College students are speaking, are the candidates listening?

“People say: ‘You’re a student first.’ But it’s hard to be a student when you don’t have a roof over your head or food in your fridge. 

This is how Rob Lierenz, a student at Kent State University, describes his challenge earning a degree.

{mosads}Rob’s story is far too common. Across the country, today’s students are struggling under the burden of too many stressors and too little support to successfully navigate America’s outdated higher education system.

The typical college student is no longer 18-years old and straight out of high school. Today’s students are older and more diverse; they are working and raising families. Seventy-five percent are financially independent and struggling to support themselves. Thirty percent must overcome learning and attention issues like Dyslexia and ADHD. Forty percent come from low-income communities.

While some colleges and universities are adapting their programs to better serve today’s students, federal policies have failed to keep pace and are no longer meeting the needs of the majority of students, and too many young adults are failing to graduate.

Yet, as the barriers to a college degree continue to rise, so does the importance of a post-secondary degree. Two-thirds of all jobs in this country will require some form of education beyond high school by the end of this decade.

This is why it is critical that our next president recognize the reality of today’s students, and work to align federal policies with the challenges and barriers students face today.

America Forward, a coalition of 75 organizations dedicated to innovative program and policy solutions in education, workforce development, and poverty alleviation, has been hosting town halls across the country with today’s students, presidential campaign representatives, and policy makers. These forums provide today’s students with an opportunity to share stories of the barriers they face accessing and graduating college, and to lift up the innovative community solutions that have helped them succeed.

During the most recent town halls in Ohio and Pennsylvania, held prior to both parties’ conventions, students shared stories of parenting while in school, the impact of crippling debt, and the desperate need for second chances for those who have had brushes with homelessness and the criminal justice system early in life.

Nancy, a grandmother who raised her granddaughter while putting herself through college and worked to overcome barriers of poverty, addiction and housing, shared her story of earning her degree at 52 and becoming a social worker.

Sarai, an alumna of America Forward Coalition member City Year, spoke passionately about how a break from college to serve a year made college more financially possible for her.

Terry Green, an alumus of America Forward Coalition member Youth Build, described studying through an Ohio State University program while incarcerated and struggling to find an employer or college who valued his potential once he was released. Terry’s story led to an elected official in the crowd promising to write letters of recommendation and make phone calls to help Terry get into his dream college and find a way to afford it.

These types of powerful, first-hand accounts can help our Presidential candidates and policy-makers understand the reality of today’s students and the value of community programs that help them overcome barriers to earning a degree and offer a chance at a successful life.

City Year, Youth Build, and many other America Forward Coalition members, offer solutions to many of the barriers today’s students face, yet they need resources and support at the federal level to allow more Americans to benefit from their effective programs.

Our coalition is committed to turning the powerful accounts of today’s students and the solutions that support them into policy change as we approach the general election this fall.

The policy changes we need to see include:

• Making existing student supports available and accessible for all students. We must provide actionable information for students and families on post-secondary outcomes, financial aid, and available support services and accommodations. Beyond 12, an America Forward coalition organization, is increasing the number of traditionally underserved and underrepresented students who earn a college degree by providing students with personal coaches and tracking long-term student success.

• Funding the community solutions that work. We should target federal funding to develop and scale-up the programs that increase access to, persistence through, and completion of a post-secondary education. Solutions like YouthBuild USA, allow young adults to work toward their high school credentials while building affordable housing and preparing for post-secondary education and career success.

• Support community partnerships. Now is the time to invest in effective partnerships between postsecondary institutions and high-quality community organizations at the local, state, and national level that provide critical expertise and capacity. America Forward Coalition organization Single Stop partners with community colleges and other organizations to help connect vulnerable families and students to existing benefits and services intended for them.

• Make skills and experience matter. We should establish new forms of credentialing and certification for students that map skills and experience with job placement.

• Connect the classroom to the real world. Students benefit by increasing access to experiences that directly link classroom learning and credentials with careers.

• Reduce student debt burden. We must reform student aid programs.

• Expand participation in service year programs. We should promote the role of service year programs as an effective and mutually beneficial bridge to the full time workforce or, if the service year takes place before college, as a bridge to college.

A post-secondary education is a pathway to opportunity. Our next president can help clear that path by listening to the unique needs of today’s students, bringing to scale the solutions that work, and implementing the policies that will give all Americans, not just a select few, a full and fair chance at a successful life.

Smolover is the executive director of America Forward, a coalition of more than 75 impact-oriented organizations that deliver effective programs and promote policies that foster innovation, identify more efficient and effective solutions, reward results, and catalyze cross-sector partnerships in education, education, workforce development, and poverty alleviation.

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.