Graduate schools require federal support if they are to produce the new knowledge and trained intelligence necessary to the security, prosperity, and cultural life of the nation. Recommendations of the National Commission on Student Financial Assistance are discussed. (MLW)

The ascendancy of Jimmy Carter may herald a new direction in American education, suggests a former secretary of HEW, who explains what that direction should be. (Editor/LBH)

The United States' precarious place in the world's leadership due to problems in education is discussed and current national policy on education is criticized. Specific program and grant initiatives are proposed as part of a comprehensive national effort to reinstate U.S. world leadership in technological capability. (MSE)

John Anderson's record on higher education is seen as offering little insight to his philosophy. His platform is said to devote as much space to international education and language studies as to student aid or research. He sees present regulatory practices as having hampered institutions of higher learning. (MLW)

The National Academy of Education is described as a loose federation of prominent educational and social science researchers, which has never pretended to be a think tank or a lobbying organization. Its influence is indirectly felt through the prestige and quality research of its members. (MLW)

Need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid policies at selective private colleges are too expensive for most institutions to maintain. Private colleges that value diversity must aggressively pursue additional resources to support it, not relying on federal aid to pay the difference between their tuition and the selective public…

Research indicates that budget increases currently enjoyed by colleges and universities will bring only temporary relief from an imminent fiscal crisis in higher education. Growing student numbers, stagnant public funding, labor development needs in the next two decades combine to predict substantial problems. Five far-reaching institutional…

Major findings and recommendations of a report by the NRC Committee on Continuity in Academic Research Performance, "Research Excellence through the Year 2000," are presented. Two reactions by young academics are reprinted. The relationships of government support and young academics and of limited knowledge and public policy are…

The most important short-term economic issue today is the federal budget deficit, and it will frame the debate about federal education policy. The challenge for the next few years will be to increase investment in human capital while continuing to reduce the federal deficit. (MLW)

The decline in the number of federally related jobs is threatening public policy schools and policy analysis is experiencing a loss of esteem. If this trend continues, the quality of students interested in public policy schools may be diluted. (MLW)

The liberal consensus that has shaped national education policy is seen as succumbing to dubious ideas and undesirable practices. Issues discussed include: educational equity, equality and quality; measures of educational achievement; accountability; "need" and ability; statism and monoply, pluralism and diversity; federal role; and…

Four members of a seminar on the federal role in education in the coming administration discuss federal priorities for education, offering hope that a 10-year policy gridlock may be about to break. (Author/MSE)

The federal role in postsecondary education is seen as a complex one, with over 400 separate legislative provisions to influence federal spending for higher education. Virtually every federal agency is said to be involved in some manner. The performance of the Carter administration in higher education is evaluated. (MLW)

The Secretary of Education and the chairman of the Senate committee overseeing educational policy are Utahans. Their leadership and perspectives on current legislative and quality issues are examined: conservatism, the communications revolution and education, the workings of government in policy formation, student financial aid, generosity of…

Institutional autonomy in higher education has already been seriously eroded by social change. If higher education is to retain its diversity, pluralism, and intellectual independence, academe must state its case forcibly or government policies of financial aid and regulation will create a homogenization of colleges and univerities. (MSE)