August 18, 2025
As Federal Support Wanes, States Must Reinvest in Higher Education
By Nic Wong
Our education system faces a crisis of affordability and access only amplified by the passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill and Trump’s attempted cuts. States need to step up.
In May, I joined more than a million Americans in walking across the graduation stage—150 years after John Houston Burrus did the same.
Burrus was one of the first African American students to graduate college in this country because of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862. Endorsed by President Abraham Lincoln, the act expanded access to higher education by funding and establishing public colleges and universities. It paved the way for many institutions that still shape our country today, including the University of California system.
Yet today the promise of public higher education is facing a crisis of affordability and access, amplified by the recent passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill and the Trump administration’s attempted cuts to programs like Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, which threatens to widen opportunity gaps even further. As federal support wanes, states must step in and take the lead in reinvesting in public institutions.
