The first months of the Trump administration have sent shockwaves through higher education. From the confusion surrounding the temporary federal spending freeze to efforts to roll back campus programs and slash billions in research funding, colleges and universities are bracing for significant changes.
What may seem like a partisan issue will have unintended consequences for all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.
Already, a growing number of research universities are tightening their budgets and freezing hiring due to concerns about federal funding constraints. This retrenchment threatens to stall progress on college completion and socioeconomic mobility, limiting who accesses higher education and the jobs they secure.
Just as critically, it jeopardizes the stability of our future workforce by shrinking the pipeline of educated workers ready to work in key industries. Without broad and sustained investment in higher education, industries that rely on a highly skilled workforce—from healthcare and advanced manufacturing to technology and the military—will struggle to fill essential roles, slowing innovation and economic growth.
Innovating faster, building stronger
These cuts don’t just hurt students and faculty—they weaken our national competitiveness and security. The United States has long relied on its colleges and universities to drive scientific breakthroughs, develop new technologies and fuel investment and entrepreneurship.
Our national security depends not just on the strength of our military but on our ability to think smarter, innovate faster and build stronger.
From training the next generation of cybersecurity experts to powering the research behind defense technologies, higher education plays a critical role in keeping our country safe and prepared.
Higher education remains a powerful driver of economic mobility. Over the next decade, access to education and training beyond high school will be essential for securing the majority of jobs. By 2031, nearly three-quarters of jobs in the United States will require postsecondary education or training.
But persistent gaps in opportunity and outcomes remain—and scaling back funding only risks making them even wider.
Precariously thin margins
In recent years, colleges and states across the country have shown that it’s possible to move the needle on student success. Real gains in college completion are possible when institutions have the support they need to rethink outdated systems and adopt smarter, evidence-based strategies.
Guided pathways that simplify course choices, proactive advising that intervenes before students fall off track and corequisite models that replace ineffective remedial sequences and accelerate student progress are just a few examples of reforms that are delivering measurable and impressive results.
But these efforts require more than good intentions. They demand commitment, collaboration, and—crucially—investment.
The consequences of budget cuts extend beyond campus gates. Already, employers in every sector report difficulty finding qualified workers to fill in-demand roles. At the same time, millions of Americans are eager to gain new skills or complete degrees they started but couldn’t finish.
When we underfund higher education, we turn what should be a bridge that connects talent to opportunity into a barrier. While some may argue that colleges and universities should simply do more with less, many institutions—especially open-access colleges and regional universities—are already operating with precariously thin margins.
Last year, colleges closed at a rate of nearly one per week. Higher education is not defined by the elite institutions with massive endowments that so often capture the attention of Congress and dominate headlines. The majority of institutions are under-resourced colleges and universities working tirelessly to expand opportunities and support local economies.
Asking them to deliver better results with fewer tools is like expecting a hospital to improve patient outcomes while cutting its staff and supplies.
Smarter, stronger and more secure.
Of course, this doesn’t mean policymakers should write higher education a blank check. Instead, they should double down on what works.
That means providing stable, adequate funding to public institutions, ensuring financial aid systems are accessible and predictable, and investing in evidence-based practices that have been proven to boost completion.
It also means recognizing that higher education is not a partisan issue but a national imperative. Policymakers should resist the temptation to treat higher education as a political football or a line item to be trimmed.
The real government waste lies not in supporting our colleges and universities but in allowing short-sighted cuts to derail the progress we’ve made—and risk the prosperity and security of our nation.
Indeed, we are faced with a choice. The United States could retreat from the commitments that have resulted in a system of higher education that, for all its flaws, remains the envy of the world.
Or we can double down, widen the doors of access, help more students cross the finish lin, and prepare people for a future that’s not just safer—but smarter, stronger, and more secure.
