Discussion with Martha Kanter

Started the day with a roundtable discussion among regional leaders of higher education with Obama's Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter. Martha and I have been friends for a long time. The former chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, she is the first community college leader to serve as under secretary. She is taking the lead on President Obama's higher education agenda, and it was a pleasure to be part of a conversation about how the federal government can help colleges and universities. I reinforced how important Pell grants are for low-income students, and I advocated extending the grants to middle-class families. I also think we need to standardize the accreditation process, which right now is time-consuming and costly. The one-size-fits-all approach really doesn't fit any campus. Lots of support from my counterparts on both points.