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Statement of support for expanding Pell grants for short-term credentials

The 21st century economy requires new approaches to ensure all Americans have access to economic and educational opportunities.  As a collaborative of college and university presidents, the Presidents Forum fully supports expanding Pell Grants for short-term credentials, which H.R. 496, the Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning (PELL) Act., will do. Innovative, short-term credential programs are creating pathways to resilient careers that fit into the lives of all learners, but many of these programs are not currently accessible to students who rely on financial aid to finance their education. This bill addresses the lack of student aid for many of these emerging short-term credential programs that provide job-ready skills. This legislation recognizes the struggles that nontraditional learners, low-income learners, and learners of color face in balancing learning with earning and care-taking obligations. Educational opportunity should be measured by the value that it creates for learners, not whether it is demarcated by online, competency, clock, or credit hour.  We also appreciate the legislation’s emphasis on accountability: federal student aid funds must be accompanied by clear outcomes and transparency in order to protect learners and taxpayers and to ensure workforce alignment and high quality in higher education. We support our congressional leaders taking action to modernize higher education and the Presidents Forum urges Congress to take this meaningful step towards addressing the needs of learners and their families. Together, we can empower learners and help them gain valuable workforce credentials—tapping the full potential of our great nation.

Read the full thread here: https://twitter.com/PresidentsForum/status/1618747191841165315?s=20&t=pCui8SScW2JfNG0tqu0Ixg

To Congress: Short-Term Pell Needs Online Education

In the following letter sent to members of Congress on June 13, 2022, Presidents Forum members, along with other education and business leaders advocate for the expansion of the short-term Pell Grant program to include online education institutions.

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Senator Murray, Senator Burr, Representative Scott, and Representative Foxx:

Thank you for your leadership on higher education and workforce policy issues to ensure all Americans have the skills to get a good-paying job. The undersigned organizations represent innovative universities serving large numbers of working adults, through models that deliver education to best meet the needs of such learners, including through online platforms. We also represent the Skills First Coalition–a new group of employers and education providers that support skills-first policies that shift the focus from traditional degrees as proxies for knowledge to verifiable competencies, skills, and work-based learning opportunities. We are writing today to call for the elimination of any exclusions to online education programs in expanded Pell eligibility in the final Bipartisan Innovation Act.

We recognize the bipartisan efforts to expand Pell Grant eligibility to high-quality, short-term skills and job training programs that would allow part-time students and mid-career professionals to qualify for shorter-term learning opportunities, including internships or community college classes. Working adults and students who currently enroll in short-term programs to upgrade their skills must pay out of pocket which creates a barrier for many individuals.

In addition to cost, working adults face a range of barriers to accessing traditional models of post-secondary education and training. Whether due to child or other care challenges, the need to earn a salary to support a family, and other hurdles to flexibility and time, today’s working adult learners need education models that recognize these challenges, not compete with them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation experienced the benefits of the option of online models, and in a recent survey, 73 percent of students indicated a preference to take online courses post-pandemic.

While we acknowledge the original intent of the benchmark JOBS Act (S.864, H.R. 2037), we are concerned the provisions in the House-passed America COMPETES Act that exclude online education programs will weaken the purpose of the provisions to provide access and affordability to students and working adults. Additionally, the exclusion of online programs runs counter to the $65 billion broadband infrastructure deployment included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that will ensure all Americans have access to reliable high-speed internet to help close the digital divide. Participation in today’s economy, and in many of our most important jobs in cybersecurity and information technology, require technical skills and connectivity, and training options must also provide for this modern need.

The language in COMPETES contains protections to support quality programs for learners. We support inclusion of such protections and believe our institutions should be held to all the same standards, regardless of model. More importantly, in the workplace, we are seeing a growing demand for online, high-quality skills training and certification programs that offer the flexibility and relevance for employees and learning outcomes valued by employers who are doing the hiring. However, the language excluding online programs is a penalty, not a protection, for those learners for whom online programs are their only access point to education and training. Because having time and being able to control one’s schedule is a function of privilege, allowing only programs that tie students to being at a physical location at a preordained time excludes low-income learners who have less time than others and often do not control their work schedules, as is common in many sectors of the economy.

As the House and Senate work to reconcile the differences between USICA and COMPETES, and move toward passage, we urge the conferees to ensure students who most need access to short-term Pellbe able to have the option of participating through online programs. By excluding students in online programs and not aligning it with existing Pell Grant and WIOA regulatory frameworks the COMPETES Act denies access to a significant population of students who must receive the skills needed to be able contribute to the workforce and improve their lives. We ask that you amend the language to remove the online exclusion.

Ensuring all learners have access to training and upskilling is crucial to meeting the demands of the nation’s students and working adults. We thank you for your attention to this critical matter and your continued support of higher education and learners throughout the country.

Sincerely,

Scott Pulsipher
President, WGU
Chairman of Board, Presidents Forum

Michael Hansen
Chief Executive Officer Cengage Group
Co-chair, Skills First Coalition

David N. Barnes
Vice President Global Workforce Policy IBM Corporation
Co-chair, Skills First Coalition

Ginni Rometty
OneTen Co-Chair & former CEO and chairman of IBM

Eloy Oakley
Chancellor, California Community Colleges

Paul LeBlanc
President, Southern New Hampshire University

Sue Ellspermann
President, Ivy Tech Community College

Kate Smith
President, Rio Salado College

Robert Mong
President, University of North Texas at Dallas

David Schejbal
President, Excelsior College

Frank Dooley
President, Purdue University Global

Ed Klonoski
President, Charter Oak State College

Gregory Fowler
President, University of Maryland Global Campus

E.R. Anderson
Director, Public Affairs Randstad North America

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — With millions of displaced workers looking to retool for new careers, the Presidents Forum, a national nonprofit network of seventeen innovative college and university leaders, unveiled a new report highlighting the need for stronger collaboration between institutions and employers and industry partners to support a more inclusive and equitable economic recovery. The report, Transforming Together: Aligning Higher Education with the Changing World of Work, is rooted in the frontline experience of the nation’s largest online universities, community and technical colleges, minority-serving institutions, and state higher education systems.

“Millions of displaced workers are turning to higher education for solutions as they work to reinvent themselves for new roles—often in unfamiliar industries,” said Dr. David Andrews, president of National University. “As higher education works to serve an older, more diverse and heterogeneous student population, institutions should rightly feel a heightened sense of urgency to deliver more precise learning experiences that translate into career-relevant skills and a shorter-term economic payoff.”

Drawing on case studies and examples of how institutions are bridging higher education and the world of work, the report shares five key strategies for how institutions can engage employers and develop stronger linkages between academic programming and workforce needs. These strategies include developing opportunities for lifelong learning beyond a bachelor’s degree, such as short-term certificates and microcredentials, as well as partnering with employers and peer institutions to create a shared vocabulary around skills and competencies.

Recent surveys show that one in four Americans without a college degree believe that a degree will not improve their career opportunities. In summer 2020, nearly three in five displaced workers were not confident that they could find a new job that would be a good fit for their skillset. At the same time, over one-third of the skills required for jobs across all industries have changed over the past three years.

“To make good on higher education’s promise of social and economic mobility, colleges must find new ways to match the demands of an increasingly complex economy and labor market,” said Kate Smith, president of Rio Salado College. “As the jobs we do and the way that we do them change faster than ever, collaboration with employers requires a new level of creativity, entrepreneurship, and agility from institutions, if they are to equip students with in-demand skills that are tightly-linked to the needs of the broader economy.”

The new report is the product of the second virtual event in the Learners First Convening series, a set of collaborative convenings with Presidents Forum members, policy experts, employers, and innovators focused on rebuilding higher education in the aftermath of the pandemic. Over the next 12 months, the series will surface insights and best practices from Presidents Forum members and produce resources and tools for peer institutions.

“During this chapter of enormous economic uncertainty for colleges, students and the country, a focus on workforce relevance is paramount for institutions of higher education,” said Jim Manning, executive director of the Presidents Forum. “This report offers vivid and powerful examples of how leading-edge institutions are developing stronger and more explicit connections among academic experiences and credentials and economic opportunity.”

Founded in 2002 by a small group of forward-thinking university and community college leaders who were early adopters of online learning and focused on serving working adults, the Presidents Forum advances innovation in policies and practices to ensure the promise of higher education for working learners and other fast-growing student populations.

About the Presidents Forum: The Presidents Forum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization of college and university presidents and chancellors as well as leading education stakeholders committed to reinventing higher education for our diverse student population – traditional, non-traditional, and working learners. We are dedicated to the continuous reinvention of higher education and exploring transformative education models by sharing knowledge, implementing best practices, and making policy recommendations.