"Should Government Take a Yardstick to Colleges?"

No.

This proposal by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is just one more sad symptom of the expansion of the nanny state under a Republican administration.

The free market works fine when it comes to colleges being held accountable for their "product." The last thing we need is more government intrusiveness, with Uncle Sam tracking (anonymously, we're assured) students' progress through college. Is there nowhere anymore where we're safe from the prying eyes of big government?

And I might add, with all the problems prevalent in public schools, why does Spellings also want to take on monitoring colleges?

Let the market work. A college which graduates students poorly qualified to succeed will soon be lacking customers.

If only we could bring that kind of free market "policing" to our K-12 public schools! Ms. Spellings is approaching these issues exactly backwards.