We Need a National Postsecondary Education Commission (column)

Nicholas Kent and James Kvaal found common ground on value-based accountability for colleges and universities. Kvaal praised Kent and other architects of a Trump administration rule that ends access to federal loans for degree programs that do not help graduates earn more than high school diploma holders in their states. The alignment is rare amid years of partisan policymaking in higher education. Examples include demagoguery against foreign students, aggressive student debt relief efforts, limited enforcement against weakened for-profit colleges, and attacks on diversity, international students, and research. Congress’s dysfunction and Trump’s confrontational posture make near-term bipartisan progress unlikely. A national strategy for postsecondary education and training is desired, but with less federal involvement and more sustainable approaches.

"One occurred this month when the last two U.S. under secretaries of education, Nicholas Kent and James Kvaal, actually found a good bit of common ground about the need for "value-based accountability" for colleges and universities."

"Kvaal, who oversaw higher ed policy during the Biden administration, praised Kent and other architects of the Trump administration's new rule that will end access to federal loans for degree programs that don't help graduates earn more than high school diploma holders in their states."

"That's as close to a kumbaya moment as we get these days; we've seen little but partisan policymaking out of D.C. for at least a decade. To wit: The demagoguery against foreign students during the first Trump presidency, the Biden administration's (over-)zealous pursuit of student debt relief and largely ineffectual crackdown on an already weakened for-profit college sector, and the all-out attacks on diversity, international students and research of the last 18 months."

"But given Congress's dysfunctionality and President Trump's hyperbolic stance toward colleges, it's unreasonable to expect a truly thoughtful and fruitful postsecondary agenda out of D.C. in the next few years. And besides, as I wrote in this space a few weeks ago, most of us don't want the government more involved-a truly effective, sustainable strategy for how we educate and train people after high school should be national but not more federal."

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