FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 20, 2013
Contact: Media Services
202.862.5829 | mediaservices@aei.org
 
Washington, D.C. (June 20, 2013) - The American Enterprise Institute announced today the launch of a new Center on Higher Education Reform (CHER). Led by founding director and resident scholar Andrew P. Kelly, the center will conduct independent, data-driven research and analysis designed to inform policymaking and shape the higher education reform conversation.
 
"At the root of the American Dream is the ability of all people to get ahead and earn their success, and a vibrant and flexible system of higher education is critical to upward mobility in the 21st century," said AEI president Arthur Brooks. "AEI's new Center on Higher Education Reform will lead the conversation about how we can make higher education work for all Americans, and to prepare American students to flourish in the decades to come."
 
"The higher education reform debate is today where the K-12 education reform debate was 15 years ago," said AEI director of education policy Frederick M. Hess. "There is an urgent need for insightful research that spans the worlds of policy and entrepreneurship.  AEI's Center on Higher Education Reform, under the leadership of Andrew P. Kelly, will tackle the disparate worlds of reform and work to reshape higher education policy."

There is a mounting concern about the state of American higher education.  Rapid increases in tuition, lackluster completion rates, and ballooning student debt have raised questions about the sustainability of the existing postsecondary system. The Center on Higher Education Reform aims to be a resource for key decision makers as they address these challenges, pushing past the talking points and silver-bullet solutions that often dominate policy debates.

Led by founding director Andrew P. Kelly, the CHER team will feature two other researchers. New to AEI, Awilda Rodriguez, an expert on college access, college match, and state policy, will be CHER's inaugural research fellow. Kathryn C. Deane will be CHER's research associate.

For additional information on the Center on Higher Education Reform please visit www.aei.org/topic/cher/ or contact Lauren Aronson at Lauren.Aronson@aei.org or 202.862.5904. For other media inquiries please contact AEI Media Services at mediaservices@aei.org or 202.862.5829.

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AEI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization that works to expand liberty, increase individual opportunity, and strengthen free enterprise.

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