efforts by universities to reduce student costs and debt levels. He has not proposed federal support for debt-free degrees at public colleges and universities.
Other Clinton proposals to make college more accessible could help create a broader population of students who might become customers for digital learning products related to their studies. Her proposals include various forms of student debt relief and loan forgiveness for some graduates, and a $25 billion fund to support historically black colleges and other higher education institutions serving minority populations.
U.S. higher education institutions—and by extension, any of their edtech partners—might also benefit from a Clinton policy that would attract more international students. She says she would award green card status to non-U.S. citizens who earn a masters degree or PhD in a STEM field at an accredited institution here. They could then stay, to work or found companies, for example.
In her proposals for workforce training, Clinton makes her most explicit statements about the use of educational technology and college-alternative learning programs such as code academies. She would devote $10 billion in federal funding to support students working toward alternative credentials such as “nanodegrees” (a term invented by MOOC pioneer Udacity), “certificates” in skill specializations that employers value, or other achievements via online learning. Clinton would continue a trend of the Obama administration toward allowing the use of federal student aid to pay for such studies within proven programs. These policies could again broaden the customer base for digital learning companies or code schools, because the student population would embrace workers at any age who need to update their skills for 21st century jobs.
Trump has also set a general goal of ensuring that vocational and technical education, as well as college, “will be easier to access, pay for, and finish.”
The edtech industry (among others) could see a boost if Clinton’s agenda on the U.S. technology infrastructure goes forward. Her stated goal is high-speed, affordable broadband for 100 percent of American households by the year 2020, and adoption of faster 5G wireless connections. Clinton proposes extending free Wi-Fi across public spaces, including schools and libraries as well as transit networks, train stations, and airports. This might support edtech companies that offer mobile learning experiences in bite-sized chunks that commuting workers as well as traditional students could consume in their spare moments. It might also make online learning more accessible to communities where Internet access is scant or unaffordable.
Clinton also wants to push for global agreements to guard against government interference or censorship of the flow of data over the Internet and across national borders. Successes in this realm could help U.S. universities and colleges, as well as digital learning companies, that try to expand their customer base by offering online courses or degrees to international students who stay in their own countries to study.
