December 17, 2025
I am re-acclimating to the cold that comes to Washington, DC, in December, but the snow dusting didn’t impede my visits to Capitol Hill last week. In fact, my spirit was warmed by the praise I heard for community colleges during every visit. Four U.S. representatives were enthusiastic about the work our colleges do to build the pipeline to the skilled workforce, and a fifth even had a senior legislative assistant who attended a community college to complete his bachelor’s degree after military service. He was passionate about the impact on his personal life and I’m certain his story is a lens for his policy insights.
Workforce Pell meetings last week in Washington, DC, drew representatives from the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and institutions of higher education, including Dr. Tonjua Williams, president of St. Petersburg College in Florida. The weeklong session touched on how to calculate and verify placement rates, the timing and structure of calculating the Value-Added Earnings measure, and the process for programs to regain eligibility. I encourage you to join the AACC webinar scheduled this afternoon to clarify questions or share institutional experience. AACC’s Workforce Pell webpage also has some new resources gathered from individual states with helpful tools for preparing for implementation. Included among those resources is an updated summary and analysis of the regulations.
Last week, I also met with Pete Delgrosso, executive director of All Within My Hands, to discuss the Metallica Scholars Initiative that promotes career and technical education as a pathway to skilled jobs. Now in its seventh cycle, 75 colleges are working with AACC and each other to serve growing labor markets. I am hopeful that partnerships like this one will continue to expand opportunity across critical industry clusters.
On a related note, I joined a virtual meeting of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges on Thursday and shared AACC’s vision for deeper engagement around state policy. Empowering people at all levels of policymaking strengthens our sector’s ability to drive change in ways that have the greatest impact for our students. My comments submitted this week to the U.S. Department of Education on the proposed IPEDS/ACTS survey requirements are just one example of such efforts.
This week’s in-depth discussion of how we define eligible programs for Workforce Pell—and how we measure their outcomes data—reminded me of the metrics challenges highlighted in Resilient by Design. As higher education is tied more tightly to successful employment data, these results will span multiple institutions and industries. As my brief video message conveys, our sector will have to work diligently to define metrics that reflect our value and protect the support our students deserve, as they contribute to strengthening our local and national economies.