There is emerging consensus that the United States faces major higher education challenges, including: (1) America's fall from first to tenth place internationally in the percentage of the population with higher education degrees at a time when the country faces increased global economic competition in a knowledge-intensive economy; (2) Education of a new generation of students, including many black and Hispanic-Americans who have attended deficient secondary schools and have significantly lower graduation rates; (3) Declining state subsidies for public higher education; and (4) Tuition and fees, which have risen much faster than the median family income. Discussions with state level financial officers, institutional financial officers and faculty at two-year and four-year schools, higher education administrators and state legislators generated an inventory of ideas that include: (1) Improving college readiness; (2) Improving retention for students already in college; (3) Creating an integrated P-20 education system; (4) Offering greater differentiation of programs to match the diversity of college students; (5) Using incentives and models from the business world; (6) Innovating; (7) Making greater use of information; and (8) Offering better assessments and productivity measures. (Contains 5 footnotes.)