News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2005

Washington D.C. summit to spotlight multiple solutions to the rising cost of higher education

WHAT:
College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable is a national summit sponsored by Lumina Foundation for Education, in collaboration with the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy. The summit is the first in a series of events to develop and implement higher education policies and practices that can lower the cost of higher education, which rose 240 percent between 1986 and 2004, according to a recent GAO report.

The summit will spotlight a number of promising solutions submitted in response to Lumina Foundation for Education’s policy brief, Collision Course: Rising Costs Threaten America’s Future, which outlined the problem of rising costs and suggested multiple strategies for addressing the problem.

WHO:
Speakers representing federal and state policymakers, as well as the business community and higher education officials will be featured. Thomas L. Friedman, columnist for The New York Times and author of the highly acclaimed, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century will be the luncheon speaker Other presenters include Tom Luce, Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. and former Michigan Governor John Engler, U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark and several other education leaders.

WHEN:
Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE:
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.

PARTICIPATING PARTNERS:
The summit is presented in collaboration with more than 50 organizations representing higher and K-12 education, business and philanthropy, government, and students and families. To learn more, please visit www.luminafoundation.org or www.collegecosts.info.

Contact:
Dollyne Sherman
Communications Director
Lumina Foundation for Education
317.951.5493
dsherman@luminafoundation.org