What is one thing you would fix about American higher education?

Prioritizing investment in institutions that serve a broad range of students — community colleges and public regional universities — would significantly improve higher education. These local institutions offer accessible and affordable education and training, free from the barriers of high costs and competitive admissions. They also allow students to pursue their goals without having to leave their jobs or families.

Currently, federal funding disproportionately favors private and exclusionary institutions, leaving many students at public schools to struggle with enrollment and completion. Redirecting funds toward local colleges would address this issue.

Furthermore, essential support systems, such as the National School Lunch Program, often end after high school, which negatively impacts many undergraduates — including more than one in four at local public colleges. Extending support for necessities such as food, housing, transportation and child care to these learners would significantly increase their success. We have the knowledge and tools to create more successful students in our communities, and it is a financially sound decision to do so.

Sara Goldrick-Rab is the author of “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream.”

In my experience, many students possess tremendous writing and mathematical skills, yet they often lack critical-thinking, logical-thinking and creative-thinking skills. Perhaps this gap in skill sets is a result of the emphasis secondary education places on standardized testing. One step colleges and universities could take to fix American higher education is to increase these skills by providing a stronger focus on the humanities.

Too often, students lack a sense of historical context. Sometimes, I see whole gaps in knowledge about world events. Without an understanding of how history creates the present, it can become difficult for students to think critically about current issues and form nuanced perspectives. Many students, for example, are unable to connect the dots on global conflicts and the history of colonialism.

Greater exposure to the humanities — including philosophy, logic, liberal arts and world history and literature — would expand students’ knowledge base. On the literary front, I am often surprised by how many students do not know such towering figures as James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, August Wilson or Zora Neale Hurston. These writers provide clarity amid the world’s chaos.

DeNeen Brown is a professor at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a longtime writer for The Washington Post.

If I had the power to fix one thing about American higher education, it would be the problem of affordability — the fact that many people who want to attend college cannot do so because of financial incapacity. I think that our society should make it possible for people to attend whatever college they prefer and to which they can gain admittance, regardless of the financial wherewithal of their families. Gaining a college education and contributing to a college community ought not be contingent upon the financial capacity of one’s parents or guardians.

The predicate for my position is my admiration on the whole for our institutions of higher education. Their mission is essential: the preservation, expansion and dissemination of knowledge. Participation in that enterprise can be a wonderful, life-enhancing privilege. Colleges should do what is practicable to enable more people to enjoy the benefits of the collegiate experience. And politicians should be more generous and creative in designing policies that assist in bringing college within reach of all who have the ability and inclination to pursue advanced learning.

Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School.

U.S. higher education needs an overhaul in how it is funded. While higher education is free in many countries, it has become increasingly unaffordable here, as public funding for colleges has declined, tuition has skyrocketed, and federal loan programs have lagged.

Nationally, state support for public universities began to decline during the 1980s as mass incarceration expanded. In California, for example, corrections costs grew from 3% of the state budget in 1980 to 11% by 2012, surpassing funding for public higher education, which shrank over those years. Meanwhile, tuition, which was free until the 1970s, increased by about 1,200% between 1990 and 2025.

Students who must navigate rising costs with shrinking support are foregoing college altogether or graduating with crippling loads of debt. As U.S. wealth disparities have increased to levels not seen since 1929, college is returning to its historic status as a privilege for the wealthy, rather than an opportunity that can be earned by hard work and merit.

This underinvestment carries real consequences for society, driving underemployment, welfare dependency, and social resentments we see in our politics today. Access to higher education is not only a matter of fairness; it’s a strategic investment in our collective future — and essential to repair the slow leak that has been draining both potential and promise from our society.

Linda Darling-Hammond is founding president and chief knowledge officer at the Learning Policy Institute, professor emeritus at Stanford University, and president of the California State Board of Education.

A top priority of mine is making college more affordable for American students and families. Over time, the increased availability of federal loans encouraged universities to raise their tuition prices, trapping students in a cycle of overwhelming debt that they couldn’t pay back. With President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut, Republicans addressed the root causes of higher education’s rising costs, eliminating inflationary loan programs and holding universities accountable for failing programs. Additionally, President Trump’s legislation stops Biden’s student loan schemes that transferred debt onto the 87% of Americans who chose to not go to college or already paid off their loans.

To build upon this success, we must examine the lack of transparency within our higher education system. College is one of the largest financial investments many Americans make, but there is little information to ensure students can make the right decision. That is why I introduced the College Transparency Act to empower families with better information so they can decide which schools and programs of study are best suited to fit their unique needs and desired outcomes. This commonsense solution will increase Americans’ access to higher education.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

I would strengthen independence in higher education in two ways. First, education should continue being supported with public dollars. We shouldn’t be transforming professors into grant writers and fundraisers who accept money from corporations and others that may try to influence their research. U.S. universities have accepted tens of billions of dollars in recent years from other countries with their own agendas. Second, we need more room for intellectual humility. Groupthink is a problem. I don’t see enough students doing their own research, seeking out a wide variety of sources and analyzing the information themselves before formulating opinions. As a journalist and professor, I don’t want to tell my audience and students what to think — but rather show them how to think. An education that teaches students how to think critically and independently — how to have an open mind and keep learning — will serve them the rest of their lives and careers. It puts them in the best position to learn new, technical skills; solve broader, industry-specific challenges as we transition from the information age to the data and intelligence age; and constructively participate in discourse on public issues that affect both them as individuals and society at large.

Julie Patel Liss is associate professor and head of journalism at Cal State Los Angeles.

Higher education has been one of America’s most important drivers of innovation in our economy and has offered a pathway to opportunity for millions of Americans. But we have to face up to big problems today. When costs skyrocket and students are saddled with a tremendous amount of debt that doesn’t produce a degree of value, we can’t be surprised that people are wildly skeptical of the value of higher education.

People’s faith is eroding. To restore that faith, we need to strike a new bargain.

We have to make sure that education is affordable for everyone, and that it delivers for students, providing a degree with value in the workplace and an education that sets them up for success. We need to provide support so these institutions can continue to be engines of research and major drivers of innovation and economic growth. And we should expect that public expenditures in higher education come with accountability to demonstrate the return for taxpayers in the form of outcomes for students, workers and the nation’s economy.

We are a great country in no small part because of the contributions of American higher education. Transparency, accountability, a renewed focus on outcomes for students and a commitment to supporting research and innovation can help ensure it continues to play its vital role in the economy and our civic life.

Margaret Spellings is president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center.