In the Senate, Republicans introduced the Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, which itself consists of a collection of five bills.
The CTA Transparency College bill is a bipartisan effort aimed at removing the ban on record unit student data matching from various databases, including IRS data on earnings, which prevents the government from matching data from all its databases to identify the universities and colleges that provide the greatest benefits to students and maintain rankings in the world of education. This ban keeps institutions, parents, and even relatively ignorant public from having access to educational outcomes data, where sketchy input-based rankings like Dominates Report World and News U.S. Continue to live in a ghetto of informational poverty. Without it, we cannot begin to identify which universities and colleges provide the greatest benefits to students at an individual education level matched with income data.
The College of Cost True Understanding Act, introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), would require colleges and universities to develop standard definitions and forms to offer financial aid. This is important because over 90% of students rely on financial aid to attend higher education institutions, and these letters award all their net cost or misrepresentation.
The Student Borrower Informed Act, introduced by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), would provide more information about student loans to potential borrowers. Students would have the option to manually select the size of the loan, similar to how these behavioral nudges can have dramatic effects on choices, such as the maximum loan they are eligible for.
[More from Andrew Gillen: “The Loan Forgiveness Ruling of SCOTUS and the Way Forward”].
The Education Streamlining and Accountability Act, also known as SAVE, would revise the REPAYE plan slightly and offer two repayment options for student loan consolidation: the ten-year standard repayment plan and the Value and Accountability Streamlining plan. Under this plan, programs at for-profit institutions that target selectively rather than all higher education programs would be covered. Additionally, the plan would utilize the floor earnings in gainful employment regulations to improve the vast improvement in programs and certificates offered by Senator Cornyn. This plan is similar to the Biden administration’s plan, where graduates earn less from undergraduate programs compared to graduates with a bachelor’s degree, and graduates from graduate school and graduate programs earn less than graduates from high school programs. Importantly, the bill would also set a borrowing limit for programs with low earnings.
Proposed by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), the GOAL Act aims to create varying loan thresholds for graduate students under the Stafford loan scheme, grant schools the authority to lower the maximum loan sum, and terminate the Grad PLUS loan program. This proposal is both innovative and beneficial.
The Fair Act, introduced by Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Lisa McClain (R-MI), would replace the Federal Repayment Assistance Act in the House. The act proposes a new option for income-driven repayment that would automatically enroll financially struggling borrowers and prevent balances from ballooning by waiving some unpaid interest over time, leading to forgiveness.
The Act introduced by Rep. Owens, known as the College for Accreditation Excellence (ACE) Act, would outlaw political litmus tests and prohibit accreditors from assessing an institution’s commitment to any particular viewpoint, belief, or ideology for the purposes of receiving accreditation for HEA funding.
The flurry of activity indicated in Congressional Republican Beth Akers’ words also suggests that there is potential to meaningfully improve our broken higher education system with significant reforms. Although these bills are not perfect, they do step up to the plate in a big way to improve finance education.