Book chapter
Inclusion as Federal Policy: Reconsidering a Century of Higher Education Access and Equity Policy
Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, pp.39-129
Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, Springer Nature Switzerland
01/31/2025
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-58698-9_2
Abstract
In this chapter, we interrogate issues of access and equity in US higher education by reviewing a wide range of texts that take a historical or longitudinal view of issues related to federal policy, with a focus on the twentieth century. We find that the overall body of literature is imbalanced, which in many ways reflects the incoherent nature of federal policy itself. This chapter builds on a legacy of other “horizontal” historiographies that have greatly advanced different subfields within the study of higher education. We identify three dominant tensions in the literature: between federal, state, and nongovernmental authority, which are rarely neatly defined in the policy landscape; between access goals and equity goals, whose definitional slippage troubles clear aims for these policies; and between institutional autonomy and federal control, a contest that revolves around funding in this story. We address these tensions in each of thirteen sections, beginning with an analysis of the historical narratives that scholars have constructed around higher education policy in the twentieth century. We then survey the literature on policy promulgated by the executive and judicial branches of the federal government. Next, we examine the arena of agenda-setting, including the role of lobbying: who gets to shape policy before and during its crafting, and how their efforts affect access and equity. The following four sections address Congressional action in the form of institutional aid, student aid, special wartime measures, and the long life of the Higher Education Act and its many reauthorizations, which since 1965 have been the primary legislative vehicles for federal policy. From there, we examine federally funded programming that aims to bolster college access and equity for underserved communities, including low-SES students, minoritized racial and ethnic groups, women, veterans, and students with disabilities. The last three main sections review literature on government support for minority-serving institutions (MSIs), the paradox that stems from that support, and literature on federal desegregation policy.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Inclusion as Federal Policy: Reconsidering a Century of Higher Education Access and Equity Policy
- Creators
- Ethan W. RisErika BullockChristine Ogren (Editor)Marc Van Overbeke (Editor)
- Contributors
- Laura W. Perna (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, pp.39-129
- Publisher
- Springer Nature Switzerland; Cham
- Series
- Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-58698-9_2
- eISSN
- 2215-1664
- ISSN
- 0882-4126
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/31/2025
- Academic Unit
- Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984781378402771
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