Oral history interview with Martha J. Kanter, 2020
Abstract
Martha Kanter discusses her contribution to the education policy of the Obama administration, in which she served as under secretary of the Department of Education from 2009 to 2013. Kanter focuses on efforts to expand access to and increase the affordability of higher education, and provides details about major policies, programs, and initiatives with which she was closely involved, including Race to the Top, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, the American Graduation Initiative, the White House Summit on Community Colleges, student loan relief programs, and the educational provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Kanter also reflects on efforts to improve the evaluation of educational institutions through the administration's College Scorecard, the financial crisis's damage to higher education and the insufficiency of relief financing, Republican opposition to the administration's legislative initiatives, the importance of community colleges for economic and social mobility, and the centrality of diversity to the administration's higher education agenda
Presidents--United States; Education, Higher--Costs.--United States; Student loans--Law and legislation--United States; Community colleges--United States; Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009--United States; Kanter, Martha; Obama, Barack; Race to the Top (Program : U.S.); United States. Department of Education; United States; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2020
Physical Description
54 pages
Note (Biographical)
Martha Kanter served as under secretary of the Department of Education during the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013. She was the first community college leader to serve in the under secretary position. Prior to her appointment, she served first a s president of De Anza College and, later, as chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, one of the largest community college districts in the country, from 1993 to 2009. At the time of the interview, Kanter serves as CEO of College Promise, a non-partisan non-profit that focuses on increasing college access, affordability and quality
Note
Interviewed by Dov Weinryb Grohsgal on November 25, 2020. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Martha J. Kanter, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022