Federal Updates
Congress is back in session. Moody's Ratings, which evaluate the creditworthiness of debt obligations, programs, and entities has downgraded its outlook for the higher education sector from stable to now negative. On March 14, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the executive order titled "Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy." Now that Congress was able to avert a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution that funds the government until September 30, 2025, ACCT is monitoring how reconciliation and appropriations for FY26 will shape out. Please visit ACCT's Action Center and let your members of Congress know how your institutions leverage federal funds to improve outcomes for students. The next LAW Live Webinar will be held April 4th at 1pmET; join the ACCT government relations team for a monthly update on what is happening in Washington DC that is of relevance to community colleges. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration can continue implementing its anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion executive orders that were blocked via a preliminary injunction in a lower court. On January 23, 2025, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center published the Current Term Enrollment Estimates: Fall 2024 revealing that even with notable enrollment increases, community colleges aren't back to pre-pandemic levels.
Labor Force Participation Rate Climbs Significantly
This week, Iowa Workforce Development announced that the Iowa workforce participation rate reached 67%. The IWD release is full of interesting statistics on the Iowa workforce and can be found here.
US Dept. of Ed Update
Last Thursday, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) at a White House event focused on the Administration's goal to end the U.S. Department of Education, calling Secretary Linda McMahon the last Secretary of Education, and thus directing her to, within the extent of the law, facilitate the closure of the Department of Education (ED). Secretary of Education Linda McMahon released the following statement following President Trump's Executive Order to return education to the states: "Today's Executive Order is a history-making action by President Trump to free future generations of American students and forge opportunities for thier success...Education is fundamentally a state responsibility...Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them - we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs...With today's action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children's education." Community Colleges for Iowa and our national partners are closely monitoring changes at the federal level that would impact our students. Our focus is on ensuring that critical programs and funding like Pell grants and TRIO continue to play their critical role in student success. We will continue to provide updates to our network as this conversation develops. As of today, the Department of Education has not been closed; while we do not know what steps Secretary McMahon will take, any proposal to close the Department of Education will come before both chambers of Congress. A day after signing the executive order to shut down the Department of Education (ED, President Trump announced that he intends to move the student loan portfolio of $1.7 trillion to the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Workforce Training and Economic Development Fund Report
The FY 2024 WTED Progress Report and FY 2025 Plan highlights how Iowa's 15 community colleges utilized over $15.6 million to support workforce training initiatives, with over 90% of funding directed to targeted industry clusters like advanced manufacturing, IT, renewable energy, and healthcare. Read the full report here for more talking points to discuss with legislators related to our $5 million increase request.
EICC Offering Free Classes
In celebration of Community College Month, Eastern Iowa Community Colleges are offering free classes throughout April to residents in the Quad Cities area. These classes cover various subjects, providing an opportunity for community members to explore new interests and develop new skills.
Healthcare Workforce Summit
The Healthcare Workforce Summit will be held at the Iowa Hospital Association May 14th from 9am-4pm and will cover the rural healthcare shortage with a focus on representation and research; a panel discussing the local view of healthcare workforce shortage and organization's tactics to improve and diversify their recruitment and retention tactics; and workgroup sessions focused on education and training; recruitment; and retention. This one-day summit of key individuals and stakeholders will work to craft solutions to address the healthcare workforce shortage in Iowa. The keynote speaker will have 45 minutes to provide a high-level overview of status and action pertaining to the healthcare workforce shortage - highlighting solutions and trends. The panelists (including Emily Shields, Executive Director of CCforIowa) will each have a few minutes to provide their viewpoint on the current healthcare workforce shortage as it pertains to their expertise.
Central Regional Meeting - Friday, April 4th 2-3:30pm CDT (via Zoom)
Trustees! This is your opportunity to make your voice heard and stay informed about developments in the Central region. Click here to view 2024 Regional Meetings on ACCT Connect! Make sure to confirm your attendance by registering here.
Condition of Iowa's Community Colleges Report
The 2024 Annual Condition of Iowa's Community Colleges report provides comprehensive data on various aspects of the state's community colleges, including enrollment, programs, student awards, human resources, adult literacy, educational outcomes, tuition and fees, financial aid, and overall financials. For detailed information, the report offers Excel spreadsheets containing data tables for each section, accessible through the Iowa Department of Education's website.
Convention Program Review Committee Interest Form
If you would like to help the Community Colleges for Iowa team build a great program for the 205 Convention & Tradeshow, please complete this short interest form. The Convention will be held December 2-4, 2025, in Des Moines at the Marriott Downtown.
Responsibilities & Commitment:
- Draft and finalize the Request for Proposals (RFP) form
- 1 hour zoom meeting (week of May 5-9)
- regular email communication throughout May
- Review all submitted proposals & make final determination
- review proposals & submit electronic review forms (week of August 11-15)
- 1 hour zoom meeting (week of August 18-22)
Submissions are due on Friday, April 11. We will do our best to have everyone interested serve on the committee; however, our priority will have be to have representation from every leadership group.