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Writer's pictureJoanne Jacobs

College presidents, it's going to be a bumpy ride

It's going to be a "long four years for college presidents," predicts Rick Hess in Education Next. "Trump has promised to dismantle DEI, address antisemitism, bust up the accreditation cartel, and boost the tax on college endowments. It’s going to be a long four years for college presidents."


He predicts a very aggressive Education Department will force colleges to protect the civil rights of Jewish students and abide by the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling that race-based admissions are unconstitutional.


Republicans "see research universities that have endorsed ideological orthodoxies and suspect they’re collecting vast sums in federal funds while violating assurances regarding the protection of free inquiry," Hess writes. That money spigot can be turned off.


"Some colleges have collected large sums from foreign nations and then failed to report it," he writes. That's illegal.


Trump wants to expand accreditation and create a free, online university, writes Preston Cooper, also in Education Next. Trump's "American Academy," which would grant credentials recognized by the U.S. government and federal contractors, needn't teach courses itself, he writes. As Carlo Salerno of the Burning Glass Institute suggests, the American Academy could award degrees for coursework completed at other colleges or universities, and for "work-based learning or other nontraditional forms of education."


"Trump promised to pay for the American Academy by taxing the endowments of wealthy colleges," Cooper writes. Using that revenue to help young people earn two-year degrees and vocational credentials would be a powerful message: “Tax Harvard to fund the working class.”


There's bipartisan support for expanding Pell Grants to fund workforce education and classroom learning required for apprenticeships, he writes.

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