Clock Hour Student Protection Bill Officially Intro’d & HE Portions of Budget Deal Revealed
Weekend Update
The Ides of March Were Nothing to Beware This Year
Overview
For those of you who know your Shakespeare, you know that the reference to “Beware the Ides of March” is a warning to Julius Ceaser of his pending demise and throughout pop culture as a bad omen. But, this year, the Ides of March produced three favorable actions on Capitol Hill.
First, late on Thursday, March 21, 2024, a bipartisan group of four Senators – Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona demanding a temporary delay in the institutional reporting deadlines under the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment regulations set to take effect July 1st. The Senators made clear that the delay is with respect to the reporting requirements and not the “accountability deadlines”. The Senators expressed serious concerns with the Department’s inability to successfully implement revisions to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid revisions and the burden that these missteps are having on the Administrative burden on institutions to support and package students for the coming award year. A reprint of the full letter is below.
Second, on Friday afternoon, Representative Lloyd Smucker, along with original co-sponsors, officially introduced H.R. 7810 (www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7810?s=1&r=1) – The Clock Hour Program Student Protection Act. As previously first reported by CSPEN, this important legislation seeks to preserve the ability for students to have up to 150% of the State established clock hours for licensure and certification programs instruction. CSPEN continues to urge the community and in particular institutions offering licensure and certification programs with state mandated clock hour program lengths, to contact your elected officials and request that they co-sponsor the bill.
And finally, at the end of last week and into the weekend Congress and the White House passed a law providing funding for six Federal agencies, averting a government shutdown, and completing the federal budget negotiations for fiscal year 2024 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025). Here is a very brief summary of the Higher Education details.
- Pell Grants:
The legislation maintains the maximum Pell Grant at $7,395. Congress has increased the award by $900 over the past two fiscal years, which the president has called a down payment on his goal to double it by 2029. - Student Aid:
Other financial aid programs also saw no changes from fiscal year 2023. This includes $910 million for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program and $1.2 billion for Federal Work Study. House Republicans had initially proposed eliminating funding for the Federal Work Study and SEOG program, which provides funding to low-income families for college. - The Federal TRIO programs and GEAR UP programs:
The programs were level funded at $1.2 billion and $388 million. - Office of Federal Student Aid:
The bill gives FSA roughly $2 billion and forgoes any significant increases to the office. The Education Department has been urging Congress for more funding for FSA and has even partially blamed funding levels for its turbulent rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Senate Gainful Employment Reporting Delay Letter
March 21, 2024
Secretary Miguel Cardona
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Dear Secretary Cardona:
Amidst the ongoing updates from the rollout of the FAFSA Simplification Act, we write today requesting temporary policy changes to the FAFSA process for this school year. We appreciate the Department of Education’s efforts to mitigate delays so far, including lowering verification selection rates, pausing standard program reviews, and providing technical assistance directly to schools. Yet, even with the on time rollout of the Institutional Student Information Record data to schools this month, colleges and universities across the nation will still be delayed in rolling out their financial aid packages to prospective students.
This delay, as the Department surely knows, has caused great uncertainty for students who will soon be running up against decision deadlines without any further guidance on their financial aid. Further, the delay in student decision is causing great concern among our schools, especially smaller institutions and institutions serving higher percentages of students qualifying for federal financial aid. At community colleges across the nation, for example, nearly one quarter of their funding comes from tuition. Couple this with the smaller size and resources of community and independent colleges, the potential loss of students will have an even greater impact than on their four-year counterparts. Our community and independent colleges provide invaluable skills to its students, who then go on to provide invaluable services in their towns and cities. The impact of these schools cannot be overstated, and we cannot overlook their needs as we move through this FAFSA rollout.
To that end, we first request that the Department delay institutional gainful employment (GE) and financial value transparency reporting deadlines without delaying accountability deadlines. Institutions are currently required to report data by July 1, 2024, yet the Department will not publish data or require student warnings or acknowledgments for GE and financial value transparency until July 1, 2026. Giving institutions more time to complete this reporting will have no negative impact on students and families in terms of institutional accountability or transparency, but will certainly benefit them by having financial aid administrators focused in these upcoming months on getting their financial aid in order. ED could still open the reporting process per its planned schedule to allow institutions the option of reporting by July 1, 2024.
Additionally, we would like the Department to permit schools to accept electronic copies of verification materials, including electronic signatures. There is precedent for this administrative fix, as the Department allowed V4 and V5 applicants to submit an e-signature for the statement of educational purpose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Barring any fraudulent activity noticed by the Department during this waiver period, allowing for electronic signatures significantly shortened the timespan for applications to be processed and can be a key policy change to provide students more time to make an informed decision about where they will continue their education.
Congress passed legislation to simplify the FAFSA process in order to ease the burden on institutions, prospective students, and their families. Thus far, the Department has made the implementation process more onerous and burdensome for all parties. The Department now has the opportunity to course correct and help ease that burden by allowing these flexibilities.
With financial aid offices already dealing with staffing difficulties2, any administrative streamlining the Department can provide will have an outsized impact on our small colleges. We urge the Department to enact these changes for the 2024-2025 FAFSA process so we can further alleviate financial aid offices and provide students with their financial aid offers in a timelier manner.
Sincerely,
Roger Marshall, M.D.
Tim Kaine
Tommy Tuberville
John Hickenlooper
