Why Higher Education Dollars?

The Higher Education Act may seem like an odd way to help people who do not want a college degree but seek training to get ahead in the labor market. After all, don’t we have job training and vocational education programs that are designed to address just this challenge? We do, but their funding levels, governance structure, and mechanisms for participation are vastly different from those of higher education.

First and foremost, federal student aid funding dwarfs that of federal job training. The government annually spends about $130 billion on grants and loans for college students, compared to less than $10 billion annually for job training. But it is also more difficult to access federal workforce funds than federal student aid. Individuals have to apply and work with state agencies to find a provider who is certified. To receive federal financial aid, prospective students simply have to apply and then they can use their grants and loans as vouchers to essentially any college they desire. And institutions of higher education have fewer requirements and little to no accountability for the outcomes of their students compared to workforce programs, which have strings attached and are outcomes-based. It should come as no surprise that the vast federal funding for student aid has created a robust lobbying apparatus where everyone tries to get their piece of the pie. For those seeking increased funding for job training, federal student aid is more than just easy money. It is a gold mine.

Community colleges face two crises that make these proposals appealing and have led them to be one of the leading advocates for the proposals. First, state financial support for higher education has suffered for more than a decade, exacerbating existing funding inequities where states favor their four-year colleges and universities. Community colleges also serve a disproportionate share of America’s low-income students despite being systemically underfunded. They also already provide job-training programs that are not funded or governed under the Higher Education Act but are eligible for workforce dollars. Second, Americans, often impoverished and desperate to provide economic security for their families, come to community college nearly every day seeking to better themselves. Community colleges rightfully want to help but are constrained by limited funding for workforce programs. But making all job training programs Pell-eligible is a slippery slope, particularly when no one is on the hook for ensuring the programs actually connect to jobs. The Pell Grant program was always designed to help people complete a college degree. The further the program moves away from that core mission, the harder it is to effectively target the funding or ensure quality.