Higher Education Policy Making: An Increasing Partisan Divide?

• In Event: Education and Public Opinion

Abstract

This paper explores change and continuity in public support for higher education in the United States. Traditionally, higher education has been viewed as a policy realm with a high degree of bipartisan consensus. Public opinion polls consistently revealed high levels of support for higher education (e.g. the benefits of a college degree, the need to provide financial aid) (Mettler 2014). Over time, however, the environment for higher education policy making has changed. States have reduced their financial support for public systems of higher education, and as tuition costs have risen, critics have questioned the value of a college degree. In addition, the rhetoric surrounding higher education has become increasingly partisan. Prominent Republican governors have questioned the investment of public dollars in their state’s higher education systems, suggesting that many institutions of higher education are insufficiently focused on preparing students for work. At the national level, Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over the appropriate level of oversight for for-profit universities and the best mechanisms for guaranteeing student loans (Mettler 2014).

Researchers disagree, however, about the extent to which increasing higher education policy disagreement among lawmakers (and increasing partisan rhetoric about the value of higher education) translates into changing attitudes among the public (Dar 2012, Doyle 2007 & 2010, Mettler 2014, Newfield 2008). This paper assesses the extent to which increasing divisions along party lines can be seen in the public’s views about higher education over time. We analyze survey data collected over the past twenty years by the nonprofit research organization, Public Agenda. These surveys collect responses to a series of questions about support for higher education and as well as respondents views on cost, access, and outcomes of higher education. In addition, the survey also asks for the party identification of respondents, as well as other demographic information. Analysis of this survey data, then, allows us to understand how and when public attitudes and support for higher education vary according to the party identification of respondents. We show that as the rhetoric of elites has become increasingly partisan, the public has become increasingly divided by party in its views of higher education. The paper adds to our knowledge about the relationship between elite framing and public opinion, as well as about the evolving political context for higher education policy making, at both the state and federal level.

Author

• Juliet F. Gainsborough, Bentley University