Dive Brief:
- The Trump administration's infrastructure plan includes several higher education proposals under the umbrella of workforce development, including several actions reiterated in the Budget proposal and congressional legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.
- Speaking to U.S. News & World Report, experts said the decision to attach higher education policy to the infrastructure plan is confusing. Further, leaders are uncertain about the consequences of the education provisions, and said they worry about committing federal dollars to untested education programs.
- The infrastructure plan as a whole centers around bolstering construction, specifically, but looks to "boost the demand for labor more broadly as additional infrastructure investment spurs economic growth."
Dive Insight:
Higher education is mentioned primarily in the context of its role in workforce development, though experts are confused about why this would be addressed in an infrastructure plan rather than in legislation to re-authorize the Higher Education Act. Indeed, the President's FY2019 budget proposal reinforces many of the same priorities, and a repeated mention in the infrastructure plan underscores the idea that this administration sees the role of higher education as primarily a workforce development vehicle.
This has shown up in both direct comments about expanding apprenticeships, in surveys about public sentiment of higher ed — which reveal a discontent stemming from the idea that colleges and universities are liberal machines which are not adequately preparing students for jobs and careers — and in proposals like expanding federal financial aid and loan eligibility to shorter credentialing programs.
Microcredentialing is already a recognized disruption in the industry, but few four-year institutions have actually done the work to this point to unbundle their degree programs and focus on providing more short-term credentials and other alternatives to baccalaureate degrees. Community colleges have traditionally done this well, and in fact have been seen as the primary vehicles for workforce development. However, it is incumbent upon four-year institutions to pay attention to the priorities of this administration and Congress and consider ways to build stronger connections between the workforce and the pursuit of higher education.