education seems to have become unduly influenced by interests and considerations destructive of quality education. Changes need to be considered and consensually implemented now in order to minimize intended and unintended negative consequences.