Higher-Ed Quality & Affordability

Policy Overview

Too many colleges and universities serve as gatekeepers to opportunity, admitting and graduating abysmally small numbers of Black and Latino students, and students from low-income families—perpetuating gaps in opportunity, earning potential and career advancement. We support policies that:

• challenge state and college leaders to eliminate structurally racist and systemically inequitable admission policies, such as legacy preference and binding early decision, which make college admissions less fair and erode public trust in higher education.
• drive down the cost of earning a postsecondary credential and that reduce or eliminate student loan burdens, whether they be increasing Pell Grants or reforming public higher education funding.
• leverage data and student services to ensure that all students are getting the holistic support they need to graduate on-time. We also believe that institutions of higher education should be held accountable for a failure to increase success in college.
•  expand pathways between K-12 public education and career/workforce development programs, both during high school and after graduation, to ensure students have access to high quality dual enrollment coursework and that credits earned in high school transfer to all public institutions within a state and in neighboring states.