- Senate Republicans, Democrats introduce key HEA proposals
- AACC files comments on GE, other proposed regulations
- Appropriations update
- Accreditation lawsuit
- Funding opportunities
Senate Republicans, Democrats introduce key HEA proposals
Last week, Republicans and Democrats in both the Senate and House introduced legislative proposals with the stated goals of lowering college costs, reducing student debt, and promoting repayment. They emerged at a moment of focus on college affordability, with the resumption of student loan payments and anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Biden’s proposed student debt cancellation. These proposals include:
- The Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act: A package of five bills stitched into one and introduced by Senate Republicans, led by Senate HELP Committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). The package includes the Cassidy’s College Transparency Act – a longtime American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) priority – along with proposals to standardize financial aid award letters, bolster loan counseling, streamline repayment options, create a new earnings standard that undergraduate and graduate programs would have to meet to retain Title IV eligibility, and limit the Education Secretary’s authority to make changes to the student loan program.
- The Federal Assistance to Initiate Repayment (FAIR) Act: Introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), chair of the House Committee on Education & The Workforce, the bill streamlines repayment options and creates new communications requirements for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to make to borrowers and servicers to facilitate repayment.
- The College for All Act: Introduced in the Senate by HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and the House by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), the bill creates a national free public college program for all students attending community colleges and most students attending public four-year institutions through a federal-state partnership, authorizes a new competitive grant program to boost retention and completion for institutions participating in the free college program, doubles the federal Pell Grant and dramatically increases funding for TRIO, GEAR UP and minority-serving institutions.
Despite the flurry of activity, a comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) in the current Congress remains extremely unlikely. However, these bills stake out approaches to promoting college affordability from the most important players in the space. They could serve as jumping-off points for substantive reauthorization negotiations in the future.
For a more detailed look at these proposals, see last week’s Washington Watch article and stay tuned for detailed analyses of each bill coming soon.
AACC files comments on GE, other proposed regulations
Last month, ED released a new slate of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NRPM), following last year’s negotiating rulemaking sessions. The proposed regulations cover ability-to-benefit, administrative capability, certification procedures, and the highly-anticipated return of gainful employment (GE) – key rules governing federal student aid eligibility for Title-IV eligible programs.
Last week, AACC filed extensive comments on the proposed regulations, highlighting the importance of clarity, workability, and burden reduction for colleges. Among other things, AACC provided feedback on the proposed GE regulations, supporting certain aspects of the proposal but raising concern about the new earnings premium (EP) metric and the new supplementary performance measures. AACC’s Jim Hermes offers a concise breakdown of the organization’s comments. ED plans to issue final regulations by November 1 and for new rules to go into effect by July 1, 2024.
Appropriations update
Before Congress went into the current recess, both House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved funding levels for 12 fiscal year 2024 (FY 24) appropriations bills. These toplines, called 302b allocations, are proposed by the committee chairs, voted on by the full committees and then handed over to subcommittee chairs to set funding levels for individual programs.
For FY 24, both chambers have proposed significant cuts to the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill. The Senate has proposed cutting overall FY 24 funding by 5.9%, to comply with the bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling. The House Appropriations Committee approved a 302b allocation for Labor-HHS-Education that would decrease funding by nearly 30%. These numbers bode a very tough environment for AACC’s priority programs.
When Congress returns from recess, House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittees will begin writing their funding bills. In the interim, community colleges should meet with members while they are visiting their home districts and voice support for key community college funding priorities, including the federal Pell Grant program, the Strengthening Community College Training Grant (SCCTG) program, and the Title III-A Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP).
Accreditation lawsuit
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filed a lawsuit arguing that the current federal system of accreditation, in which ED recognizes private accrediting agencies to assess institutional and programmatic quality for the purposes of federal student financial aid eligibility, is unconstitutional. The state argues that the Higher Education Act of 1965 violates that nondelegation doctrine– a rarely-cited principle of Constitutional law that limits Congress’ ability to delegate its policymaking responsibilities to other entities. AACC will be following the Florida lawsuit as litigation continues.
The challenge reflects an emerging trend of Republican policymakers seeking to limit ED’s authority over the accreditation system and to restrict the actions of individual accreditors. On the legislative side, the Fairness in Higher Education Accreditation Act was introduced earlier this month by Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Rick Scott (R-Florida), and Mike Lee (R-Utah). The bill would prohibit higher education accreditors from considering measures related to diversity, equity and inclusion in their accreditation determinations.
Funding opportunities
Applications are open for key community college funding opportunities:
- Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program – Due July 7 for the first round
- Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) Grant Program – Due July 31
- Advanced Technological Education (ATE) – Due October 5
For more detailed information on these issues, visit the Community College Advocacy Updates page on AACC’s website. Send questions, feedback and more to: kgimborys@aacc.nche.edu.
