With Obama’s Win, Colleges Anticipate 4 More Years of Reform

With Obama’s Win, Colleges Anticipate 4 More Years of Reform

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When American voters re-elected Barack Obama as president, they extended the White House stay of an administration that has focused on expanding federal student aid as well as tightening regulations on colleges and universities. Economic concerns took center stage over the course of the 2012 presidential race, as both campaigns sought to make the case for why their candidate was best equipped to lead a nation still recovering from an economic recession. Higher-education issues were often embedded in broader economic narratives.

In offering policies to speed up the economic recovery, the president often highlighted the role of community colleges in career training, proposing a program that would provide federal money to community colleges and states with the goal of training about two million workers. With Mr. Obama’s re-election, “we expect to see that continued emphasis on what our institutions do,” said David S. Baime, senior vice president for government relations and research at the American Association of Community Colleges.