Op-Ed: Clamping down on good, publicly available higher education data will send our system into a dark spiral
By Michael Itzkowitz
June 16, 2025
Initially published in The Hechinger Report
American higher education once guaranteed a path to economic success and financial security. Yet years of rising costs combined with minimal congressional oversight have led many students and policymakers to question whether college is still worth the investment.
That’s why clamping down on good, publicly available higher education data will only worsen the problem — and send our university system and its students down a dark spiral.
After the Trump administration created the Department of Government Efficiency, it started arbitrarily cutting programs. The U.S. Department of Education has been gutted, leaving 1,900 fewer staff positions and a skeleton crew of only five at the office responsible for publishing education data on higher education outcomes.
Even worse, nearly $900 million in projects measuring educational efficiency and effectiveness have been canceled, severely compromising our country’s ability to conduct evaluations that schools, policymakers and researchers depend on to improve educational outcomes.
The inability to measure and publish data on college outcomes weakens the ability of the U.S. to maintain its global position as a leader in higher education at a time when international competition is intensifying. This threatens our domestic progress, and could trigger a decline in the very qualities that have made American higher education the envy of the world.
For four centuries, American colleges and universities have driven scientific and medical innovation, accelerated economic growth and created upward mobility for millions of people from low- and middle-income backgrounds. This success story is undeniable, but what was once taken for granted is now in question.
As early as 2006, a commission led by President George W. Bush’s Education Secretary Margaret Spellings warned that the United States was falling behind its global competitors. Other countries were educating a greater share of their citizens with advanced training.
The commission also stated that “more and better information on the quality and cost of higher education is needed by policymakers, researchers and the general public” in order to continuously improve.
Nearly two decades later, this alarm bell is still ringing, and it’s even louder. With 72 percent of U.S. jobs projected to require postsecondary training by 2031, disinvestment in higher education will cause us to fall further behind globally — perhaps permanently.
To help address these challenges, we need reliable data to measure college outcomes and track our progress. While reductions have cut nearly half the jobs at the U.S. Education Department, we can’t cut indiscriminately. Eliminating federally funded research on educational progress, pedagogy and outcomes won’t help either.
Good data ensures that federal funds target institutions and programs that prepare students for the future and improve their lives. This reduces waste and redirects resources to colleges that truly elevate students economically. And for students to make smart choices, they need to see how well schools have served previous graduates.
If Congress wants to maintain America’s competitive edge, it can’t stand idle. Here are three commonsense, bipartisan steps we must take:
First, we need clear, accessible information on student college outcomes. Congress and the current administration must enhance the College Scorecard, which helps families identify which colleges offer the best value for their investment; it receives over two million visits each year and was expanded under prior Democratic and Republican administrations, including the previous Trump administration.
Without the scorecard data, choosing a college can be impossibly disorienting, like searching for an exit in a funhouse.
Second, we must ensure that taxpayer dollars are used effectively. Funding research on best practices ensures that college-goers are getting the best bang for their educational buck. Funding institutions that leave students worse off wastes public money and squanders effort and opportunity.
Good data helps policymakers direct resources toward schools that drive economic impact, turning education dollars into long-term growth.
Finally, we must expand programs with proven success. The unsung heroes of higher education are schools that function more like opportunity engines, lifting students up the socioeconomic ladder — and often they are not the elite institutions that dominate the headlines. Accessible data identifies these high-performing schools so that we can try to replicate their approaches and help more students achieve the American dream.
Everyone wants what’s best for our students and country: An effective higher education system that increases opportunity and keeps our workforce globally competitive.
Now is not the time to stop measuring progress or to disinvest in our future. Instead, we should use available data to equip the next generation with the skills they need to compete, innovate and maintain America’s standing as a global leader in higher education.
Michael Itzkowitz is founder and president of the HEA Group, a research and policy organization focused on improving higher education outcomes. Previously, he oversaw the College Scorecard, the largest-ever release of education data by the federal government.
