The Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission — or “Tucker Commission” — released its findings Friday, making several recommendations for easing the pressure on the state’s higher education.Unfortunately, most of the recommendations are vague and untested, and Louisianians can hardly be reassured.The first recommendation is a proposal to consolidate the governing boards of all state secondary education institutions down to two. This recommendation received plenty attention, and it looks good to our unyielding conservative leaders. But the report has no specifics on exactly how this change will serve the students’ interests — or really how much it will change at all. The report provides no concrete estimate of how much money will be saved, no description of what specific programs will be run more efficiently or really any other example of how these changes will be effective.The report also insists graduation rates must improve in the state’s higher education system, whose rates rank among the worst.The sentiment is nice, but it’s also obvious. And the report provides no concrete solutions how to improve graduation rates.The rest of the suggestions are equally vague.To be fair, the Tucker Commission had a huge assignment and a relatively short time to yield results. Instead of allotting time and resources to intense study — the kind necessary to get concrete numbers and measurable results — the legislature designed a committee to appear it was doing the people’s business — without the drive to actually do it.This is symptomatic of our state government’s neglect for the higher education crisis.The real solutions lie in the arcane restrictions of how funding is distributed. Revising these restrictions will require a two-thirds vote of the legislature and a vote of the people, but these changes are necessary.It’s time the legislature and governor stop “solutions” that are only facades and actually roll up their sleeves and do the “dirty work” — spend political capital and make some people do what’s necessary — their constituents elected them to do.—-Contact The Editorial Board at [email protected]