Transcript A Moment in Time

How Did We Get in this
Mess?
And Can we Get Out of it?
Sarah Flanagan
2008 AAPICU Annual Conference
The Mess
• College Cost &
Pricing
• Accreditation
• Student Learning
Outcomes
• Textbooks
• Emergency
Response
•
Credit Crisis
•
Meningitis
• Distance Ed
• Post-Graduate
Outcomes
• Teacher Education
• Drug & Alcohol
• St. Loan Sunshine
• Fire Safety
• Missing Persons
• Peer to Peer
• Endowments
A Quick Perspective
• GI Bill and the War on Poverty
• Student Centered Aid
– Portability
- Access and Choice
• Accreditation as a Barrier to Federal
Control
1992– A Watershed
• Proprietary Scandals
• Middle State Political Correctness
• Last of the Old Lions
“Moving to the Front
Burner”
1993-2000
• Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich: More
in Common Than you Think
• The Student Aid Alliance
• Dec 1995 Government Shut-down
• Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
• 2000 Elections
Direct Lending
1993
• Connected to National Service
Debate (and student loan scandals)
• Done through the Budget Act
• Sets Off Direct Lending v. FFELP
Wars
• Partisanship Enters HEA politics
Clinton and Gingrich
• Populist message by Brilliant Strategists
• So Goes Campaigns, So Goes Policy
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–
–
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Symbolic Politics as Policy
The Role of Polling
30- Second Sound Bites
Policy by Anecdote
• Generational Turnover in Congress
Student Aid Alliance
• Response to Contract with America, but
directed at both Gingrich and Clinton
• Campaign tactics applied to Issue Politics
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–
–
–
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Polling
Focus groups
Earned Media
Grassroots and Grasstops
Unified Message from DC
December 1995
Government Shut-down
• Contract with America dead
• Education central issue
• Education “saves” Clinton for second
time
Taxpayer Relief Act of
1997
• Combines Education and Tax Relief—
a traditionally democratic issue with
a republican method
• Benefits Middle Class
• Adds “Affordability” to “Access”
• Pell Increase Rides the Wave but
Does not Drive it
2000 Elections
• Beginning of Fight for the
Independent Voters
• Education #1 Issue for Independents
• Similar Education Policy
1998 HEA
Reauthorization—End of an
Era
• Last Education bill done “on time”
• Last of the Bi-partisan Leadership from
the “Good Old Days” with policy first
• Benefited from the lack of interest in
HEA (a last gasp on the “back burner”)
What is the New Era?
Education as a Front Burner
Issue
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NCLB
Rise in Independent Voters
Close Elections
Prop Schools Rise from the Ashes
New Interest Groups
Budget Deficits
Age of Accountability
International Competitiveness
Exploding College Prices
No Child Left Behind-2001
• Federal “Fix-It”, not Partners
• Equalization and Equity of Resources
replaced with Student Assessment
• The Birth of the Data God—
”Scientific Evidence”
• Bi-partisan with Groups in tow
• New players
Rise in Independent
Voters
• In the 27 states that register states by
party, the percentage of self-declared
independents grew from 8 percent in 1987
to 24 percent in 2004
• About 40 percent of Americans call
themselves independent
• 30 percent are considered “persuadable”
• Independents broke 2-1 for the Dems in
the 2006 election
Close Elections
• Increases partisanship, because so much is at
stake.
• Need to boldly stake out differences, while
competing for the same voters, using the same
tools.
• Even in recent elections that have been decisive
for one party, the total vote differences needed
to tip the balance of power has been remarkably
narrow.
• Increased Need to Raise Campaign Funds
Old Interest Groups
New Interest Groups
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Education Trust
New America Foundation
Center for American Progress
Data Quality Campaign
The Institute for College Access and Success,
Inc.
• Achieve
• Education Sector
• Campaign for America’s Future
Budget Deficits
• More bi-partisan concern as Dems
have increased their credibility
• The deficit is getting worse
• The federal debt is larger
• The pie is baked
Age Of Accountability
• Business knows best (remember TQM?)
• Learning can be measured and numbers can tell us
everything
• Data leads, policy follows
• Einstein, “Because something can be counted,
doesn’t mean it counts”
International
Competitiveness
• They believe us
• The future success for individuals
and the nation are dependent on
access to higher ed
• We are a public good, with lots of
governmental support
Explosion of College
Prices
• Growth in Tuition far outpaces growth in median
family income
• FY 2008 Pell Grant program will cost $18 billion
for a $4,731 maximum grant-- more than 2 of the
12 congressional subcommittees entire allocations
(five years Pell program costs were $10 b)
• Last year’s average increase in tuition and fees at
private colleges was $1,404
Household Income vs. Tuition, Fee, Room, and Board Charges
(2006 Constant Dollars)
$48,201
$100,000
$80,000
$39,961
$60,000
$12,796
20
06
20
01
19
81
19
76
$0
19
96
$6,877
19
91
$20,000
$14,127
19
86
$40,000
$30,367
Median
Household
Income
Private
FourYear
Public
FourYear
Colleges Losing the
“White Hat”
• Cost
• Scandals
– AAU
– Student Loans
– Study Abroad
• Rise of Prop Schools
Increasing Resentment
of Colleges
• Most Americans (and elected officials)
understand the economic need for
postsecondary education
• Lots of federal support makes no dent
• Congress (like the American people) feels
it can’t keep up
• Is it worth it?
Leads to New Question:
What are we getting for
our Money??
• Asked by parents and by elected
officials
• Spellings answers with language she
knows: NCLB; accountability, data,
student learning outcomes
• Questions regarding “appropriate
federal role” do not resonate
HEA Reauthorization –
Final Stages
1998 Last Reauthorization
2003-04 Scheduled Reauthorization
Feb 2006: Bill Split in two, key student aid portions
become law
March 2006: Rest of HEA passes House and Dies
July 2007: Senate approves 2-part HEA
September 2007: Student aid portions become law
February 2008: House approves Rest of HEA
March 31, 2008: Targeted Conference Completion
Effects on Campus
• What will affect your campus?
• When will these impacts be felt?
• What are our most significant
victories and losses?
Dominant Issues for
Congress
• Turning Student Loan Cuts into Pell
Grant Dollars
• College Pricing (including textbooks)
• Student Loan Sunshine
• Issues de jour (V-TECH, illegal file
sharing, fire safety, missing
students)
•
Teacher Education Accountability
•
Student Debt
Dominant Issues for
NAICU
• College Pricing
• Accreditation
• Student Learning
Outcomes
• Student Loan Sunshine
• Protecting Campus-based
aid & LEAP
• Preserving Pell (against
front-loading, other ideas)
• Student loan cuts—
opportunities and risks
• Increased Loan Limits
•
Student repayment
options
• Transfer of Credit
• Teacher Education
Mandates
• Articulation Agreements
• Last Dollar
• Reporting Requirements
(file sharing, textbooks,
emergency response, UCAN, missing persons, fire
safety, distance ed, drug &
alcohol etc.)
• Integrity
Cost: Senate
• “Watch Lists” of state and national price
increases ranking institutions above
“HEPI”
• State and national lists ranking schools by
change in tuition and fees over previous 2
years
• Development of net price calculators by
institutions within 3 years
• Inclusion of net price information by
income quartile in admissions materials
House Cost Provisions
• Top 5 % of institutions by sector (and nationally)
with largest percentage increase in tuition over 3
years must submit report to Secretary and
establish quality efficiency task forces with
annual benchmarks
• Lists of top and bottom 5 % of schools by price
and sector
• Sec of Ed develops net price calculator that all
schools must adopt and place on web site
•
PEPI
House: Higher Ed Pricing
Summary Page
• Undergrad Tuition and Fees
• For three preceding years
– Net price by income quintile ($35K
increments
– Average % and $ change in tuition and
fees
– Average % change in per-student
instructional spending
And then Even More
• All U-Can Information
• Graduation rate information by
income quintile through IPEDS
• Additional reports to Sec. by any
college whose net tuition rises above
a new PEPI including reports on
efforts to restrict future increases
Transfer of Credit
BEGAN
• Prop Schools: Automatic Transfer
among all Title IV schools
• CHEA Principle: No Discrimination
based on Regional or National
Accreditation
LIKELY END
•
Publish Transfer of Credit Policy
•
Publish Articulation Agreements
Student Learning
Outcomes
• Accreditation as a Regulatory Tool
• Emphasis on Fixed Measures and
Comparability
• Inevitable Drift Toward Formal
Assessment Instruments
• Closely Related to Price Concerns–
What are we paying for?
Likely End Game:
Accreditation and Student
Learning Outcomes
• NACIQI reconfigured
• Limitations on Secretarial Authority
• Clear protections for Schools and
Accreditors to prevent one from
contolling the other
Requires “respect” for religious
missions
Student Loan Sunshine
• Uniform disclosures and certification
to all students who borrow federal or
private loans
• Applies to non-Title IV colleges
• Struck: Restrictions on Bankers
serving on college boards and vice
versa
•
Struck: Restrictions on
Charitable Contributions
Preservation of Programs
• Pell Grant “front-loading” defeated
• All Campus-based programs and LEAP
reauthorized
• Campus-based aid formula preserved
Enhancements to
Student Aid
Positive
• Increases in student loan limits (undergraduate
and graduate)
• New repayment options for students with high
debt to income; public service and non-profit loan
forgiveness; lower interest rates and elimination
of O fees
• $11 billion for Pell Grants (yielding an increase of
$490 per student for AY 2008-09 over the
appropriated max)
Negative
Lenders are cutting borrower benefits
•
Uncertainty of PLUS loans
•
Effect of Cuts on Capital Markets unclear
Last Dollar (mainly a House
problem)
• GEAR UP & 3 new grant programs
• Designed to ensure no college “cuts”
as student’s institutional aid package
because of additional federal grant
dollars
• Brings in federal oversight and rules
for institutional grant aid
Final: Language most likely struck
Teacher Education
Gains
• Removed initial Value-Added assessment models of teacher
ed programs
• Eliminated Rankings of Institutions in State Report Card
• Prohibits a national system of teacher certification
Losses
• Every college with a teacher ed program must set annual
quantifiable goals in accordance with goals set by the
Secretary of Education (senate) or State (house) in such
areas as:
subject shortage areas (i.e. math, science, l.e.p)
–
special populations (special ed, rural and urban, etc.)
Articulation Agreements
(House)
• Secretary to carry out program with
the states to “develop, enhance and
implement comprehensive articulation
agreements among institutions in a
State”
• Encourages such things as “common
course numbering, general education
core curriculum”
End: Private Colleges Removed
from Mandate
Integrity
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50 Percent Rule
Incentive Compensation
90/10
Default Rate Window
End Game: Props Likely Gain Ground
Reporting Requirements
• File Sharing
• Textbooks
• Emergency
Response
• U-CAN/ Navigator
• Missing Persons
• Fire Safety
•
Cost
•
Endowments
• Distance Ed
• Post-Graduate
Outcomes (Senate
• Grad Rates by
Student Aid
Recipient
• Drug & Alcohol
• Student Loan
Sunshine
• Meningitis
Textbooks
• Publishers must provide pricing
information to those who select books on
campus
• Requires “unbundling”
• Requires ISBN, retail price to be
published with class schedules (to
maximum extent practicable)
• Upon request, colleges must make info
avail available to outside bookstores
• Language protecting academic freedom
and institutional autonomy
P2P File Sharing
• Requires disclosures to students on school
policies for illegal downloading that are
identical in both House and Senate, with
bi-partisan support and Hollywood push
• Colleges must develop a plan for
alternatives to illegal downloading and to
explore technology-based deterrents
(House)
Authorizes grant program to
develop pilot programs
Campus Emergencies
• Require campus policies on emergency
response including 30-minute
notification rule
• Procedures must be publicized and
tested annually
Overall Assessment
• We Have Won Many Clear Victories
– Most blatant Price Controls Defeated
– Student Aid Programs Maintained and
Expanded
– Accreditation & Student Learning
Outcomes
– Transfer of Credit
– Ability to Package our Own Aid
– Charitable Contributions from Banks
Greatest Negative Effects
on Campus
• Massive New Reporting Requirements
• New Federal Pressure on Tuition
Increases
And on the Eastern Front—
Finance Committee
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Also interested in College Cost
Endowment pay-outs
Increased Scrutiny of non-Profits
New 990s
Expired provisions:
– IRA Rollover
– Tuition deduction
New Lobbying Rules
• Applies if you have any staff member
on campus who spends more than 20
percent of his/her time advocating
on federal issues or preparing for
such actions
• If you hire an outside lobbyist, you
must make sure they are reporting
you on their own lobbying disclosure
form and you must follow special gift
ban and travel rules
Where Do We Go From
Here?
• This week, this month, this year:
– Engage with members of Congress
– Tell your school’s story
– Effect on your institution
• Building for Next Phase: Repair the
Partnership
– Document your compliance costs
– NAICU efforts: U-Can and Together
We-Can
Sources
• A. Clayton Spencer, “The New Politics of Higher
Education”, Financing a College Education.
Phoenix. AZ: Oryx Press, 1999, pp. 101-119.
• Constance Cook, Lobbying for Higher Education:
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How Colleges and Universities Influence Federal
Policy, Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.
www.independentvoting.org
www.independentvoice.org
Stan Collender: Various FY 2008 Budget Briefings
College Board, “Trends in College Pricing 2006”.