This article takes the stated political preferences of party elites in recent debates as a starting point for identifying the relationship between party identification and policy preferences among the public as a whole. The key question is: Do individuals from different parties have different preferences when it comes to higher education policy? This question will be examined in terms of the broad policy debate outlined in this article. In particular, the author first attempts to determine the role of partisan self-identification in individuals' attitudes toward efficiency in higher education. He next attempts to determine the role of partisan self-identification in individuals' attitudes toward higher education opportunity. This question is important because it is possible that the visible and heated conflict between political elites has little to do with the opinions of their constituents. This would suggest that the current debates about higher education policy at the federal level are more tactical. However, it is also possible that the recent debates among policy elites accurately reflect the divisions among their constituents. To date, little research has been done to understand this question. Most of the research in this area has focused on identifying public preferences as a whole, with little attention focused on particular groups. In addition, there have been no studies that make use of multivariate techniques to isolate the relationship between certain characteristics of individuals and their policy preferences. This study addresses both of these gaps in the extant literature. (Contains 3 figures, 13 tables and 6 notes.)