HEA Update

They started in 2003. After many false starts it now appears House and Senate conferees have reached an agreement on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Last night votes were taken on a final package that is planned to be voted on before members scat for the summer.


The legislation in not put per se, but here are some issue of interest as reported from the good folks at NASULGC:

• With respect to accreditation, the language would prohibit the Secretary from dictating standards for accreditors to use in academic areas.

• On the cost front, the language would base "net price" on the "cost of attendance." The various "college affordability and transparency lists" would be based on both "tuition and fees" as well as "net price." Institutions in the top five percent of each category with respect to increases in tuition and fees or net price would be required to file reports with the Secretary explaining the causes and the steps they will take to addresses cost. Additional cost-related reporting requirements in Title VIII have been removed.

• The conference report also includes a modified version of a "multi-year tuition calculator" that would be created and maintained by the Secretary. In its simplest terms, the mechanism would allow the public to create nonbinding estimates of future tuition and fee levels based on the changes over the past three years.

• The bill also contains language on textbooks that would place new requirements on both publishers and institutions. Institutions would be required, "to the extent possible," to make to the public information about the course materials, such as International Standards Book Numbers (ISBNs), author(s), title, publisher, and copyright dates.

• The "Coburn" language has been modified so that the language only applies to federal HEA funds while the ban on use of federal funds for lobbying, which is current law, remains in place.

• With respect to the broad range of new reporting and data disclosure requirements, it appears that many of the recommendations of the community were accepted. At the same time, however, the language on the disaggregation of graduation rates by income level remains. Also, institutions would still be required to provide illustrative examples of the employment and graduate education pursuits of their employees.

• Progress on "peer-to-peer" has been made as well.

The Chronicle of Higher Education adds:
"But lobbyists for traditional institutions have been more measured in their praise of the bill. While they appreciate the new grant programs and accreditation protections, many resent the increased federal oversight that the bill would bring. Under the bill, colleges would be required to disclose everything from their policies on illegal downloading of music and video files to the details of their arrangements with lenders.

More Paperwork
Colleges are also grumbling about the bill's new reporting requirements, which they maintain would increase their costs at the same time Congress is pressuring colleges to hold the line on tuition growth.
Under the bill, the secretary of education would publish annual lists of the institutions with the highest and lowest tuition and fees, and net prices, by sector, as well as lists of the institutions with the largest percentage increases in net price and in tuition and fees over the previous three years. Institutions appearing on the percentage-based lists would be required to report to the education secretary on the factors that contributed to their price increases and the steps they were taking to hold down costs.
Still, nonprofit colleges can claim some victories. In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's conference, they persuaded lawmakers to drop language that would have required them to notify students and employees within 30 minutes of an emergency and to report any gift over $250,000 that came from a private-sector corporation (though lawmakers left in such a reporting requirement for gifts from foreign governments if the money was to be used for a center receiving funds under the bill).
Colleges also persuaded lawmakers to abandon a requirement that institutions whose net tuition and fees outpaced their sector's average submit a report to the secretary and provide the secretary with certain tax documents from the previous three years.
And while lawmakers retained a controversial requirement that colleges offer students music and video through subscription-based services, they provided a possible out, adding "to the extent practicable" to the language. Still, the language is considered a coup for the entertainment industry, which contends that illegal downloading on college campuses costs it millions of dollars. The bill also would require colleges to use technology to curtail copyright infringement on their campuses.
The compromise bill also contains some good news for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which was created more than two decades ago to counsel Congress and the Education Department on student-aid issues. The House version of the bill would have abolished the influential committee, but the final version preserves it."

Will report back when the conference committee report is out.

A&M in the House!

Literally. Well, U. S. House of Representatives that is. Specifically the Science and Technology's Research and Science Education Subcommittee. Interim VP for Research Jim Calvin sat on a panel before the committee to discuss international research (academic relationships) between American universities and foreign universities, entities or governments. Sort of "Diplomacy through Science." The committee is quite interested in NGO's (Non-governmental organizations) and international agreements in science and technology.

Dr. Calvin highlighted for the committee the need for a mechanism to stabilize funding, long-term between the American and foreign entity. Often gaps in funding occurs when one of the two partners hit a funding snag or disruption which often delays a project or jeopardizes it.

For a recap of the hearing, here's the link. Good job Jim!

http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2259

Approps FY '09--Summer Status

Conventional wisdom--no FY '09 appropriations until early spring in '09. Likely continuing resolution until after the election to see what happens in November elections--POTUS and congressional makeup. Regardless, April seems to be mentioned as when a non-CR type of approp bill(s) may emerge.

In case you're keeping score, here's where things stand as of today. I have spared the day-by-day, ebb and flow of the FY '09 approps process thus far because of what I just wrote above. However these House and Senate actions are not exercises in futility in that the parameters for decisions will be set based upon what's done before the election.

Here's a link to R&D and higher ed interested agency status thanks to the kind folks at AAU that consolidate the info into a nice table. Membership has its privileges. http://www.aau.edu/budget/09Priorities.pdf

FY '08 Supplemental--It's Done!

The president signed the FY '08 supplemental appropriations bill. If you want to read what's in the entire package here's the House Approp's Committee release--a nice synopsis of what got in http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/EmergencySupplemental6-19-08.pdf

Again, $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), and NASA. The breakdown is noted in an earlier blog.

One area not discussed earlier is Veteran's financial aid. Included in the package are provisions to update and expand the Montgomery GI Bill and provide current veterans with college tuition, room and board. Veterans who have served on active duty for three years since Sept. 11, 2001, are eligible for a full four-year college education. More than 1.6 million veterans have served since 2001 and about 450,000 veterans are expected to make use of the new GI bill. Veterans will be able to transfer their education benefits to their spouses and children under a provision added to garner additional support.