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Policy

Policy plays a crucial role in increasing opportunities for students to prepare for and participate in higher education. Here are a few of today's most pressing policy topics as they relate to our mission of improving college access and success for underserved students:

• Affordability: Lumina Foundation for Education's recently-launched initiative, "College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable," shines a powerful spotlight on the issue of affordability in higher education. “America is wasting human resources because of runaway college costs, and it’s time to do something about it” (Course Corrections: Experts Offer Solutions to the College Cost Crisis, 2005). The ripple effect of increasing college costs impacts students, families, states, businesses, and the nation by limiting opportunity for many students. This issue, perhaps more than any other facing higher education, demands the cooperation, leadership, and creative thinking of policymakers and the education and business communities.
• Participation of Low-Income Students: Access to higher education continues to be difficult for economically-disadvantaged students. If they do enroll in a college or university, their chances of completing a degree are dramatically lower than students from other income groups. The reasons why many low-income students do not complete high school and enroll in or complete college are numerous, as are the potential solutions. Absent a strong and concerted commitment from policymakers, education leaders, and the business community, access and success in postsecondary education for low-income students will not improve.
• Setting Higher Education Policy: The tension between federal policy and state policy for higher education continues to increase. Although the provision of postsecondary opportunity is first and foremost a state responsibility, some argue that “fiscal uncertainty, unclear expectations from elected state officials, and uneven higher education leadership have diminished the capacity of states to develop higher education policy” (Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges). The question people ask is: Have states given up too much to reclaim their leadership role in setting higher education policy?
• Public Accountability: As budgets were slashed at the beginning of the 21st century and requests increased for information on how higher education institutions spent their state allocations, there have been renewed mandates for accountability measures and comprehensive data systems covering all of education. As many states rethink governance structures and the autonomy/accountability relationship for colleges and universities, the interest in reporting, clear performance measures, and linked data systems will continue to grow.
• P-16: The movement toward P-16 that began over a decade ago has matured into the accepted way of thinking about the relationship between K-12 and higher education in over half of the states. K-16 councils, collaborative agendas, single governance systems for education, education roundtables—the form that P-16 has taken varies among the states, but the driving force of moving toward a seamless education system is a common element. While the intent is clear, the implementation of P-16 policy is complex, and states struggle with how to blend their areas of responsibility and decision making.
• Financial Aid: An essential tool in the effort to increase access and success for students in postsecondary education is financial aid. Much has been published on the types of aid, when and how it is provided, and who receives it. Clearly, more money than ever before is going into financial aid. A major concern is that grant aid has increased by 84 percent in real terms, while education loan volume has grown by 137 percent. Loans may represent a viable alternative and a good investment for many students, but they are not an option for all students. There are many contributors to the pool of financial aid—including the federal and state governments, institutions, business and industry, and philanthropic organizations, and it is essential that they work together to make the best use of these limited resources to ensure access and success for all students.
• Quality of the Higher Education Experience: A recent study released by the American Institutes for Research finds that 20 percent of U.S. college students completing four-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning two-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills. Is an associate’s or bachelor’s degree from an American institution of higher education giving the nation the high-quality graduates needed for the nation and for individuals to compete in the global economy?
• Low-Income Adult Learners: According to a 2004 report from the American Council on Education, a sizeable portion of American college students are low-income adults, and they are much less likely to succeed than their traditional-age and more affluent peers. Public policy and other barriers at several levels “increasingly divide the adult population into postsecondary haves and have-nots (Carnevale and Desrochers, Low-Income Adults in Profile: Improving Lives Through Higher Education, 2004). The issue of adequately serving low-income adult learners bubbles below the surface of higher education, but as their numbers increase and affordability concerns escalate, the nation can no longer afford to ignore this important subpopulation in our colleges and universities.
• High School Reform: The drive for high school reform took on new urgency with the 2005 Governors’ Education Summit and the subsequent Action Agenda for Improving America’s High Schools with steps that states could implement to raise graduation rates and close preparation gaps. The addition of considerable philanthropic resources from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others has provided the much-needed fiscal and human capacity to stimulate the high school reform movement. But the reform task is difficult, long-term, and challenging and will require policy engagement at local, state, and national levels for at least another decade.

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