WASHINGTON – There’s a lot of important legislative and policy change afoot in higher education in 2019, and community colleges leaders should make sure they have seats at every table and voices in every discussion.
That’s been a key message this week at the Community College National Legislative Summit presented by the Association of Community College Trustees.
U.S. Department of Education officials Scott Stump and Casey Sacks put an exclamation mark on that point during a general session Tuesday morning. Stump, assistant secretary, and Sacks, deputy assistant secretary for community colleges, both in the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, talked Pell Grants, Perkins V and other issues in a packed room of more than 300 attendees.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos advocates schools and states rethinking every aspect of education in search of ways to improve outcomes for students, Stump said during a discussion moderated by Dawn Erlandson, chair-elect of the ACCT board of directors and a trustee for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
“The secretary has laid out clear, common-sense principles” that promote student success, such as creating multiple pathways to a degree and expanding STEM fields, said Stump.
“‘Re-think has really been the mantra of Secretary DeVos since she stepped into the role,” said Stump. “The administration and the secretary are saying we need to re-think education. The world has changed and we are in a new reality.”
Thinking about education in new ways is critical to respond to “huge shifts” in technology and society, yet education is “the least disrupted industry,” Stump said.
