NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2006

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu
‘SPELLINGS REPORT’ CHAIRMAN MILLER TO DETAIL HIGHER ED REFORMS AT UH FORUM

The man some call the most controversial figure in higher education today is coming to the University of Houston.

Charles Miller, chairman of the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education for Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, will discuss the commission’s controversial report and take questions from the audience.

The event is free and open to the public and will be moderated by Michael A. Olivas, law professor and director of the UH Law Center’s Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance (IHELG). The event is sponsored by IHELG and the UH Faculty Senate.

“Charles Miller has agreed to make his only university appearance in order to share his impressions of important higher education policy issues,” Olivas said. “I look forward to his remarks and am pleased that he will be coming to UH to share these ideas with us. He is a very committed and talented community member, and we are fortunate to be in a position to host him.”

The commission’s report, released in September, outlines six recommendations to create a world-class higher education system that is accessible, affordable and accountable. Those include aligning K-12 systems with college and university expectations and employer needs; making college more affordable by implementing better cost management tools at colleges and universities; restructuring the financial aid system to make it more user-friendly and beneficial to students who need it the most; and encouraging innovative teaching methods to improve learning especially in the math and science areas. (www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html)

The report has been a lightning rod of strong comments from business, congressional and education leaders alike. The Chronicle of Higher Education quoted some as saying, “the commission's recommendations are so obvious, or so vague.” Still there are supporters, like North Carolina’s Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., who called the Spellings Report “one of the most important reports in the educational and economic history of our country, if we act on it.”

Miller is a Houston businessman who recently completed a term as chair of the University of Texas System. He has been a part of many changes in Texas education, including a system for accountability in public schools that was used as the model of President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.” Secretary Spellings is a graduate of the UH Department of Political Science.

WHAT: UH Hosts Chairman of the “Spellings Report” Charles Miller
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, October 31
WHERE: KIVA room in Farish Hall, in the College of Education
For directions and parking information, please visit www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/FH.html.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.