Hufstedler has not abandoned her strongly liberal recored on the bench as a champion of the rights of women and minorities. "Educational equity for women in all phases is about 150 years overdue," she says, voice rising in support of the principles embodied in Title IX, which guarantees proportionally equal expenditures for men's and women's athletic programs.
Moving from Title IX, Hufstedler discusses her views about the federal government's relations with private educational institutions; "Where federal involvement is necessary," she has said, "our goals should be maximum efficiency and cooperation, minimum disruption and domination." Sitting atop the bureaucratic tentacles, she reiterates that view, promising that the federal role in control of education, despite warnings from President Bok and others, will not increase because decision-making has been centralized in the new department.
The pressure on the public treasuries is such, she warns, that an increase in federal funds to private institutions is unlikely in the near future. Correspondingly, Hufstedler takes a pragmatic tack, revealing the common sense judgement her associates commend. "People want the federal role to increase all over the place when it comes to the matter of having federal funds that can be directed by the universities and colleges," she says. "In short, what a lot of people want is perfectly human--'please send me a check but no strings." Well, you can't have it both ways."
On the other gnawing issues of concern in higher education, Hufstedler, heretofore vaguer in conversations with the press, chooses words and plans that belie the fact that, prior to December, she had little if any exposure to such issues. For the next decade, the "biggest single problem facing post-secondary education is demographics," she says, noting that the age cohort that would ordinarily be headed to college "has diminished drastically;" some estimate it will decline nationally by 20 per cent in the next decade. Small liberal arts colleges will only survive if they redefine their missions or join in consortia with others faced with similar woes. If Hufstedler's refreshing idealism is foreign to Washington, she is also realistic. "There are a number of different ways in which institutions can survive--but not all of them are going to," she admits.
Coupled with demographics, inflation has had severe effect on private institutions of higher education and is reaching down into federal student aid programs. Like any good school teacher, she warns that people must be disciplined but are nonetheless entitled to the rights of an education. "The effort of any overall financial aid package should be to provide enough financial aid so that young people are not foreclosed by reasons of financial need from going to college," she says. Hufstedler feels that the national direct student loan program, which has allowed families boasting large annual incomes to seek help must be remodelled, because it is "utterly senseless to provide a financial bonanza to people who can afford to send their young people to college." She reiterates her position that default rates on student loans must be cut dramatically, and supports the administration's proposal to cut back about $250 million in student aid in fiscal 1981. The cut, slated for the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program, she asserts, means only a "very modest" per student loss but, because the program applies to so many students, will yield a large overall savings to be budget-conscious government. Already, Hufstedler explains, the department is hard at work on a simplified application form for financial aid which will tie together existing programs that have heretofore required different paperwork.
In discussing the problems facing post-graduate education, Hufstedler again mixes pragmatism with an ear for innovation. "The Secretary of Education cannot have significant impact on the job market," she says, but she can try to create opportunities for younger faculty. By getting senior faculty to take leaves in the government and the private sector, Hufstedler reasons, "you will create opportunities for young faculty" and students who are interested in academic careers, may not hesitate to continue working for Ph. D's. But, Hufstedler warns, a person who is simply in search of the monetary rewards will always suffer from disappointment. "The priorities and needs of the government, technological change, and economic conditions can always render obsolete the value of whatever kind of education you have," she cautions, "But the fact that you have that education may provide you with the intellectual flexibility to adapt yourself as the needs of the country change."
Shirley Hufstedler is learning to adapt to the changing requirements of her environment. With the initial building stages of the Department of Education well under way and seemingly in control, Hufstedler has already come a long way from the babe-in-the-wooods stage that many predicted she might languish in for the balance of her career. The bureaucractic teeth Hufstedler has pulled thus far, as she readily admits, are just the beginnings of the business of being a Cabinet secretary. With any luck and agood deal of support from below, Hufstedler may defy the experts and the critics and be the outsider that makes the insiders listen and the federal bureaucracy work.