Defend Higher Education
Higher education drives American innovation and expands opportunity.
The Trump Administration is politicizing research, illegally suspending funding, and attacking academic freedom.
In Congress, I will protect federal research agencies, peer review, and nonpartisan civil servants.
I will also protect students and make college more affordable by protecting repayment options and expanding Pell Grants.
Why this matters
For decades, American higher education has driven scientific advancement and provided economic opportunity to millions of Americans. Investing in education is essential to providing better opportunities for future generations. Today, higher education is under attack. The Trump administration is appointing unqualified political actors to head agencies, replacing career civil servants with loyalists, and manipulating internal operations to choke off funding. Scholars now find themselves targeted by harassment campaigns designed to silence dissent.
I understand this issue personally. My parents immigrated to the US and worked as librarians at a public university, so my siblings and I could receive a better education. I’ve spent 26 years as a professor, educating thousands of students, and I have spent years advocating for American higher education. My entire career exists because of this great system, and I will fight to protect it.
In Congress, I will use my experience as a former Senate legislative staffer to counter these attacks. I will introduce legislation to protect federal research agencies and peer-review processes, restore indirect cost rates, enact job protections for nonpartisan civil servants, and ensure that attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech are stopped. I will use Congress's investigative power to shine a light on these abuses.
College affordability is also under siege. The current administration has eliminated affordable repayment options, imposed aggressive debt collection, and gutted the Department of Education. I will work to codify income-driven repayment plans into law, expand Pell Grants, and tie federal aid to tuition restraint. Debt-free higher education is achievable, but it requires treating education as a public good rather than a consumer product. After World War II, America built the world's greatest higher education system through federal investment. We can do it again.
Finally, I will fight for the people who make higher education work: graduate students, postdocs, adjunct faculty, and contingent workers who face precarious conditions. Unions give these workers a voice, and I will be their ally in Congress. Public universities should serve all of the people. I will protect their ability to foster diversity, provide fair access, and welcome people from all backgrounds.
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