Republicans Pass Bill that Exposes Students and Taxpayers to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Higher Education
WASHINGTON – With a vote of 22-13, Republicans on the Education and the Workforce committee today approved legislation that would repeal critical protections for students and parents while at the same time stymieing the administration from being able to root out waste, fraud and abuse in our federal student aid programs.
“By halting critical rules on accountability and integrity in the student aid system this bill makes college more expensive, leaves taxpayer investments at risk, and hurts the long-term development of successful and innovative education models,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democratic member on the committee. “At a time when the higher education market is in so much flux with new kinds of programs popping up around the country and online, this is the wrong time to reopen loopholes for manipulating student aid dollars.”
H.R. 2637 would permanently eliminate the federal government’s ability to ensure that taxpayer dollars are appropriately accounted and paid. For example, under H.R. 2637 the Secretary of Education would be banned from ever defining a credit hour. Credit hours are used to determine the amount of federal aid for which a student is eligible. In 2010, the Department of Education’s Inspector General found multiple instances of accrediting agencies approving institutions of higher education for accreditation even though its evaluators noted the institution had an “egregious” credit hour policy. These policies were wasting taxpayer dollars and under serving students by granting a dramatically inflated number of credit hours for certain education programs.
Repealing the definition of the credit hour would be a stumbling block for innovation. Prior to a federal definition, accrediting agencies were tasked with evaluating the appropriateness of class credit. Some agencies employed archaic policies that only recognized academic credit based on the time a student would sit in a classroom. These policies left no room for the innovation occurring with online learning and competency-based education. The federal definition forced these accreditors to broaden their own policies which have led to a boom in innovation since 2010. Repealing the federal definition would allow accrediting agencies to revert back to policies that would hamper innovative practices.
H.R. 2637 also overturns accountability and integrity measures in higher education. This is especially true in the for-profit sector. This sector enrolls about 10 percent of students nation-wide, consumes almost 25 percent of all federal financial aid dollars and is responsible for almost half of all defaults in the federal loan program. H.R. 2637 would prohibit the Department of Education from creating and enforcing rules on state authorization and ensuring that poor-performing programs are held accountable at all schools, regardless of sector, to students who depend upon them for meaningful degrees and to taxpayers who help fund them. In such tight budget times, Congress needs to be even more vigilant, not less, in shepherding taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment that would replace H.R. 2637. Rep. Bishop’s amendment would restore the Secretary of Education’s authority to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Higher education must be held to high standards, and the Department of Education must have the oversight authority to root out fraud and abuse and ensure students are receiving a quality education,” said Congressman Tim Bishop. “The partisan and shortsighted legislation put forward by committee Republicans today is a non-starter, and it is past time the committee started focusing on making college accessible and affordable for the millions of American students seeking the tools they need to succeed.”
H.R. 2637 is opposed by a coalition of the nation’s leading student, consumer, veteran, civil rights and college access and affordability organizations. Read the letter of opposition to H.R. 2637.
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