As it does with nearly every political topic, U.S. mainstream media has attached partisanship to higher education.
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Recently, the overwhelming narrative surrounding higher ed has been that Democrats champion free college above everything, and Republicans refuse government involvement no matter the issue.
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However, results from a new national survey<\/a> conducted by Third Way<\/a>, a center-left-leaning think tank, suggests free college isn\u2019t Democratic voters\u2019 main concern, and when it comes to the most pressing issues in higher education, Democrats and Republicans are more like-minded than they\u2019re given credit for. \u201cVoters have a lot more nuance than the national media likes to play up,\u201d said Tamara Hiler<\/a>, the deputy director of education at Third Way and co-author of the survey. Despite a surge in negative news and soaring tuition prices, Democrats and Republicans largely still agree that colleges and universities are a valuable investment in a young person\u2019s future. In fact, 86 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans view public community colleges favorably, and 77 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of four-year colleges and universities, according to the survey of nearly 1,400 probable 2020 voters. However, both sides of the aisle still recognize the need for change. Largely, they want to see implementation of stronger \u201cfederal guardrails\u201d to the higher education system to guarantee that students are on track to graduate and earn a job. Notably, 85 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans included in the survey said the federal government should stop subsidizing institutions that aren\u2019t adequately preparing students for graduation and for well-paying jobs. The authors of the survey note that there are many higher education institutions with graduation rates under 10 percent that are currently accepting government grants. \u201c(Voters) believe that institutions can and should do more to provide value to the students they are supposed to serve — not just enroll them and cash their checks, but get them to graduation and equip them with the skills they need to get a good-paying job and pay off their loans,\u201d Hiler and her fellow co-author Lanae Erickson<\/a>, Third Way\u2019s senior vice president for the social policy and politics program, wrote in their report. \u201cThat\u2019s why, as this poll shows, there is widespread bipartisan support for implementing stronger federal guardrails across the entire system to make sure that both students and taxpayers are getting a real return on their huge investment in higher ed,\u201d they continued. Although it may be hard to believe, college and university administrators tend to agree. Many of them would also like to see institutions being held accountable for their outcomes, Hiler explained.
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