House Hearing Focused on College Affordability

In a hearing held earlier this week, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development took aim at determining how the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will affect college affordability.

While there was bipartisan agreement that college tuition is prohibitively expensive for many students, perspectives on the causes of and solutions to affordability issues were widely drawn along partisan lines.

Three of the witnesses, Beth Akers of the American Enterprise Institute, Geoffrey Landward of the Utah System of Higher Education, and Raymond Rodrigues of the State University System of Florida, applauded the accountability reforms contained in the OBBBA. Republican committee members aligned with these three witnesses and cited the growing number of collegiate administrators and a lack of focus on high-performing programs as key drivers of accelerating college cost. Many Republicans were further concerned with the high amounts of student loan debt accumulated by many graduates.

Additionally, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) spoke favorably about his recent visit with leaders from Wisconsin’s independent colleges and universities. Grothman asked Akers for her perspective on the merit of raising the annual borrowing caps for non-professional graduate students to encourage faster completion, which Akers agreed would be a “reasonable accommodation.”

Julie Margetta Morgan of The Century Foundation emphasized that college affordability issues do not exist in a vacuum as many Americans also struggle to afford various necessities as prices have gone up. Many Democratic subcommittee members agreed with Morgan and argued that cutting federal funding through the OBBBA for student financial aid will further exacerbate the accessibility and affordability issues that existed before the passage of the legislation.

For more information, please contact:
Olivia Lattanzi