Dear Colleagues:

This week Lindsey Burke testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment. Members of Congress asked for testimony on “the future of higher education post COVID-19,” as Washington has sent some $76 billion in new taxpayer spending to colleges around the country over the last year. Given your additional generosity, dear taxpayer, to colleges that pay football coaches millions each year and have lazy rivers in the shape of school initials, it would be helpful to offer schools ideas for using the money effectively.

In her comments, Lindsey said, “COVID-19 has posed challenges to every aspect of education in America, from preschool through college. But it has also presented opportunities to rethink whether the current higher education system is serving students in the best way possible, and whether there are opportunities for reform.

“Every sector of society has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but colleges and universities across the country have received an enormous federal bailout that is likely to insulate universities from needed reform,” she says. You can read her testimony here or watch the hearing.

Elevator Pitch: “Congress should take this opportunity to pursue reforms that will help colleges navigate the pandemic while also increasing their value proposition moving forward. Increasing transparency around programmatic outcomes, limiting the power of accreditors as gatekeepers to Title IV funding, eliminating the PLUS Loan program, and allowing colleges to limit student borrowing are important steps in achieving that goal,” Lindsey says.

What Else We’re Working On

Free money? Not really. I talked to FoxBusiness this week about Illinois’ lawmakers’ plan to forgive college loan debt for a small number of borrowers to help them get mortgage loans. The offer sounds nice until taxpayers realize that Illinois has one of the highest state and local tax burdens of any state in the U.S., the worst pension system, and tuition at many state universities has nearly doubled over the past decade. Lawmakers should get the state’s fiscal house in order before giving away more of state taxpayers’ money. Watch the clip here.

Bonus: In a column for the Daily Courier in Prescott, Arizona, I write that education savings accounts helped participating students adapt to learning changes caused by the pandemic. Arizona officials are considering expanding access to the accounts by making eligible those students who are from low income families. “During the pandemic,” I wrote, the flexibility that education savings accounts provided “was nothing short of essential.” The article is available here.

Warmly,

Jonathan Butcher

Will Skillman Fellow

Center for Education Policy

Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity

The Heritage Foundation