- Trump Administration releases new federal workforce plan
- Presidential Memorandum on transparency in college admissions
- New Executive Order on federal grantmaking priorities
- FSA publishes updated guidance on student identity verification
- Register for Advocates in Action 2025!
Trump Administration releases new federal workforce plan
On Tuesday, the Departments of Education, Labor, and Commerce unveiled a new coordinated workforce development plan, called the “America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age.” As covered by AACC’s Matthew Dembicki in the Community College Daily, the 27-page paper puts forth five pillars to “empower more Americans to access good-paying jobs, build pipelines of skilled talent for critical industries, prepare the workforce system for an AI-driven economy, and position the U.S. as the dominant global economic leader.” These pillars are industry-driven strategies, worker mobility, integrated systems, accountability, and flexibility and innovation. The report has action steps for agencies under each of these goals, including a strong focus on scaling up registered apprenticeships and building an AI-trained workforce.
Presidential Memorandum on transparency in college admissions
Last Thursday, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum on transparency and reporting of college admissions data for Title IV-participating institutions. The memorandum directs the Secretary of Education to make technological upgrades to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), to make IPEDS data more usable for students and families, to institute a new audit system for data reported to IPEDS, and, most significantly, to require institutions to submit more detailed information on admissions to (per the memorandum) ensure that institutions are not using race-based admissions practices. The memorandum was followed by a directive from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) providing more details on implementation. AACC’s David Baime has more information on the Presidential Memorandum and Secretary McMahon’s directive in the Community College Daily.
In an unpublished information collection request (ICR) set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, ED lays out its vision for the new admissions data collection system, to be called the “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) survey. The ACTS will require all selective colleges and universities to report applied, admitted, and enrolled cohorts by race-sex pair, further disaggregated by test scores, GPA, family income, Pell Grant eligibility, and parental education. The ACTS will also require colleges to report the count and average amount of students receiving institutional grant aid, merit-based grant aid, need-based grant aid, and local, state, or federal aid by race-sex pair, disaggregated by test scores, GPA, family income, and type of admission (early action, early decision, or regular admissions). The ACTS will require end-of-year reporting on average cumulative GPA, cost of attendance, graduation rates, and graduates’ final GPA, again by race-sex pair and the same disaggregates. Finally, colleges will be expected to report data from the past five years to establish a baseline of admissions and aid practices before SFFA v. Harvard. This represents a significant increase in both reporting to the federal government and, for many colleges and universities, data collection on students altogether. It is not yet clear how institutions will be expected to gain access to and report all the data mentioned in the ICR and what data minimization efforts will be taken to protect personally identifiable information for small, disaggregated cohorts.
The ICR states that open-access institutions, such as community colleges, “have minimal or no risk for civil rights noncompliance in admissions”, opening the door for community colleges to be exempt from the bulk of ACTS reporting. However, the ICR does request comments on whether open-access institutions should still be required to report financial aid information to prove that they are not illegally considering race in the awarding of aid. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) will communicate that community colleges are not engaging in illegal discrimination in the awarding of institutional aid and that subjecting campuses to this increased reporting will be both unnecessary and unduly burdensome. AACC will continue to monitor the implementation of the ACTS and its potential impact on community colleges.
New Executive Order on federal grantmaking priorities
Also on Thursday, President Trump signed a new Executive Order (EO) on “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking.” The EO expands the role of political appointees in reviewing and administering grant programs so that awards are “consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”
The EO requires all federal agencies to designate senior political officials who will be responsible for reviewing all discretionary grant opportunities. The duties of those appointees will include vetting proposed grant announcements prior to publication, ensuring alignment with agency missions and Administration priorities, and coordinating with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This oversight will apply to new awards as well as renewals of existing grants. Peer review will still be permitted, but it will no longer be dispositive in all cases.
This new centralizing order adds new layers and processes in reviewing grants for specific goals before the Administration approves a new grant or continuation of an existing grant. Federal agencies are directed to incorporate termination-for-convenience clauses in their grant agreements and restrict grantee access to funds unless specifically authorized. Once implemented, these changes would give agencies much greater discretion to cancel grants before their completion. Administrative burdens will also likely grow, including more stringent approval processes for fund disbursements and project renewals.
The EO is the latest action taken by the Trump Administration to exert more control over the federal grantmaking process and likely represents a formal codification of the Administration’s existing approach to grantmaking. While it is typical for each presidential administration to set its own grant priorities within discretionary programs funded by Congress, President Trump has taken unprecedented steps to pause and even discontinue entire programs for failing to meet his political priorities. Individual grantees have also seen continuation grants canceled for not aligning with the President’s priorities or previous executive actions.
This development provides context for the fact that some community colleges are still waiting to receive continuation grants for the current fiscal year, while, in some cases, notifications still have not yet been sent out for new FY 2025 competitions. Although the announcement’s full implications are not clear, it could well signal continuing uncertainty for community college federal grant recipients.
FSA publishes updated guidance on student identity verification
On Tuesday, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) released an Electronic Announcement (EA) updating its guidance on financial aid verification policies to combat fraudulent applicants. As a reminder, community colleges have sought the Department’s help in combatting fraudulent students who use stolen identities to access and steal financial aid refunds. While this issue has been plaguing colleges for many years, changes in the FAFSA Simplification Act, coupled with greater individual access to AI software, have led to a significant increase in fraudulent enrollments. This is an issue largely only impacting community colleges because of our low tuitions and open access policies.
In June, FSA initiated a new verification protocol, flagging first-time Title IV applicants for V5 identity verification over the summer term and making changes to the V5 verification process. For many community colleges across the country, especially those that use summer as a header term, this proved incredibly burdensome. Colleges also reported receiving multiple Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) transmissions with new verification flags, in some cases after aid had been packaged and disbursement. This was a source of significant frustration for impacted students and administrators alike.
This week, FSA announced that they have refined their system to now only flag applicants for V5 identity verification who have demonstrated a pattern associated with fraudulent behavior with a high degree of certainty. This should decrease the number of legitimate students selected for verification. The EA also shares that those ISIRs will be transmitted starting this week, hopefully ensuring that any legitimate students who are flagged have plenty of time to verify their identities before the disbursement date. FSA continues to emphasize that enhanced verification is a temporary solution as the agency builds a proactive identity screening process during the initial FAFSA application phase.
In addition to this update on verification screening, the EA details new reporting requirements for institutions to help strengthen the accuracy of their fraud detection algorithms. For the coming semester, colleges must report the applicants who are flagged for verification and if/how those applicants responded and verified their identities. Colleges must submit this information within 60 days of the applicant being flagged as potentially fraudulent.
Register for Advocates in Action 2025!
Registration is now open for AACC’s annual Advocates in Action! The two-day seminar will take place in Washington, D.C. on September 16 and 17.
For those who have not yet attended, the program is designed for community college leaders who want an insider’s view on how Washington formulates higher education policy and who want to become more involved in the federal legislative process. Interactive sessions with key executive branch officials and senior Congressional staff will provide valuable insights about the current dynamics and issues surrounding key funding and other pending legislation. Time is reserved for attendees to meet with their federal legislators to advocate for community college priorities.
Community college presidents, trustees, government relations directors, and other campus administrators are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to network, discuss key policy issues, and advocate for critical federal programs.