Category: leadership

Obama’s CTO pick: good for higher ed?

Aneesh Chopra, the United States' first CTO
Aneesh Chopra, the United States' first CTO
President Obama announced this morning that Aneesh Chopra, Virginia’s secretary of technology, will become our nation’s first chief technology officer.

Judging from the White House’s technology agenda, the CTO’s main job appears to be mainly making sure that governmental agencies “use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.” But we know from Obama’s remarks today, there’s more to the job than that.

Obama said the CTO “will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities — from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure.”

That sounds like a bigger job than just keeping the tubes from clogging. It also sounds like something that could have far-reaching effects. Chopra’s duties might be of interest to higher ed types, who are also involved in achieving our nation’s most urgent priorities as they pertain to education, research and technology transfer issues.

So, how does the new guy look, from a higher ed perspective?

It’s hard to say just yet. But from the little I’ve read about it this morning, I’d say, Not too shabby.

Tim O’Reilly thinks Chopra will make a fantastic CIO and cites a few achievements during Chopra’s tenure in Virginia that relate to education. Specifically:

Integrating iTunes U with Virginia’s education assessment framework. Virginia plans to use iTunes U to share digital content at the K-12 level, and that content will all support the Virginia Standards of Learning.

Initiating the Learning Apps Development Challenge, a competition for the best iPhone and iPod Touch applications for middle-school math teaching.

Entrepreneurial Silicon Valley types apparently disagree with Obama’s choice and O’Reilly’s endorsement, mainly because Chopra doesn’t have any start-up experience.

Well, he doesn’t have much technology experience, either. As TechCrunch points out, Chopra is not a lifelong coder.

But he is an experienced policymaker who knows the ropes of bureaucracy, and O’Reilly thinks that’s what the federal government needs for this job. Plus, he’s been with a think tank and has experience working in the health care industry.

Chopra has been focused for the past three years on the specific technology challenges of government. Industry experience does little to prepare you for the additional complexities of working within the bounds of government policy, competing constituencies, budgets that often contain legislative mandates, regulations that may no longer be relevant but are still in force, and many other unique constraints.

Furthermore, O’Reilly says, Chopra grasps the importance of open-source — not just in software, but as an approach to governance, innovation and forward movement. Much like his new boss, he sees government as “an enabler, not the ultimate solution provider.”

I’m hopeful that this sort of approach at the highest levels of government — an interest in facilitating the use of technology to enable learning, research and the accomplishment of other goals — will translate to other departments that set the higher ed and research agenda in this nation, such as Education and Energy, and research agencies (the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, etc.), to move the education agenda forward.

That’s a lot to ask of one governmental office — especially a new one with such an ambitious agenda and full to-do list of its own. At the same time, however, sometimes it takes a new start, a fresh approach, to get the things done that need to get done.

Economic recovery and higher education

If the stimulus package approved by Congress over the weekend is going to work, a good chunk of its success may depend on higher education.

Higher ed figures to play a prominent role in a long-term economic recovery under the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress on Friday and expected to be signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday. In the short term, though, the stimulus will consist of infusions of money and tax breaks for individuals: more relief for the unemployed and uninsured, help for first-time home buyers, modest incentives for car purchasers, and some additional tax credits.

But beyond those measures, the stimulus package includes several items that relies on a stronger, longer-term partnership between colleges and universities and state and federal government. If handled wisely, they could help pave the way toward a transformation of our economy.

Last Friday, Inside Higher Ed‘s Doug Lederman analyzed how the economic stimulus package will affect higher education. It’s mostly good news, but public colleges are more likely to be happier with the end result than private institutions, Lederman points out.

Administrators at public colleges and officials in state higher education agencies were probably relieved that the compromise legislation would deliver a total of $53.6 billion in new aid to states over the next two years. … [T]he compromise figure is far higher than the $39 billion that was in the Senate version of the legislation, and $53.6 billion — $39.6 billion of which is designed to fill gaps left by state budget cuts, and $8.8 billion of which is set to go to governors to use for education and other purposes — should go a significant way toward softening the impact of the economic downturn on state colleges and universities.

University research should also benefit from the legislation, which “allots roughly $16 billion to several federal agencies for research grants and facilities over two years, most of which will eventually flow to academic institutions,” Lederman writes. The lion’s share of those funds will go to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy — three huge funding agencies that, working in partnership with colleges and universities, can help to focus research on areas of national need, like biotech, health and medicine, infrastructure, engineering and science education, and energy and environmental sustainability.

The increase in Pell Grant funding will also help make college more affordable for students, which in turn will lead to a more educated work force and upward mobility.

“If there was bad news in the final stimulus bill,” writes Lederman, “it was probably for officials at private nonprofit institutions.”

Their students will surely benefit from the increased Pell Grants and tax credits, but they had hoped that Congress would increase the limits on unsubsidized loans (as the House had planned to do), and they lost at the last minute nearly $60 million in new capital contributions to the Perkins Loan Program. They were also hardest hit by the Congressional negotiators’ decision to eliminate the separate pot of money ($6 billion in the House bill, $3.5 billion in the Senate) for higher education facilities, which was envisioned to be distributed by the higher education agency in each state.

The compromise stimulus bill wiped out those funds and up to $16 billion for school districts — reportedly in the face of opposition from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of three Republicans whose votes the White House and Senate Democrats desperately needed in order to pass the legislation, which most GOP members oppose as too heavily tilted toward non-stimulative spending rather than tax cuts.

In the final analysis, much more needs to be done to nurse our economy back to health. The banking and investment system needs an overhaul. The automotive industry needs to be retooled, as do many other sectors of our economy in order to be positioned for a transition into a more environmentally sustainable economy. But education must play a role in these sectors, too. For our colleges and universities must provide the kind of holistic education that will prevent future mismanagement — of money, of talents, and of precious natural resources. We must do our part to ensure that “the smartest guys in the room” of our country’s major institutions are managing their resources wisely and ethically.