How New Policies May Shape the Future of American Higher Education: Thoughts from a recent webinar

In this episode, I share a few takeaways on post-election landscape with insights from Ted Mitchell and Michelle Asher Cooper from a recent webinar: Post-Election Outlook: What to Watch in Higher Education. I talk about what I heard from these experts from the American Council on Education and the Lumina Foundation, and the potential impact of the new Republican administration. They focused on possible shifts in accreditation standards and their critical implications for financial aid. I share insights from this thought-provoking webinar, featuring experts who are cautiously optimistic about navigating these changes while maintaining the resilience of educational institutions. 

Join me, Jen Schoen, as we question the media's portrayal of higher education value and confidence, highlighted by surprising poll results where 90% of Americans still hold higher education in high regard. We discuss the dire consequences of small and regional college closures on first-gen and low-income students. Michelle Asher Cooper's emphasis on listening to communities and scrutinizing congressional leadership priorities offers a hopeful outlook, even as the challenges loom large. This episode is a must-listen for educators and students preparing to face the evolving educational landscape.

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You can find me at https://www.firstgenfm.com/ and on LinkedIn. My email is jen@firstgenfm.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome and welcome back to the First Gen FM podcast, where we high school and college educators strengthen, celebrate and support first-generation college and college-bound students. I'm Jennifer Schoen, your host. Please call me Jen. I'd love it if you could leave a review and a rating for this podcast to help other educators find us. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Now let's dive into this week's episode. Thanks for joining me.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Today. I have a podcast all about a webinar that I got to listen to from some amazing people who are experts, and we're talking a lot about what comes next. So it's a solo episode today and we're going to explore how three experts think the new administration that means the new incoming Republican administration might impact students and the institutions that are dedicated to serving them. These insights come from a conversation among three experts in a webinar called Post-Election Outlook what to Watch in Higher Education. That took place on November 18th, so it's still fresh in my mind Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, and Michelle Asher Cooper, who's the vice president for public policy and executive director of Lumina's DC office, and I just want to share a few of the talking points that I found interesting. The very first thing they talked about was the incoming president and the vice president have both stated that they would love to take away accreditation from the institutions that they find unworthy I'm using air quotes there for a variety of reasons is that accreditation agencies hold the power right now to maintain these educational standards and that, again, at the moment the president cannot unilaterally unaccredit an institution. So they felt that educators need to be aware of potential changes in accreditation systems and standards because of the shifting rhetoric around institutions and universities, and the expert panel felt assured that these agencies are equipped to handle the upcoming challenges. That is, the accreditation agencies. Ted Mitchell, one of the panelists, though, highlights in his statement that a lot of spears are pointed at us, so there's going to be some intense scrutiny, and yet he has optimism for resilience in the face of these challenges. So I thought that those were some interesting points about accreditation, and of course, we know that accreditation is important for financial aid and for our students for first-gen students, especially any students from low-income backgrounds that financial aid is going to be crucial. So it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out and I use the word interesting, although I could use scary, frightening in that as well.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Another point that they made was talking about public confidence and institutional leadership. Now Michelle shared that, according to a recent Lumina poll that they did with Gallup, that 90% of Americans value higher education, which is contrary to what you read in kind of the media. She was talking about how parents do want their children to have a degree and a credential post high school. She also pointed out that only 33% of those surveyed maintain confidence in the system of higher education. So this sentiment, as we know, can really impact first-generation students and their families, who may already feel uncertain about their educational path and that continuing their education is out of reach financially and academically. So what's being talked about out there? What people are talking about the confidence and what's being promoted is people have lost faith in higher education is not necessarily true, but has a big impact on our students. Not necessarily true, but has a big impact on our students. I'd also add that as more small and regional institutions are closing or consolidating, I think first-gen students and students from lower-income backgrounds will have greater difficulty going to college because they often have family and financial considerations that want them to stay close to home for their college degree. So that's a little worrisome. They didn't talk about that, but it made me think of that as I was listening to them.

Speaker 1: 4:50

I thought Michelle was great in that she stressed the need to actively listen to these communities who don't have confidence in higher ed, and to watch congressional leadership selections mainly to understand the implications of their priorities and the rhetoric. And then we need to ask if these leaders will maintain or roll back the existing policies. I think we have some idea what that might be. But again, michelle was holding on to some optimism. Institutions are really going to have to communicate changes clearly to the public, I think, to assuage anxieties with their current students as well as future students and families, and so when changes are coming up, I think we as institutions, as people at the institutions, need to be more clear as to why we're doing what we're doing and why it is important, especially when there are changes and especially with the people we know who are having, who are questioning our worth in higher ed and who are questioning why they should trust the system of higher ed.

Speaker 1: 5:56

The third point they talked about was policy regulations and some financial dynamics. So the incoming administration, as this group talked about, had proposed several tax changes that could have a direct impact on colleges, one of the main ones being increasing the endowment tax to 30%, which is a significant increase. Potential cuts to financial aid and Pell Grants could disproportionately affect first-gen students reliant on these funds, and there's also a lot of rhetoric around taxing nonprofits, which, of course, many colleges and research centers are nonprofit entities. This could mean, of course, that we would face increased tax burdens and, if that happens, institutions are going to need to make difficult decisions on financial aid and funding for the kinds of programs that support our students the first-gen programs, the veteran programs, programs for low-income students and for other marginalized groups and for other marginalized groups. As educators, I know we know this, but it's really important that we keep informed and continue to advocate for policies prioritizing affordability and access to ensure that the funding remains robust for the students who are most in need, and for us to do this nationally, statewide and locally at our universities, talking to our own leadership, statewide and locally at our universities, talking to our own leadership.

Speaker 1: 7:21

I wish I had actual answers to these, but I have more questions than I do anything, and I again just want to have this podcast here to share with you what I learned from this webinar, their fourth out of the five points. They talked about accountability and both Michelle and Ted talked about developing consistent outcome measures as colleges and universities, aligned with our individual institutional missions, and discussed those things, those outcome measures, as being essential for transparency and for ensuring institutions meet the needs of all students. They highly suggested I think, michelle in particular that we as institutions be proactive about developing these measures ourselves before others do it for us, and they thought that would stand in really good stead publicly to put out there. These are the goals that we're shooting for, these are the outcomes that we're shooting for. These are the outcomes that we are working towards. Here's how we're doing along them to add to that accountability that higher education institutions are accountable.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Michelle spoke about encouraging accountability and maintaining optimism, again to attempt to create opportunities for bipartisan support, and I have to say that she was hopeful but realistic, given the harmful and dangerous rhetoric that the incoming administration has been espousing. So she advocates for educators to both model and demand proactive leadership, with the hope that we don't just go into a defensive mode but that we address the real concerns about student outcomes, entry into the workforce, entry into grad school and showing that we do, in higher education want to be accountable to all of our students and the hope would be that our students, including our first generation students, would see the value in their educational journey and what we're going for, why they're here, even amidst any political nastiness that comes about. And the fifth and final point that they talked about was bipartisanship and workforce development. They believe there's a general agreement on the significance of workforce development. That especially everyone loves the words accountability and workforce development. However, in practice, it often skews. Partisan Initiatives supporting veterans in higher education highlight potential bipartisan successes, although Project 2025 documents indicate some possible threats to veterans' benefits, which could include the GI Bill and assistance for going to college, so that's something to be wary of. I suppose I would say First-generation students can be particularly impacted during upcoming and potentially rapid decision-making legislative sessions, like this upcoming lame duck period, where decisions about Pell Grants and defense authorizations affecting veterans in college could swiftly evolve and could be passed or not passed without a lot of input conversation because of the speed that they're being considered and the packages they're being put in, sometimes snuck in to be part of and sometimes outright just put in so that they get through more quickly.

Speaker 1: 10:43

There's one bill in particular, that they spoke about the CTA or the College Transparency Act. The CTA promises transparency, which every panelist on this conversation in this webinar agrees is a good thing for higher education, but the bill does include some less tenable provisions. Let's say, one of these provisions in particular ties accountability to college loan default rates, and the problem, as the panelists discussed, is that this provision, this provision could incentivize colleges to enroll students who are least likely to default on loans and we know that the admissions process kind of already skews towards more affluent students, students who can pay full or most of their tuition, room and board, books and fees, etc. And it could discourage institutions from enrolling at-risk students or students who are coming from first-gen backgrounds, children of immigrants and students from lower income backgrounds, and this provision alone really could be devastating for those colleges who do the good work serving a high percentage of students who fall into those first-gen Pell-eligible, children of immigrants or immigrants groups who are serving those groups in particular. So this College Transparency Act is worrisome because, as I said, it has some things a lot of people agree on and that some, in particular this provision that others are really seeing as a danger sign for higher ed.

Speaker 1: 12:21

So, in closing. I think, though, people might not ask us for our view of the College Transparency Act or other congressional and executive branch actions. I'm thinking it's now even more important for us to stay informed, to model for our students how we find accurate and respected sources of information, and to understand how these legislative changes and institutional shifts can impact our first-generation college students and all of the students that we serve. I know that by continuing to advocate for equitable policies, we can play a crucial and proactive role in ensuring our amazing and worthy students thrive in higher ed, and I know that our voices can make a difference, even though we might not be the loudest voices, but we are going to be the most consistent voices and persistent voices.

Speaker 1: 13:15

So thank you for joining me for this episode, this kind of different episode of First Gen FM, and stay tuned as we continue to explore these critical conversations as we move forward into the new year, and to join me for when I talk to my guests. I would love it if you could leave a review so that others can find it, if you would share this and any of the other episodes with people who are working with college bound or in college first gen students, with college-bound or in-college first-gen students. And, of course, I'm always happy to hear from you at Jen that's J-E-N at firstgenfmcom with your ideas for episodes. If you'd like to be on the episode and share what you're doing with first-gen students, or you just want to leave me a comment, I would really appreciate that. Thank you so much and have a great week.