Perhaps a better way to go is to have the faculty get together and design criteria to admit students. After all, we're the ones who know best what goes on in the classroom, know the curriculum, and know best what it takes for our students to do well.
To me, a better alternative is what we did at one school where I taught. All of our incoming freshman had to take a mini-class that taught them the basics of doing well in college. For example, it had a sections on things like time-management, note-taking, and reading comprehension. It was required for all freshman, no matter what their background or test scores were, which I felt was the right way to go. This way, they learned our system, and seemed to perform better than those who didn't go through it.
Most schools are not very selective, and thus admit students whom the faculty claim are not prepared enough for college. But if the faculty got involved in admissions, and essentially made the college a tad more selective, you'd decrease enrollment, and eventually lose faculty (as in they'd get laid off).
Most of the job creation in the US is for jobs that require at least some college background; the days of working in a factory or farm are over for good.
So it seems that HS needs to be improved to make students more prepared for college. Pres Bush went to Phillips Academy; lets make all HS in the US as good as Phillips, and the problems with poor preparation disappear. If it is good enough for Pres Bush.....
