{"id":16530,"date":"2013-02-06T12:55:36","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T17:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=16530"},"modified":"2013-02-06T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T17:55:38","slug":"three-questions-about-college-for-lumina-foundation-ceo-jamie-merisotis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/02\/06\/three-questions-about-college-for-lumina-foundation-ceo-jamie-merisotis\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Questions About College For Lumina Foundation CEO Jamie Merisotis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_16531\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 298px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/02\/06\/three-questions-about-college-for-lumina-foundation-ceo-jamie-merisotis\/merisotis\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16531\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16531\" title=\"Merisotis\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/02\/Merisotis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"257\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Lumina Foundation<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lumina Foundation CEO Jamie Merisotis says Florida needs to consider new models for college tuition and student learning.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Lumina Foundation is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college. CEO Jamie Merisotis takes that message around the country.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/02\/05\/ceo-sees-educational-progress-in-florida-says-its-too-slow\/\">he spoke to the Economic Club of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The foundation\u2019s goal is for 60 percent of Americans to earn a high-quality post secondary credential or degree by 2025. Merisotis took questions from the audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>Does the Lumina Foundation have a position on how the university systems should price their services? In my day, the university system priced its tuition on a quarterly basis, so we took all the hours we could take per quarter. We all finished in four years flat. What do you say about that &#8211; do we need to go back?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>You bet. There are two sides to this financing equation \u2013 two elements that you\u2019ve got to address when you\u2019re dealing with the issues of redesigning the financing system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">One side is the cost side, which is getting more productivity out of the enterprise. What I mean is literally increasing the capacity of the system to serve more people better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">We\u2019ve got to think about these new delivery models, these new approaches, whether they\u2019re technology based or not, that are going to help us get to a more productive system. It means business efficiencies, rethinking both the way we allocate resources from governments to institutions and students, and it means literally the development of these new kinds of delivery models.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">The second part of the equation is rethinking the price side \u2013 the tuition that we charge, and then how we discount that tuition with financial aid and other means.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">I\u2019m a big advocate of student financial aid. I\u2019m a first generation college graduate; <a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/types\/grants-scholarships\/pell\">Pell Grant recipient<\/a>. I wouldn\u2019t have gone to college without government support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">On the other hand, I also recognize that the way we price this product \u2013 which is what higher education is \u2013 is so complex and confusing, it is extremely difficult to get a handle on what we\u2019re actually charging for and what people are actually paying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/02\/06\/explaining-digital-learning-day\/\">Explaining Digital Learning Day<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/12\/03\/13th-grade-adding-up-the-cost-of-remedial-college-courses\/\">13th Grade: Adding Up The Cost Of Remedial College Courses<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/02\/05\/ceo-sees-educational-progress-in-florida-says-its-too-slow\/\">CEO Sees Educational Progress In Florida; Says It&#8217;s Too Slow<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/12\/12-3-ShakiraLockettMain.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/13th-grade\/\">13th Grade: How Florida Schools Are Failing To Prepare Students For College<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">The net price \u2013 the actual price \u2013 is dramatically different than what that sticker price is. It\u2019s a tremendously variable pricing model. So figuring out how we price the product has got to follow the way in which we deliver a more productive system of higher education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">I think that time is extremely limited on higher education to be able to address its pricing problem. I do not see an environment where government is going to have a lot more money to be able to invest in higher education. We can no longer put this on the backs of students and their families. Something\u2019s got to give here. That\u2019s why the system redesign is so important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>I\u2019m very interested in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.luminafoundation.org\/newsroom\/news_releases\/2011-12-19.html\">Core to College Grant <\/a>that the Lumina Foundation recently awarded to ten states, including Florida. Could you tell us more about the grant?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>The Common Core is essentially an effort that the majority of states have engaged in to rethink the expected outcomes of the K-12 system. This is a very different model where many states have collaborated with each other to develop this understanding of what the outcome should be, and now they\u2019re developing various assessments to measure those outcomes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">We\u2019ve got to align this changed system at the K-12 level with our admissions and our placement efforts in higher education. These two systems exist in very different worlds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">So what we\u2019re doing in these ten states is actually supporting the collaborative effort across the great divide \u2013 K-12 and higher education \u2013 to actually create that kind of alignment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"question\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"question\">Q: <\/span>Do you see any willingness from the public or state governments to ever raise taxes for education, particularly post-secondary education?<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\"><span class=\"abbr\" title=\"answer\">A: <\/span>I think we can\u2019t start there. I think the revenue side will be hard. But I think we will need more resources than we have. The public polling is pretty clear on this. The public\u2019s pretty supportive of increasing investment in education generically. The public is increasingly recognizing the importance of post-secondary education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">But we can\u2019t lead with that point. It\u2019s a tough sell to policy makers and to the public. I think part of the challenge in terms of the revenue side of the equation is thinking about the art of the possible in terms of how we\u2019re going to create those additional places (for more students in college).<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">If we think about it in the traditional model, which is \u2018butts in seats\u2019\u00a0 \u2013 if we think about different ways of delivering post secondary education where you can use technology and other means to create a different learning model, then you can get somewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">This is a state where there\u2019s a lot of online learning going on. That\u2019s good. Now it\u2019s got to be better integrated into the overall model.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">Carnegie Mellon University redesigned their general education classes, delivering them using very sophisticated technology \u2013 online tutoring, real-time feedback, all kinds of things. What they found in these technology-delivered general education classes is that they were getting the same or better learning outcomes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"answer\">The kicker was students could complete these classes in 50 percent of the time of the traditional classroom-based model. If you can complete general education 50 percent faster, now you\u2019ve got literally more system capacity. You\u2019ll get those people through faster, which creates more opportunity for other people.<\/p>\n<p>The Lumina Foundation awards grants to educational organizations. Grant winners include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridacollegeaccess.org\/about-us\/\">Florida C.A.N.<\/a>, which funds StateImpact Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lumina Foundation is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college. CEO Jamie Merisotis takes that message around the country. Last week, he spoke to the Economic Club of Florida. The foundation\u2019s goal is for 60 percent of Americans to earn a high-quality post secondary credential or degree by 2025. Merisotis took questions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1036,1096,1104,1157,680,1028,1070],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16543,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16530\/revisions\/16543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}