Secretary McMahon Delivers “The Next 250: Affordability in Higher Education” Remarks at Arizona State University

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon delivered remarks at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, to highlight the Trump Administration's unprecedented progress in making higher education more affordable, transparent, and accountable.

Below is her speech, as prepared for delivery:

Thank you, Brent, for your gracious introduction.

Faculty, staff, and Sun Devils of Arizona State University: thank you for the warm welcome!

I want to recognize President Crow for his outstanding leadership and partnership, and Representatives Hamadeh and Biggs for joining us today.

I am here to spotlight one of President Trump's most consequential achievements: restoring higher education as an affordable, accessible pathway for every American - no matter their background, income, or the degree or credential they choose to pursue.

And I have chosen to come here to ASU because your institution has been setting a national standard for years: proving that a world-class education need not only come from highly selective or prohibitively expensive institutions. ASU demonstrates that great universities can pair high-quality instruction with lower costs and still produce results that transform lives, strengthen our workforce, and meaningfully advance the national interest.

For generations, American universities were engines of national possibility - opening the doors of economic mobility to millions.

They gave farmers' children the chance to become inventors, teachers' children the opportunity to become surgeons, and Americans from all backgrounds the confidence that higher education could set them on a path toward their own American Dream.

But in recent decades, corrosive trends have overtaken many of our campuses.

Universities that were once guided by a self-conscious civic duty to serve Americans from every walk of life have increasingly morphed into sprawling business enterprises that put their own corporate interests first.

Rather than equipping the next generation with real knowledge and skills, too many universities built up hollow ideological programs - expanding "DEI" offerings that created more roles for bureaucrats while neglecting fields that lead to strong careers.

Today, a staggering 23% of undergraduate and 43% of master's degrees translate so poorly to the workforce that graduates end up worse off than if they had never enrolled.

And instead of delivering an education that propels students into meaningful futures, universities slowed students' pathways into the workforce - multiplying unnecessary graduation requirements, extending programs, and marketing additional degrees that offer little value.

We have sold our students a costly illusion that a more expensive education is a better one.

Many institutions that sit on multi-billion-dollar endowments now have graduates that struggle to make monthly car payments. Seventy percent of student-loan borrowers say they've delayed basic life milestones - buying a home, starting a family - because the investment they hoped would launch their futures ended up limiting it.

Is it any wonder public trust in higher education has fallen to record lows?

America is rich in talent - in grit, in young people with the power to build meaningful lives and contribute immeasurably to our nation.

Higher education cannot continue to squander their potential by saddling them with low-value degrees, staggering costs, and paths that do not match who they are and what they are called to do.

Now, thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are delivering the most decisive realignment of higher education incentives in a generation.

Our message to the sector is simple. Follow ASU's example! Deliver high-quality programs at reasonable cost. Expand the population of students you serve and ensure that every student can complete his or her program quickly. Build partnerships with business and industry. Seize opportunities to innovate so that your academic programs remain relevant in this era of unprecedented change.

And finally, we are working hard to change the broken culture around higher education by telling Americans the truth: You do not need the most elite degree to be successful. Families deserve real, affordable options so every student can find a pathway that unlocks their talents and builds the foundation for a flourishing life.

Thanks to President Trump, students are now making these decisions with more information and transparency than ever before.

During the FAFSA form completion process, students now have an earnings indicator - a state-of-the-art tool that shows, in plain language, what graduates of a school typically earn and helps gauge whether those earnings are enough to pay off their loans. We have also ensured that every federal student aid application includes readily accessible data on a school's price and how its graduates fare after graduation.

Since launching this tool, 25 percent of students shown a "low-earnings" flag removed that school from their FAFSA form and added another - proof that students are smart consumers when they have the right information.

We have also shattered the old notion that opportunity exists only within a traditional four-year path. For decades, federal policy has locked our multi-billion-dollar postsecondary investment to support low-income students into legacy programs offered at traditional 2- and 4-year institutions.

Thanks to President Trump's Working Families Tax Cut Act, Pell Grants are no longer confined to these degrees, but can power short-term, high-quality workforce training. Our brand-new Workforce Pell program is a gamechanger - allowing students to use federal grants to pursue in-demand workforce programs in as little as 8 weeks.

Already, across this country - from Texas to Indiana to North Carolina - students are using Workforce Pell to launch into new careers in EMT services, firefighting, and welding, opening up new opportunities for students to choose the path that best propels them toward the futures they envision.

Today, I am proud to announce that Arizona is the seventh state in the nation to receive a Workforce Pell program approval. Students at Pima Medical Institute can now use Pell dollars to enroll in phlebotomy technician programs to fill critical healthcare jobs and strengthen communities across Arizona!

And thanks to President Trump, this Administration is putting our money where our mouth is - supporting a variety of institutions that provide affordable and empowering options for students.

For instance, community colleges educate nearly 40% of all undergraduates in America - and it is about time that more federal funding followed them.

In the past fiscal year alone, the Trump Administration devoted more than two and a half times the annual funding to community colleges than the Biden Administration, providing over $100 million to strengthen these institutions that power workforce opportunity and economic mobility.

We have also poured record support into H-B-C-Us: over half a billion dollars in new funding to ensure these historic centers of excellence continue serving Americans.

For decades, Congress allowed taxpayers to fund student loans up to the full cost of attendance, giving colleges little incentive to control costs and leaving students burdened with debt long after graduation.

Now, for the first time in 20 years, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have placed limits on graduate student loans and loans to parents to fund their children's undergraduate programs. As a result, universities can no longer simply raise prices at will - they must reassess their programs, cut costs, and deliver real value.

And across the country, this commonsense principle is driving a long-overdue course correction: dozens of institutions beginning to lower their prices at scale.

After the loan caps were announced, the University of California at Irvine cut tuition by over 20 percent for its MBA programs.

And just recently, an analysis found that American universities made the largest cuts to non-teaching administrative staff in more than a decade, helping reverse a culture of administrative bloat.

This is a nationwide course correction. The Trump Administration is restoring higher education to its true purpose: serving students.

And soon, universities will face an earnings test to continue receiving federal student loan dollars: if the typical college graduate does not earn more than a typical high-school graduate - and the typical graduate-degree holder does not earn more than a typical bachelor's-degree holder - then taxpayers will no longer subsidize that program.

This should have always been the standard: a student who invests time and thousands of dollars in their future should not end up worse off because of it.

ASU has been delivering on that promise for years. Now, for the first time in our nation's history, the federal government will hold all programs accountable for delivering value to students!

That gets me to the third major theme I want to address today: the culture shift around postsecondary education that ASU is helping to lead.

The Trump Administration is reorienting higher education to ensure that there is no "lesser than" degree or credential. Any pathway that offers an affordable route to a good career and a good life deserves to be celebrated, even if it doesn't fit the traditional mold of a four-year degree sought in-person on a legacy campus.

That is why it is such a pleasure to speak about this new era in higher education at ASU today.

Thanks to President Crow's leadership, ASU has emerged as a model for the "New American University." You remind us that college belongs to students from every background, and that excellence is measured not by whom you shut out, but by how the students you welcome in go on to advance.

Forty percent of your undergraduates are first-generation students, and more than half of your students this fall are enrolled online. ASU has kept tuition increases to a modest rate for Arizona residents and doubled institutional aid in less than a decade - steps that make college attainable for families who might otherwise be shut out entirely.

You are giving Americans real choices: the ability to pursue education on their terms, in the format that fits their lives, without sacrificing rigor or ambition.

ASU also models the transparency our reforms aim to make universal. Your online Master of Computer Science - a $15,000 published total cost, with no hidden fees - gives students something too rare in higher education: a clear price before they commit.

ASU is also leading the way in accelerated degree programs. Today, we are joined by students pursuing the first three-year bachelor's degree in education offered by a public university in the United States.

You prove that excellent instruction need not require an extra year and thousands of additional dollars - we can prepare the next generation of teachers sooner and put their talents to work in classrooms across America!

And ASU is among the best in the nation at partnering with employers like Starbucks and Uber to create new avenues to prosperity for working Americans and their families. An astounding 20,000 Starbucks employees alone have already earned their first bachelor's degree with 100% tuition coverage through ASU online. That's 20,000 talented workers brought into higher education thanks to this university!

It's no surprise that ASU has been ranked number one in innovation for 12 straight years.

This leadership will define the next era of American learning - cutting costs, expanding access, and delivering clear, high-value pathways that restore higher education's purpose as an engine of upward mobility.

We hope our policy reforms will encourage more universities to follow ASU's example. As they do, our colleges and universities will once again be perceived as advancing the national interest. That is the critical first step in rebuilding public trust.

The Trump Administration is setting a new course for higher education for the next 250 years. We champion excellence in every form. For some, that means a traditional college degree. For others, it means an online program, military service, community college, or workforce training.

Whatever your talents, whatever your ambitions, and wherever your life has brought you - every American should be able to pursue a pathway that equips them to do what Americans have always done best: lead, serve others, and leave our country better than they found it.

Thank you, President Crow, for your extraordinary leadership. ASU demonstrates what is possible.

Let us all invest in the extraordinary promise of our people. Let us give the next generation the freedom to build businesses, serve their communities, and raise families with confidence in the future. Let us make an education a path to opportunity, instead of a lifetime of debt, and ensure every citizen of our great nation can reach their God-given potential.

Thank you all. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.