This chapter begins with a review of the current state of the American system of higher education, and its prospects. For all its robustness, knowledgeable observers have warned for some time that the educational sector may be in serious trouble. Much of the alarm focuses on funding. Government support for higher education has diminished steadily, rising operational costs have outstripped revenues, and students and their families have come to shoulder crushing debt burdens. The chapter then sets out the book's main purpose, which is to set forth the ideals and practices of an extraordinary...

This chapter begins with a review of the current state of the American system of higher education, and its prospects. For all its robustness, knowledgeable observers have warned for some time that the educational sector may be in serious trouble. Much of the alarm focuses on funding. Government support for higher education has diminished steadily, rising operational costs have outstripped revenues, and students and their families have come to shoulder crushing debt burdens. The chapter then sets out the book's main purpose, which is to set forth the ideals and practices of an extraordinary educational venture, based on the University of Chicago's experience. The Chicago approach to liberal education has from the outset been a tradition of developing educational policy and then trying to finance it, rather than the reverse. The great question before American higher education is whether that commitment can survive, at Chicago or anywhere else, into the twenty-first century.