The Strength to Meet Which National Need? The American Council on Education, Federal Support for Student Aid, and Equal Educational Opportunity

Bibliographic Data

ID11260816
AuthorsJoan Malczewski (0000-0002-8213-0655, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume98
Issue3
Pages318-334
Publication date2023-05-27
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePeabody Journal of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-956X • E-ISSN: 1532-7930
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0161956x.2023.2216082
OpenAlexW4378977868
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

President Truman asked the 1947 Commission on Higher Education to consider ways to expand educational opportunities to all Americans. The commission responded in Volume II of HEAD, a progressive document that recommended substantial federal support for higher education, particularly in the form of student aid. The American Council on Education (ACE) represented higher education in the commission’s deliberations and had a powerful role in shaping education policy development between 1947 and 1972. Its position on federal funding for student aid was shaped by institutional autonomy, institutional diversity, and a weakening relationship between higher education and national goals, which made it difficult to navigate tensions between quantity and quality and between consumer and associational accountability. Ultimately, while the ACE played a central role in shaping Volume II, it did not lobby effectively for federal student aid funding for 25 years after its publication. The result was expanded access in a modern system that has fallen short of the progressive promise of the Truman commission

Accountability · Autonomy · Commission · Diversity (politics · Higher education · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Higher Education Governance and Development · Law · Public Administration

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