June 27 2012

- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R --Tenn.) yesterday spoke on the Senate floor about the 150th anniversary of land-grant universities and the National Academy of Sciences, and detailed what it would take to strengthen our colleges and universities today, saying, "why not celebrate this anniversary by taking steps to ensure that 25 or 50 or 100 years from now we have even more of the greatest universities in the world?"

Alexander said: "We do not need new institutions; we need to reassert the greatness of the ones we have. Our universities, along with our national labs, are our secret weapons for innovation, and innovation is our secret weapon for producing 25 percent of all the money in the world for just 5 percent of the world's population... First, stop sending home every year 17,000 of the 50,000 international students who graduate from U.S. universities with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics...Next, double funding for advanced research, as the America COMPETES Act, which passed with huge bipartisan support in the Senate, has already authorized. Third, repeal the federal Medicaid mandates that force States to spend money on Medicaid that otherwise would go to higher education. This has resulted in dramatic decreases in State support and increases in tuition to try to maintain quality. Next, while Congress is repealing the Medicaid mandates, it should literally cut in half the stack of regulations that hampers institutional autonomy and wastes dollars that should be spent on students and research. Finally, the institutions themselves should look for ways to save money, such as full utilization of facilities during the summer, 3-year degrees for some students, and reforms to teacher tenure."