Will Regional Universities Pass or Fail? The schools most at risk from the pandemic are the best able to spur America's recovery.

• Author: Kim, Anne
• Position: TEN MILES SQUARE

In Washington, D.C., debates around higher education tend to focus on the Harvards and Yales of the world, forgetting that the vast majority of students don't attend elite schools. Too often absent from these conversations are higher education's true workhorses: so-called regional public universities.

While the Department of Education offers no official definition of these institutions, they basically occupy the middle space between community colleges and flagship research universities. One analysis by Inside Higher Education tallies more than 500 schools nationwide that fit this category. Generally, they are less selective in their admissions policies and lack prestige, but they fulfill an essential role in helping millions of Americans advance their lives and careers.

These schools--think Eastern Michigan University instead of the University of Michigan--confer nearly 40 percent of all bachelor's degrees in the country each year and as many as one-fifth of degrees overall. They are particularly important in providing students of color access to higher education--and they play an enormous role in supporting their local economies.

The problem is, they are also struggling to survive.

Even before the pandemic, many regional public universities were facing stark financial challenges. Enrollment numbers and state funding had been in decline for years. Now, their revenue may shrink further, as some students shift to cheaper community colleges for online classes and others are unable to afford college altogether.

But if the schools pull through this period, they could be pivotal to a robust and equitable post-pandemic recovery, as a recent Brookings Institution report found. A case study of regional public colleges in the Great Lakes region, it highlights three significant ways in which these schools could bolster a post-COVID-19 recovery.

First, regional public universities are typically the economic anchor of the towns or cities where they're located, and are often the town's biggest employer. They also often spur economic development through research and development activities and partner with local employers to help commercialize new technologies or share best practices. In past downturns, according to Brookings, this support has cushioned localities from the most severe impacts of the crisis. In the Great Lakes region, for instance, communities with a public four-year school lost fewer jobs during the Great Recession and recovered more...