House Education & Workforce Full Committee Hearing
“The Future of College: Harnessing Innovation to Improve Outcomes and Lower Costs”
November 18, 2025 
Written Testimony
Wil Del Pilar, Ph.D., Senior Vice President

Download the Written Testimony (PDF)

Chairman Walberg, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the Committee—thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. For millions of students, the future of higher education isn’t an abstract debate. It’s about whether college remains a gateway to opportunity or becomes another barrier to making their dreams a reality.

My name is Wil Del Pilar, Senior Vice President at EdTrust. Our mission is simple and urgent: to close opportunity gaps and advance racial and economic justice in education. Education is a civil right, one that too many students are still denied.

We’re here to talk about innovation. But innovation alone cannot fix a system where students face rising prices, shrinking support, and pathways that are difficult to navigate.

Nearly 90% of Pell students still face unmet financial need. Black and Latino students continue to experience gaps in affordability and completion. Today’s students are older, working, parenting, and navigating institutions that were not designed to support their success. The 43 million Americans who started college but never finished are not failures. They are a reflection of a higher education system where affordability and access to supports are roadblocks.

Innovation matters, but it cannot replace investment. What changes students’ lives is evidence-based support paired with resources to deliver it. And we know it works. Programs like CUNY ASAP nearly double graduation rates. Georgia State is boosting retention through early alerts, advising, and small emergency grants that keep students enrolled when life gets hard. Institutional partners also help students complete degrees and earn higher wages.

States are expanding dual enrollment, Early College High Schools, FAFSA as a high school graduation requirement, direct admissions, and community college baccalaureate programs, creating pathways to postsecondary programs that lead to economic mobility.

Right now, those pathways are in danger. The administration’s move to dismantle research capacity at IES, undermine the Department of Education, threaten Pell, and impose unconstitutional controls on universities undercuts the very innovation we claim to value. And their choice to defund the Postsecondary Student Success Grant, also known as PSSG, and other programs supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or FIPSE, is especially devastating.

FIPSE supports several different programs, including PSSG, that help students stay enrolled, meet basic needs, afford textbooks, and access the guidance that keeps them on track. For low-income students, parents, first-generation students, and veterans, this support is often the difference between earning a degree or joining the 43 million non-completers. Congress has already recognized the power of this work by funding PSSG across administrations with bipartisan support. We urge you to restore and fully fund PSSG, and all of the FIPSE programs, in any upcoming appropriations agreement. Our economy cannot afford millions more who start college hoping for a better life only to be pushed out by obstacles we have the tools, and the responsibility, to remove.

We cannot ask students to innovate their way out of underinvestment. We cannot demand modern solutions while stripping away data, staff, civil rights protections, and the basic supports that make student success possible.

Students are doing everything we ask of them and more. They are working, parenting, and still pushing toward degrees that can change the trajectory of their families for generations.

The question is not whether they are ready for innovation—they are. The question is whether we will match their determination with the investments they deserve.

To build a stronger workforce, a more competitive economy, and a more equitable democracy, we must invest in what works: restoring PSSG, protecting federal education infrastructure, and scaling evidence-based student success strategies, like those detailed in my written testimony.

EdTrust stands ready to defend students’ right to learn today, because that dedication drives America’s growth tomorrow.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.