Federal funding for higher education favors traditional four-year colleges, which contributes to degree inflation. This harms students who must take on debt and blocks access to jobs that historically did not require a bachelor’s degree. It also fails to support people pursuing other postsecondary education.

Use the Experimental Sites Initiative to create pilot programs expanding access to federal funding to nontraditional education models. Programs offering these models, which include apprenticeships and short-term certifications, would need to ensure high quality. This expanded access would expose traditional four-year institutions to more competition and provide students with more affordable options for gaining skills needed in the labor market.