Washington ? Education Secretary Margaret Spellings launched a major review of the nation’s colleges Monday, citing slipping U.S. performance and scattershot decision-making.

“We make small fixes with programs to emphasize key areas, but we don’t think strategically about the bigger picture,” Spellings told a new team of policy advisers. “We can’t afford to leave the future of our nation’s higher education community to chance.”

Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education has a task as sweeping as its name. By Aug. 1, the group must recommend how to make colleges more accessible and affordable for families, accountable to policy-makers and competitive with peers worldwide.

That goal is complicated because higher education in the United States is itself complex, a mix of largely independent schools with different missions, finances and political bases.

The college review is the most significant higher education initiative by the Bush administration, which is better known for its focus on reading and math in early grades.