"Accountability" has become something of a 2008 buzzword, tossed about in all kinds of contexts and all sorts of industries. Sparked partially by politics and partially by a business environment peppered with scandal, the accountability bug is everywhere, from local banks to technology firms to, most recently, the nation's institutions of higher learning. By all accounts, accountability in education is not a bad thing--after all, requiring educators to take responsibility for their actions and holding institutions to higher standards in the long run might help the nation's community colleges better prepare students for success in a global economy. But every once in a while, the accountability alarm is met with howls of protest from leaders who are pretty sure they're already plenty responsible. Such might be the fate of the recent recommendations of U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' oft-criticized Commission on Higher Education, which last year accused higher education institutions of not employing high enough standards and failing to provide prospective students and their families with the necessary information to make an informed college decision. In short, the commission's report said the nation's colleges and universities have become complacent about providing quality higher education, and said more needs to be done to ensure that educational offerings are top-notch and that prospective students have access to reliable information when choosing a path to prepare them for life and work. In this article, community college leaders question the logic behind holding two-year institutions to the same standards of accountability as their four-year counterparts.