Higher Ed Has Questions for Biden and Trump

For an industry that employs four million Americans and attempts to educate 15 million more, higher education is, strangely, routinely ignored in presidential elections. But there’s hope for 2024, though not for the best of reasons. IHE asked a range of higher ed leaders, thinkers, reformers and skeptics what they’d ask Biden, Trump or both candidates if CNN magically handed them the microphone.

Here are some of their sharpest questions: 

"The U.S. has a world-class public education system, but states’ divestment in public universities has resulted in higher tuition rates, worsening racial inequalities and preventing many from a path of upward mobility. How can we maintain and extend excellence in public higher education while making college and university affordable for a broad swath of U.S. society?" Rotua Lumbantobing, vice president of the AAUP.