It’s rare in an era of partisan division to hear a veteran of the Clinton and Obama presidencies agreeing with a right-leaning economist who worked for George W. Bush. Yet these prominent voices from opposite ends of the political spectrum teamed up to mostly praise a law passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The purpose of the law, representing a bipartisan reform to higher education: to protect college students from borrowing federal money to enroll in programs that give them little or no financial payoff when they graduate.

This new rule is “the greatest step forward in increased accountability” for colleges since the creation more than a decade ago of the federal College Scorecard website, which discloses graduates’ earnings by institution. That was the conclusion of Bob Shireman, a senior fellow at the progressive Century Foundation, and Beth Akers, who holds the same title at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, or AEI.

The new accountability rule is among a series of measures that the left-leaning advocacy group EdTrust calls the most dramatic changes to higher education policy in nearly two decades. Many were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, and will become effective this year. And several could improve protections and lower costs for families and students, demonstrating the ongoing bipartisan reforms to higher education.

It may seem a surprise to hear bipartisan acclaim for laws affecting higher education passed by this White House and its congressional allies. After all, such reforms come against the backdrop of bans on diversity policies, restrictions on international students, cuts to research funding, huge fines on elite universities and Trump’s relentless rhetorical attacks on “radical,” “woke” campuses.

But “there are definitely some positive steps that have been taken,” too, said Catherine Brown, senior director for policy and advocacy at the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN, who particularly likes an “earnings indicator” added to the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. That tool warns college applicants if graduates from a particular school with the majors they’re considering have historically earned no more than people with only high school diplomas.

Read the full article about bipartisan reforms to higher education by Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Report.