ABSTRACT
Given the inherently political nature of the policymaking process and the natural tendency of educators to avoid explicitly political activity, it should come as no surprise that the education community is often left scratching its collective head upon the enactment of certain policies. In the primary and secondary levels of education, the implications of No Child Left Behind are bemoaned across the nation (Apple, 2007; Berliner & Nichols, 2007; Olsen, 2006). Similar reactions have recently come from higher education with the recent unveiling of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education (NCPPHE, 2006; Zemsky, 2007). The proliferating trend of state adoptions of merit-based scholarship programs has also led higher education researchers and administrators to criticize this shift in state-funding student financial aid from students with demonstrated financial need to students who meet certain grade point average and standardized test score requirements (Heller & Marin, 2002, 2004).
