Higher Education Reform Begins Long Journey to Becoming Law

Last week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce began work to reform the Higher Education Act (HEA). The Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act aims to promote innovation, access and completion. It also sets out to simplify and improve student aid, empower students and families to make informed decisions, and ensure strong accountability and a limited federal role.
 
Innovation, Access, Completion and Technology
According to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, “this bill would strengthen workforce development by expanding opportunities for students to participate in industry-led earn-and-learn programs that lead to high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers by supporting partnerships between industry and institutions to develop these programs. It also allows students to use Pell Grants for shorter-term programs that will assist them in entering the workforce more quickly.”
 
The legislation focuses additional resources on the federal work-study program, while eliminating the arbitrary cap that prevents more than 25 percent of an institution’s work-study funding from flowing to students working at private-sector companies. The bill also allows institutions to use more resources to locate and develop work-based learning jobs for students that align with the students’ career goals. The bill allows institutions to use institutional aid to develop and implement career-specific programs. It also requires accrediting agencies to have at least one representative from the business community on the agency’s board.
 
The authors of the bill also believe that this legislation encourages innovative learning by repealing the outdated and rigid definition of distance education, making it possible for institutions to develop more innovative methods of delivering postsecondary education. It also encourages competency-based education by creating a clear pathway for such programs to be eligible for federal student aid to help students attain a less costly degree based on their own learning.
 
The bill would also allow new providers of higher education to collaborate with traditional colleges and universities to offer educational programs to students who are eligible for student aid.
 
What Does the Reauthorization Mean for Technology?
So far, the House version of the bill is fairly silent on technology and what it means for higher education institutions. The Center for Digital Education took this opportunity to get feedback from higher education leaders to see what they would like to see in a final version of the Higher Education Act in regards to using technology on campus.
 
Trent Grundmeyer, assistant professor of education at Drake University, stated that the HEA reauthorization should, “support (or encourage) universities to consider more up-to-date tools to deliver and monitor instruction. I would also encourage policy to have a mechanism to gauge the effectiveness of new tools and strategies. Data-driven decision-making is a common trend spreading among campuses across the country, and this reauthorization is an opportune time to codify best practices in this area.”
 
Otto Benavides of California State University, Fresno, sees the reauthorization of HEA as an opportunity to examine funding priorities. He states, “I believe it is very important that colleges and schools of education be given priority for funding to acquire and implement technology programs in order to prepare teachers and school administrators for K-12 schools. Students attending credential programs must have access to technology in order to model what they will do as teachers once they are in the field. Also, funding should be allocated for university and community college professional development programs to prepare faculty across disciplines to include and model the effective use of technology.”
 
The aging infrastructure of schools needs replacement. Schools and colleges struggle to maintain adequate and current technologies. The pace of development requires frequent updates and upgrades that are not possible with current funding models. There needs to be a solution to support the increasing demands for technology. This includes networking solutions, data storage and security, Internet access, computer classrooms, mobile devices, classroom/lab design and distance learning support.
 

What’s Next for the Bill?
The PROSPER legislation passed the House Education and Workforce Committee by a vote of 23-17 and the next step will be for the full House of Representatives to consider the bill on the floor. This likely won’t happen until after the holiday break.
 
Across the Capitol in the Senate, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), who is chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has said that the Senate plans to introduce their own HEA reauthorization after the break as well. Generally, the legislation that gets introduced in the House looks much different from the Senate. This will likely be the case, but it does appear that this reauthorization is a priority for both chambers, so we’re likely to see a new law passed in 2018.
 
Keep checking back in 2018 to see how the bill changes, what is being said about technology, and to know the status of pending legislation.