In the face of federal funding cuts, community colleges can stay purpose-driven and resilient. Together, we can help ensure that even as policies change, your college continues to open doors for every learner.
The federal funding landscape is shifting dramatically and higher education is feeling the tremors. Widespread priority changes, staffing cuts, and funding reduction across many federal agencies is redrawing the funding map nationwide. In the face of uncertainty at the federal level, Community Colleges will need to strengthen their connections to their community, their local supporters, and their students to successfully navigate this new reality. For community college leadership, faculty, and staff, it’s critical to understand what’s on the horizon while taking steps to share your college’s story and remind the public that community colleges deliver enormous value.
Higher Education is Facing Unprecedented Funding Challenges
Funding for higher education is in a precarious position as we approach mid-year, which is also the end of the 24/25 fiscal year for many institutions. Grants through the National Endowments for the Arts, National Endowment for Humanities, and the National Science Foundation have been reduced and reprioritized. Research funding to higher education institutions has been cut unilaterally. The proposed 2026 budget entirely removes the TRIO program. And in April 2025, using the budget reconciliation process, U.S. House Education Committee approved the “Student Success and Taxpayer Plan” that would cut about $330 billion from higher education over the next ten years. The plan includes substantial reduction to student aid and enacts regulatory rollbacks to narrow eligibility requirements that would have an outsized impact on community college students.
Major Changes in the House “Budget Reconciliation” Plan
Information on the proposed changes is available at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators:
- Pell Grant eligibility: redefines “full-time” enrollment from 24 semester credits per year to 30 credits per year (about 15 credits each term) to get the maximum Pell Grant. nasfaa.org. Eliminates all Pell eligibility for students enrolled less than half-time, now 7.5 credits per term.
- Short-term/Workforce Pell. Creates a “Workforce Pell Grant” for short term career training (150–600 clock hours, about 8–15 weeks) shifting Pell dollars into the new program.
- Loan program limits. The bill would eliminate new Federal Direct Subsidized Loans (which don’t accrue interest while students are in school) and stop all new Graduate PLUS loans starting July 2026. It also caps how much students can borrow in total: $50,000 maximum for undergraduate (bachelor’s) programs, $100,000 for graduate (master’s), and $150,000 for professional programs.
- Income-driven repayment (IDR) changes. The plan creates one new income-based repayment program (with a 30-year payoff and a $10/month floor) and effectively ends all other federal IDR plans after July 2026. It also freezes unemployment and economic hardship deferments and reduces forbearance terms.
- “Skin in the game” risk-sharing. Proposal to make colleges financially responsible if their former students’ default on federal loans. The draft calls for institutions to reimburse the Education Department for a percentage of their students’ unpaid loans.
- Regulatory rollbacks. The bill would reverse recent policy changes: rescinding the 90/10 for-profit rule, gainful employment regulations, and tightening borrower-defense claims back to 2023
Amid the executive orders, agency changes, current budget reconciliation proposals, future budget negotiations, lawsuits and counter-suits, nothing is settled yet. In an atmosphere of confusion and change, community colleges need to be prepared to answer tough questions about affordability, walk students through the aid process, and explain changes as clearly as possible to students.
What are the Impacts of Funding Cuts on Campus?
The practical impact is that many vulnerable students could face new barriers and financial stresses. Reduction in funding increases the burden faced by community colleges on multiple levels. Overall budgets impacted by lack of resources will continue to feed into pervasive issues such as reduced benefits and under-employed instructors, compounding the talent crisis in higher education.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) policy advocates have raised alarms that Congress’s current budget proposals will create barriers specifically to community college students, impacting hundreds of thousands of current and potential students nationwide. Additionally, the burden falls on financial aid staff to explain the changes and loss of options to worried students. Enrollment officers should anticipate students asking tough questions about affordability and college administrators need to provide enrollment staff with clear answers and alternatives to provide to current and prospective students.
Facing the Uncertainty
Communication is key, especially when everything is in a state of fluctuation.
Community colleges need to lean into what makes them unique: your community. Stay in open communication with your local, regional, and state supporters. This goes beyond your advancement office into all areas of the college. This may look like hosting town-hall style events on campus, inviting local employers to meet instructors, engaging your trustees at a deeper level, and having more one-on-one conversations with donors and sponsors.
As your institution gears up for 2025/2026 enrollment, stay transparent and empathetic about the situation students are facing. Acknowledge that current and potential students are nervous about costs and access to financial aid. Emphasize that, despite all the changes, your college remains committed to supporting your students.
Strategies to support active communication:
- Listen and Validate Concerns. Acknowledge that times are turbulent and financial aid rules are confusing. When talking to current and prospective students, give them room to express worries (cost of attendance, loan repayment, balancing work/school).
- Be Honest but Reassuring. Don’t avoid the facts, instead put them in context. You might say, for example: “Congress is considering changes to federal aid that could affect grants and loans. We’re monitoring the situation closely, and our financial aid office is ready to help you navigate any changes.” Let your students know that they still have access to resources such as scholarships, payment plans, emergency funding sources, flexibility opportunities (such as 7-week classes, or online/hybrid options), and other support services. Frame it as “even when outside policies change, our commitment to student success stays the same”. This combines honesty (“we know it’s hard”) with encouragement (“we’re here to help”).
- Provide Clear Guidance and Next Steps. Many students will have questions about how exactly the changes affect them. Provide simple FAQs and prepare advisors/guidance counselors with all the materials they need to walk students through their decision-making process. For example, explain: “If you currently take 9 credits a semester, here’s what changes…” and walk through their options. Use plain language, avoid jargon. Outline existing and new campus-based aid (scholarships, work-study) that can help make up gaps. Focus on what IS available so that students know they have options and that institution staff are committed to their success.
- Share your “Why.” People connect to each other through shared purpose. Share why your institution does this work and why it matters. Show the impact of your college on the local community and local economy. Your students are the people who make your community run, they are the Nurses, Teachers, EMTs, Dental assistants, Police Officers, and small business owners that you and your supporters interact with on a daily basis.
- Be Consistent Across Channels. All communications should reinforce the same core message and tone. Apply that internally and externally: ensure every enrollment counselor, marketing staff person, and advancement team member has the same up-to-date talking points. That consistency – doing what you say – builds institutional trust
- Highlight Institutional Strengths and Purpose. Remind prospects of why your college is an asset: its programs’ quality, career outcomes, community role. For example, share data or testimonials about job placement and earnings. Community colleges lead the way in listening to and adapting to community needs, which builds our society. Emphasize your college’s mission in concrete terms: meeting local workforce needs, opening doors for first-generation learners, and driving community progress.
Taking Action and Moving Forward
In this unsettled environment, community college professionals can make a difference by combining personal advocacy with a supportive environment as a campus community:
- Advocate for Students. Email, call, or write to your US Congress Representative and your US Senator. Highlight student voices at all levels, from local to national. If possible, encourage student ambassadors to share their stories with legislators. (For example, share how a single Pell grant enabled a student to graduate and enter a career.) Lawmakers need to hear from their constituents that sweeping changes are impacting real people (who vote). A unified message like “Protect Pell for community college students!” can be powerful, especially if sent by administrators, faculty, and students together.
- Strengthen Campus Support. Proactively bolster financial aid counseling and emergency aid on campus. Even small book vouchers or mini-grants can keep a struggling student enrolled. Make sure advisors are prepared to explain new rules clearly. Consider partnerships with local employers for tuition assistance programs, or raise awareness of external scholarship opportunities. Highlight any “safety net” programs your college offers, so students know you’re working to fill gaps.
- Adapt Your Programs and Marketing. Explore how you can broaden enrollment streams. For example, if federal aid is shrinking, can you promote more short-term certificate programs or bundled courses? Opportunities like flexible start dates and online classes can be especially attractive for working and/or caregiver students who fear losing Pell. Keep sharing successes that highlight the ways a community college education is still a valuable investment.
- Stay United and Resilient. Finally, remember that your team can model resilience for your students. Embrace consistent leadership and camaraderie. Celebrate faculty and staff efforts to support students, and encourage everyone to keep learning and adapting. By building that resilience internally, your college will be better positioned to help students bounce back from adversity as well.
Looking Toward a Resilient Future
Community college professionals have an important role both internally and externally; you must weather the policy shifts and lean into your college’s core mission. Keep telling the story of how your institution transforms lives, stay attentive to student needs, and help your campus adapt quickly. In the words of Sue Cunningham, President of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) “Advancing education to transform lives and society, and being curious about how others perceive our work, has never been more important. Change is constant; educational institutions have played and continue to play a central role in shaping the future.”
Combining clear, compassionate messaging with advocacy and a supportive campus environment, you can ensure that students – especially those most vulnerable – still see your college as an accessible ladder to success.
If you need support bolstering your community college’s communication strategy, Aperture can help. We specialize in deeply researched content creation so that community colleges can better inform prospective students about the subjects that matter to them most—like student aid and other support services. To learn more about how we can help your college succeed, contact us today.