From the online corridors of social media to the halls of Congress, questioning the value of a college degree has become widespread. Many say a four-year degree has become too expensive and leaves students with seemingly endless student loan debt. Others say they were oversold a promise of economic returns that never materialized.

On average, higher education is one of the strongest and most consistent drivers of upward economic mobility. Yet for too long, federal policymakers and thought leaders have broadly praised the value of higher education without acknowledging poor outcomes that often come from high-cost, low-quality programs or doing much to prevent them. Students aren’t to blame for losing faith in higher education if advocates, policymakers, and higher education leaders don’t put in the work to ensure that it is an affordable and equitable pathway to social and economic mobility.

The public’s heightened scrutiny towards higher education — along with the growing affordability crisis driving higher student debt volumes — have led to a renewed urgency from policymakers and thought leaders to bolster accountability in higher education, with the most recent step in that direction driven by 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The law created an earnings test, labelled the do-no-harm (DNH) test, that requires all programs with access to federal loan dollars to demonstrate that their graduates earn more than a working adult without that credential.

While that framework takes a step in the right direction, it merits a reexamination of how the federal government can advance a more comprehensive system of accountability that puts students first and restores the public’s trust in higher education.

Explore our five principles for advancing that vision

Photo by: Allison Shelley/Complete College Photo Library