As we enter the final countdown to the election, I find myself grappling with a nagging sense of abandonment by our nation’s leaders and policymakers. I feel like a child whose parents forgot to pick them up at school, and the last teacher on site is asking, “Do you need me to call someone?” The issues closest to my heart—those that affect our students and education equity—are being largely ignored by the presidential candidates. For the last two years, my staff and I have been in the trenches, battling a fusillade of challenges brought on by our federal government, challenges that exacerbate the longstanding inequities students face as they navigate their path to a college degree. Repeatedly, we call for “someone” to show us, through better education policy, that we are not forgotten. Black and brown students, students who are in the first generation of their families to go to college, and those who come from families with low incomes, unfairly rest at the center of the neglect and disregard propagated at every level.
Steve Colón
The judicial branch is sending loud implicit and explicit messages that diversity should not be a priority in higher education, particularly with the recent reversal of affirmative action. Students are left questioning whether barriers to accessing higher education will swell and if colleges and universities will support initiatives that support their sense of belonging. The legislative branch has yet to detail a plan to supplement the school funding drying up from pandemic relief programs. Many schools, especially in under-resourced communities, are bracing to lose substantial supports like counselors. The executive branch is straining to keep its promises. After the failed initial rollout of a simplified FAFSA there could be devastating impacts on higher education enrollment for the next several years. The National Clearinghouse data already shows that at four-year colleges with high shares of Pell Grant recipients, freshman enrollment is declining by more than 10 percent. Additionally, messages from our highest public servants are guiding students to forgo college, undermining education as a viable pathway to socioeconomic mobility.
Education, especially bachelor’s degree attainment, can generate life-altering opportunities for students of color from families with low income. If the real fight is for education equity, wealth generation for those pushed to the margins, community restoration, and a strong US economy, then skills-based employment pathways alone will not get us the victory we desire. How will the next president uplift education and help implement policies that allow our students to affordably pursue bachelor’s degrees, which still offer the surest route to success?
Right now, we do not need binary thinking and rhetoric that sacrifices higher education for credential programs; we do not need Black and brown students to feel that higher education is hostile toward diversity. And we do not need the scarcity mindset that has dominated political discourse.
Our future demands bold visions that originate from a sense of abundance. We need federal policies, funding, and enforcement of laws designed to create equitable access to education to be bolstered, not reduced. I do not have the elixir to cure all problems, but there are ideas out there that education champions, like me, believe will shrink the financial and mental burden on students as they navigate the road to and through college. I offer a few of them here:
- Make Permanent COVID-Era Funding: Policymakers should make permanent the funding that increased student support resources for K-12 schools, including funding for college transition counselors. Additionally, there should be sustained funding to ensure college students with the most need can access essential resources like food and housing.
- Increase Resources Dedicated to FAFSA Simplification: The Department of Education should dedicate more resources to simplifying the FAFSA. After the failed rollout, there is a need to double down on this initiative to fulfill its promise. Once the mess is cleaned up, how will we support those students derailed by the initial release and move beyond what once was? Exceeding FAFSA completion rates of the past will require robust campaigns that encourage degree-aspiring students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds to see college as a practical option, take advantage of financial aid, and complete the application with ease.
- Double the Pell Grant and Tie It to Inflation: Policymakers should not only double the Pell Grant but tie it to inflation so that it maintains its purchasing power. Additionally, Congress should require standardized terms and formatting for financial aid award letters from institutions to help students make informed postsecondary decisions.
- Support Proven Programs: Policymakers should harness existing college access and persistence programs with proven efficacy models and make it easier for them to access federal grants. Standardized application criteria often create hurdles for programs adjacent to institution-run initiatives, leaving meaningful, evidence-based programs with less support.
History has shown that equity needs to drip from the federal level, and right now the faucet seems rusty. The next president should understand that our students require more care and attention; they are our nation’s spirit, strength, and economic future. As they chart a course to transform their lives, families, and communities, it would be nice if those elected to lead us can be the “someone” they can call.
Steve Colón is the CEO of Bottom Line, a nonprofit dedicated to helping first-generation students and students from low-income families, get into college, graduate, and go far in life.
