House Poised to Move on HEA

The House Education & Labor Committee is set to mark up a reauthorization package for the Higher Education Act (HEA) next week. Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) originally planned to wait until after reauthorizing No Child Left Behind (NCLB), before moving on the HEA. Upon Senator Edward Kennedy’s (D-MA) announcement that the Senate would not move on NCLB this year, Rep. Miller moved up efforts on the HEA, hoping to finish before Congress adjourns for the year.



The Senate passed its own version of the HEA reauthorization earlier this year. S. 1642 would:

• Increase the amount of information that schools and lenders must provide to students, including an up-front disclosure of loan rates and terms and data on total school costs, and would ban lenders from giving schools financial aid funds or any other perks to get on a preferred lender list;
• Direct the U.S. Secretary of Education to assess costs that drive tuition increases and examine ways to contain costs and track pricing trends, alerting schools that the government will monitor tuition increases and consider ways to curb them; and

• Require colleges and universities to draft codes of conduct governing relationships with lenders, shorten the application form for federal student aid, and authorize a pilot program to allow students to learn the total aid they can expect to receive up to two years in advance.

Although Rep. Miller has yet to introduce his own legislation, it is not expected to look too different from the Senate version. Both Miller and Kennedy would like to get the HEA completed before breaking for the year, a fact that Miller may keep in mind when marking up the House bill. Along those lines of cooperation, Miller is not expecting much Republican opposition to reauthorization efforts. House Republicans already introduced their own HEA bill, which Miller may pull from in drafting his own proposal. Miller’s stated goals for the HEA are to:

• Encourage colleges to rein in price increases and provide consumers with helpful information;
• Restore integrity and accountability to the student loan programs;
• Simplify the federal student aid application process;
• Make textbook costs more manageable;
• Strengthen our workforce and our competitiveness;
• Expand college access and support for low-income and minority students;
• Increase college aid and support for veterans and military families;
• Ensure equal college opportunities for students with disabilities; and
• Boost campus safety and disaster readiness plans.

Although the House may be able to mark up and pass the bill next week, a conference between the two versions is not likely until after the Thanksgiving break.
Resources:
Stephen Langel, “Head Start Agreement Bodes Well for Higher Education Act,” Congress Now, November 8, 2007.
Author: SAS