College Costs
Colleges, not surprisingly, aren’t thrilled with provisions of the bill that will create “watch lists” of the most expensive institutions. But the language could have been a lot worse. Back in 2005, when Republicans were in the majority, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon of California proposed withholding federal aid from colleges that consistently failed to curb their tuition increases.
The final version of the plan doesn’t go that far, though it will require institutions with the highest percentage increases in tuition and fees and net price each year 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. Institutions with the highest tuition and fees and net price will be publicly named — and shamed — but they will not be required to submit the reports.
The bill also offers rewards for institutions that limit tuition increases or freeze tuition for each incoming cohort of students, in the form of extra Pell Grant aid for their students.
Accreditation
The legislation largely sides with colleges on accreditation-related issues, effectively ending three years of attempts by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to force institutions to be more accountable for their educational results.
The bill’s language is firm on that point: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the secretary to establish any criteria that specifies, defines, or prescribes the standards that accrediting agencies or associations shall use to assess any institution’s success with respect to student achievement.”
The legislation also overhauls the Education Department’s advisory committee on accreditation issues, whose 15 members have all been appointed by the secretary. The new, 18-member panel created by the bill will allow six members apiece to be appointed by the secretary and the leaders of the House and of the Senate. The panel is responsible for reviewing accrediting agencies to ensure they maintain high standards for the colleges they accredit. College lobbyists had argued that panel members appointed by Ms. Spellings have been demanding standardized performance measures beyond those required by law.
The bill does require colleges to state their policies on accepting credits when students transfer from other institutions, a provision welcomed by lobbyists for for-profit institutions who have long complained that some traditional colleges refuse to accept credits for courses completed at their colleges simply because they are accredited by national organizations, rather than one of the six regional associations that accredit most traditional, nonprofit institutions.
State Spending on Colleges
To assist colleges in reining in tuition, Congress decided to try to help stabilize a key revenue source for public institutions: state appropriations.
The bill includes a provision that requires states to raise spending on higher education each year by at least as much as they increased it, on average, over the previous five years. If a state did not, the federal government would not give it any new funds from the College Access Challenge Grant Program. That program, on which the federal government is spending $66-million this year, offers matching grants intended to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
The idea of the federal government meddling in state budget decisions does not sit well with governors, state legislators, and state budget officers, who vigorously fought the measure. They said the approach would end up hurting students and colleges because states would be pressured to check increases for higher education when their economies were strong, for fear that they could not keep up with federally required levels of spending when their fiscal circumstances weakened.
Textbook Costs
Students got their way on this issue. Most notably, publishers will be required to disclose textbook prices in any marketing materials sent to faculty members as they decide what books to require. The bill will also force publishers to “unbundle” materials like CD’s and workbooks that are typically packaged with textbooks. Selling those items separately should lower the cost of required textbooks.
Publishers, however, did win a significant concession. Lawmakers added a provision that allows companies to package other materials with textbooks if they are deemed integral to the text. For example, publishers would be allowed to sell a music text and accompanying CD as a single “integrated textbook.”
The legislation also makes demands of colleges. They must list the prices of the required and recommended textbooks for each course on their online course schedules. And the information must be made available before preregistration or registration.
The language of the bill, however, gives colleges wiggle room. They must supply the information only to the “maximum extent practicable” and can comply with the legislation by listing course materials as “To Be Determined.”
Both college and student representatives were pleased that the bill establishes a grant program to help institutions start textbook-rental programs. The legislation, however, only authorizes the program, and money for it will need to be appropriated through other bills.
Copyright Infringement
The legislation includes provisions backed by the entertainment industry that would require colleges to be more aggressive in trying to stop the swapping of music and video files over campus networks. The industry complains that illegal downloading on college campuses costs it millions of dollars.
The legislation requires colleges to use technology to limit students’ ability to share copyrighted works using peer-to-peer networks. The entertainment industry also succeeded in attaching language to the bill that would force colleges, “to the extent practicable,” to offer students music and video through subscription-based services like Ruckus Network Inc.
Educause, a nonprofit higher-education-technology group, had taken the lead in trying to prevent the proposals from making it into the bill, arguing that computer tools to deter copyright infringement — such as Audible Magic’s CopySense and Red Lambda’s cGRID::Integrity — are expensive and don’t always work. The group also said students do not want to use or pay for subscription-based music services.
— Chronicle reporting
http://chronicle.com Section: Government & Politics Volume 54, Issue 48, Page A11