E&W Blog

Our higher education system needs wholesale reform. That’s why Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Committee Republicans held a roundtable looking at how institutions can have more skin in the game and partner with the private sector to improve student outcomes.

Some institutions of higher education are pioneering the practice of offering insurance coverage for college students to guarantee their earnings or provide loan repayment assurances for the first few years after graduation as students enter the workforce. Institutions that adopt insurance not only make clear that they have a stake in their student’s future, but in doing so they push other schools to be more transparent about the earnings potential of the programs they offer. Moreover, providing college insurance provides incentives for completion, which benefits students, institutions, and taxpayers.

Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for an unsustainable student loan system that encourages colleges and universities to continue raising their prices and letting them off the hook when their graduates have low earnings or unaffordable student debt. Simply put, schools need skin in the game—and thankfully, many institutions are doing so proactively by providing their graduates insurance in case their degree doesn’t pay off. The benefits of that include protecting taxpayers from a range of adverse outcomes from school closures and fraud to lower-than-expected earnings for program graduates. This is a creative solution to problems that have been plaguing higher education for too long.

Bottom line, we must reform our higher education system to protect students and taxpayers, and it starts by ensuring institutions share the risks and rewards of their student’s success.