Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised on Tuesday to work on reducing regulatory reporting burdens on colleges, saying he would gladly cut federal red tape if institutions, in return, showed greater progress on improving student performance.
“I’m more than willing to exchange that,” Mr. Duncan told college leaders at the annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities here.
The secretary offered the commitment in an area in which federal officials routinely promise relief but, to the eyes of colleges, rarely succeed. The legislation passed last year to reauthorize the Higher Education Act brought colleges more than 100 new federal reporting requirements, according to an analysis by the American Council on Education.
“It is a matter of chronic concern,” said David E. Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the public-university association.
The secretary was pressed on the matter Tuesday by Wendy K. Wilkins, provost for the University of North Texas, who earlier had presented the conference with a study of compliance costs in her state. The survey of 35 public colleges found they together spend a total of $6.5-million a year preparing and filing state reports and $3.6-million on federal reports, all to compile data that does nothing to help the institutions improve their performance, Ms. Wilkins said.
The Obama administration has identified the improvement of student achievement as a policy goal for higher education but has not emphasized helping colleges reduce regulatory costs. Ms. Wilkins, in a question-and-answer session with Mr. Duncan at the conference, proposed a trade for lower regulations, asking the secretary if he “might be willing to help us reduce that in exchange for our serious attention to learning outcomes and assessment.”
The secretary called it “a great question.” “If there was a set of recommendations of things where we are compliance-driven or overly regulatory, where it really doesn’t have anything to do with student outcomes, I would love for you to give me what those specifics are,” he said. “E-mail them to me, and we would love to remove those burdens.”
“Give me the five things or maybe the 55 things that we need to stop doing,” he added. “I would love to have that conversation.”
History of Efforts on Red Tape
Such a trade-off was suggested in the signature effort of the previous administration, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The panel emphasized the need to improve the quality of higher education in the United States while also relieving “the regulatory burden on colleges and universities.”
Neither Ms. Wilkins nor Mr. Shulenburger had specific suggestions ready for Mr. Duncan, saying they would need to consult with colleagues before giving Mr. Duncan their suggestions for ways in which the federal government could cut the number of data reporting requirements it imposes.
Reports Congress has required from colleges are in areas as diverse as fire-safety plans, hazardous-waste disposal, gifts from foreign sources, and the protection of human-research subjects. Some college officials have described the requirements as a reasonable level of scrutiny given the amount of federal money channelled to higher education, but have requested more money to actually produce the reports as well as more attention to removing old requirements that are no longer necessary.
Along with expanding the list of reporting mandates, the bill that renewed the Higher Education Act last year required the administration to complete a study within two years of all reporting requirements imposed on colleges. The study is supposed to include an estimate of compliance costs and recommendations for reducing or eliminating them.
Such a study “would be seen by all as completely objective,” Mr. Shulenburger said. “Prompt initiation of it by the secretary would be very much appreciated.”
The legislation requires the study to be carried out by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. Education Department officials, however, have been told that the council “won’t do studies without funding and that we have not received an appropriation to cover the cost of such a study,” said Jane Glickman, a department spokeswoman.
In the meantime, she said, the department is pushing ahead aggressively with its “experimental sites” program, in which colleges can apply to test alternative methods of meeting federal program requirements while being subject to reduced administrative burdens.
Colleges wanting to end the cycle of unfulfilled promises to cut red tape need to seriously look at whether institutions are delivering improved student performance, Ms. Wilkins said.
“Without our taking seriously the need to demonstrate our commitment to accountability and learning outcomes,” she said, reflecting upon the experience of colleges in Texas, “even sympathetic legislators were not able to be helpful.”
