Over the last 60 years, our country has made remarkable progress in higher education. After World War II, our historic commitment to veterans expanded and redefined college opportunity. Our inclusive policies continued throughout the 20th century, embracing baby boomers, older, nontraditional students, and the civil rights movement, and positioning our country for leadership in the information age and the global economy. America has led the world in providing opportunities for its citizens to develop their talents through education and training beyond high school.

Credit for this progress is as widely distributed as its benefits. Our state and federal governments, our public and private colleges and universities, our two- and four-year colleges, and our academic and vocational-technical institutions have made this progress possible. And credit must be given to the American people who have responded to each expansion of educational opportunities since the GI Bill, raising the level of education of each generation in the second half of the 20th century.

But much is left to be done. This first state-by-state report card on higher education, Measuring Up 2000, was created to assist the nation and each state in assessing and addressing the challenges that lie before us. The need to develop the talents of our citizens has accelerated even faster than the expansion of college opportunity and enrollment. As we enter the 21st century, the clear signal from the new economy is that education and training beyond high school are now prerequisites for employment that can support a middle-class lifestyle. This signal is no mere rhetoric; it is a message from the labor markets. Americans with high school education or less have seen their real incomes decline over the past quarter century. Broad educational opportunity is as critical for the nation and states as it is for individuals. The economic and civic prospects for communities, states, and nations that fall behind educationally are dim.

As a governor, I've learned that the things we keep track of, count, and monitor tend to be the ones we improve. This state-by-state report card was developed to give the American public, elected officials, and the higher education community a measuring stick to compare higher education performance and opportunity across states. The grades compare each state with the best performing states in each graded category. This gives every state a "real world" standard of comparison. It encourages every state to strive for the standard set by Utah in preparing its young residents for college; by Delaware in providing young and older students with opportunities to participate in education and training beyond high school; by California in assuring that college is affordable; and by New Hampshire in the success of students completing their degrees and certificates.

·	Despite the accomplishments of American higher education, its benefits are unevenly and often unfairly distributed, and do not reflect the distribution of talent in American society. Geography, wealth, income, and ethnicity still play far too great a role in determining the educational opportunities and life chances of Americans.
·	State and national efforts to improve preparation for college and participation in higher education have made a difference. Not surprisingly, these areas of performance where the most progress has been made are the ones that have received the greatest attention in recent years. Affordability and degree and certificate completion have received less attention, and the consequence has been a slippage in affordability and little or no progress in raising the proportion of students who achieve their higher education goals.
·	Every state, including those with high grades, can and should improve their performance in higher education.
·	Crucial information that would enable states to monitor important trends is not currently collected. It is particularly disappointing that so little is known about the most important outcome of higher education—student learning.

In closing, I emphasize that Measuring Up 2000 is about something more concrete than the abstractions of state and national pride in our colleges and universities. It is about real people, millions of them, whose educational aspirations are exemplified by five individuals who are striving under very different circumstances to achieve the American dream. Their stories, interspersed among charts and tables, remind us of the realities behind the numbers. Statistics are essential to understanding and resolving important issues and problems, but Measuring Up 2000 is ultimately about the impact—or absence—of education in the lives of individual Americans. We cannot remind ourselves too often that Amy Lei, Jennifer Pegg, Vernita Small, Cale Sweeney, and Amanda Weitzel are the reasons why the issues addressed here are so important and the consequences of our policy decisions so great.