A True New Deal for Higher Education: How a Stimulus for Higher Ed Can Advance Progressive Policy Goals

In “A True New Deal for Higher Education,” Suzanne Kahn, Director of Roosevelt’s Education, Jobs and Worker Power Program; and Professors Jennifer Mittlstadt and Lisa Levenstein from Scholars for a New Deal in Higher Education argue that higher education institutions urgently need more federal funding. The CARES Act included $14 billion for higher education, the largest direct federal infusion of cash into colleges and universities since the Great Recession. Yet this sum amounted to only a small amount of what was needed. Indeed, the sector as a whole received $10 billion less than the airline industry, which employs only one-sixth the number of workers. Facing tremendous budget shortfalls, higher education institutions have begun to cut staff, close departments, and raise tuition, among other practices that drive inequitable outcomes for students and communities. 

Kahn, Mittlestadt, and Levenstein not only argue for a new infusion of federal funding, but also insist that future federal funding for higher ed must be designed to help enact progressive priorities: moving the higher education system toward universal accessibility, remediating racial inequalities in the system, improving labor practices, and creating more stable and equitable streams of funding.