Dive Brief:
- In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, officials have been largely silent on higher education, notes a reflection in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said early in her tenure there would be a large focus on "expanding vocational and technical education," but there has been a lack of clear policy direction from administration officials to this point.
- To date, the biggest actions from the administration have been rescinding Obama-era regulations on transgender bathroom access, student loan customer service requirements, the muddling of FAFSA completion thanks to lack of connectivity with the IRS system, and the delayed enforcement of gainful employment regulations. The department has also reinstated Pell eligibility for students who had been enrolled at ITT Tech.
Dive Insight:
House Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) said in March there was no timeline on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, mostly because higher education does not seem to be a priority for the administration. But the Trump administration is not the first to not have a major higher education platform right out of the gate. For one, higher education has only recently been framed as a necessity for all. President Obama, coming in on the throes of an economic crisis, put the first national spotlight on the need for all citizens to obtain a post-secondary credential as a pathway to economic stability. And even being the first president to focus the national conversation on higher education, his higher ed policy legacy is not substantial.
College leaders will need to take up more of the onus for state and federal advocacy than they traditionally have. Increased collaboration with the advocacy groups in Washington that traditionally lobby for higher education can help provide talking points, but it will be the district office visits, invitations to elected officials to visit campus, and continued conveyance of the value proposition and economic impact of schools on communities and the nation as a whole that will help move the needle in substantial and beneficial ways.