<p>Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a speech Tuesday pushed higher education officials to think more creatively and with much greater urgency about how to contain the spiraling costs of college and reduce the burden of student debt on our nations students. </p>
<p>At a time when the Occupy movement has helped push college costs into the national spotlight, the Education Department characterized the speech, delivered in Las Vegas, as the start of a national conversation about the rising cost of college. </p>
<p>In his speech, Mr. Duncan left no room for doubt that the Obama administration was taking heed of the rising furor and the growing online debate about how much a college degree is worth at a time when there are so few jobs available for graduates.</p>
<p>Three in four Americans now say that college is too expensive for most people to afford, Mr. Duncan said. That belief is even stronger among young adults three-fourths of whom believe that graduates today have more debt than they can manage. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/education/duncan-calls-for-urgency-in-lowering-college-costs.html?_r=1&hp[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/education/duncan-calls-for-urgency-in-lowering-college-costs.html?_r=1&hp</a></p>
<p>it will be interesting to see how colleges react to this. Perhaps this very public “throwing down the gauntlet” is what is needed . A tipping point may have finally been reached.</p>