What the skilled labor debate means for colleges

Jan 13, 2025

With help from Juan Perez Jr.

Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk.

President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lift off for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Nov. 19, 2024. | Pool photo by Brandon Bell

INTERNATIONAL TALENT: Schools across the country are waiting to see what a second Trump administration could mean for their international students.

— Some have already released statements advising their students from abroad to come back before the inauguration to avoid travel bans. And higher ed advocates are closely eyeing a recent online spat between Elon Musk and MAGA activists about skilled labor and the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations such as engineering.

— Colleges often use this program to hire foreign faculty members who are at the top in their field or have a coveted skillset. Musk has defended the use of H-1B visas, but conceded in December that the program needs reform in light of criticisms that it undercuts the hiring of U.S. citizens in favor of hiring foreign workers at lower salaries.

— Musk wrote on X that those issues would be “easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically.”

— Donald Trump’s first administration tried to significantly raise the salary minimum, but received backlash from colleges and business groups alike, some of whom filed a lawsuit against the proposed changes.

— Colleges argued that the rule would require them to give dramatic pay increases to current employees. For instance, the lawsuit claimed, a University of Utah faculty member making $80,000 would have to be paid $208,000 instead. Such a salary increase would be “untenable,” according to the suit.

— “For many of our institutions, we’re not tech companies, hiring these H-1B workers, we’re hiring for faculty positions,” said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of staff of government relations at American Council on Education. “Many of our budgets are constrained, especially if they’re a public [school] and reliant on state funding.”

Diane Jones, who worked in the Education Department during Trump’s first term, said the salary increase was meant to ensure employers weren’t taking advantage of workers.

— “There is some reasonably convincing evidence that shows to some extent that there are employers that use the H-1B visa process to displace domestic workers because international workers will work more hours for less money,” Jones said.

IT’S MONDAY, JAN. 13. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. I’m your host, Rebecca Carballo. Let’s talk: rcarballo@politico.com. The team: Bianca Quilantan at bquilantan@politico.com, Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com.

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SCOTUS

OVER THE WEEKEND: The Supreme Court will review a decision from a lower court that blocked a Biden administration rule that made it easier for student loan borrowers who had been defrauded by their colleges to have their loans forgiven, your host reports.

— With the court’s latest decision, a rule that Joe Biden spent his presidency championing could now be significantly narrowed in scope.

— As of April, the Biden administration has forgiven more than $17 billion from student loan borrowers who have been defrauded by their colleges under what’s called the borrower defense rule, which has been in effect since 1994. But applications for the program became more common in 2015 after revelations of widespread fraud led to the collapse of Corinthian Colleges, one of the country’s largest chains of for-profit colleges.

— In 2023 Career Colleges and Schools of Texas sued the Biden administration over its rewrite of the rule, arguing that it was too easy for students to engage in the borrower defense process. That same year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with CCST, blocking the rule from taking effect nationwide.

— The lower court said the Education Department can’t grant the relief unless a borrower has defaulted and the government has sued them to collect on the loan.

— Jason Altmire, president and chief executive officer of Career Education Colleges and Universities, said the Supreme Court’s decision to review the lower court’s ruling does not validate the Biden administration’s arguments.

— “It simply means that the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to the scope of the Department of Education’s authority related to [the borrower defense rule],” Altmire said in a statement on Friday. “It remains to be seen how the incoming Trump administration will argue the government’s side of the case, but we strongly believe the facts of the case will show the Department’s onerous [borrower defense rule] went well beyond the agency’s authority.”

PK-12

THINK AGAIN: A renewed push to rebuild public schools and the future of American education in the wake of an academic crisis were the center of urgent discussion this past week at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

— Prior overhauls have struggled to succeed at scale. Political, legal and bureaucratic hurdles will challenge any reorganization of local, state and federal public education systems. Stanford’s convening of political, philanthropic and community leaders – many of whom can be described as traditional education reform supporters – are demanding to try again anyway.

— “We've tried to make change in all kinds of ways,” Condoleezza Rice, the Hoover Institution’s director and secretary of State during the George W. Bush administration, said during an address to attendees.

— “I don't by any means want to denigrate the efforts of those who have had ideas and many best practices that are being carried out across the country – legislators and school chiefs and parents and state governors who are trying," Rice added. “But with all of those efforts, we still see that many people believe the best option for their children, and this includes parents, is not to be in a public school.”

— What to change? The institution’s Education Futures Council (a half-dozen-member panel that includes Rice, former Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck) called for building a “new operating system” in a recent report. That includes fewer regulatory mandates and more autonomy for teachers and principals – but also regular assessments and merit pay for effective educators.

— “We have to recognize the urgency with brutal honesty,” Rice said. “We have to have a national conversation about the importance of education – and this time delivering.”

— Juan Perez Jr.

Report Roundup

—Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) released a series of statewide and congressional district-level snapshots of the student loan debt crisis today. The report shed light on the number of constituents who have benefitted from more affordable repayment options and life-changing debt relief over the last four years, SBPC leaders say.

—The George W. Bush Institute published new education policy recommendations today showing that assessments play a vital role in creating strong public schools and highlighting the need for accountability policies.

Syllabus

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reflects on FAFSA rollout, debt forgiveness. NPR.

Can California keep ICE away from schools? Lawmakers want to try as crackdowns loom. CalMatters.

Former principal sues Baltimore County schools over alleged racist AI deepfake. K-12 Dive.

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