The House passed H.R. 1992, "The Internet Equity and Education Act," in a 354-70 vote.
It also defeated an amendment by Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, that would have kept several of the hurdles in place that colleges and universities would require of their students in order to qualify for the financial aid. The amendment failed in a 99-327 vote.
Republicans presented a unified front for the bill, but only a small Democratic faction supported it. Opponents of the bill said that it would bring back higher student-loan default rates, as well as more fraudulent "fly-by-night" academic institutions.
The bill specifically allows schools that offer more than 50 percent of their programs through distance-learning programs to offer federal financial aid, something forbidden in laws passed in 1992 and 1998.
It also requires students to log on for Internet-based classes at least once a week, changing the so-called 12-hour rule, which requires at least 12 hours of teacher/student face-time per week.
Finally, the bill allows distance-education schools to offer commissions to third parties who promote their schools on the Internet.
The bill also requires schools that apply to offer federally funded student loans for distance learning to already offer traditional loans and have a default rate of less than 10 percent.
Mink said Wednesday the debate is not "about distance learning, how important laptop education is in allowing people to participate in the higher education field ... [but] whether the Congress is going to live up to its responsibilities to protect the financial integrity of the student loan program."
Mink added that changes should be made to allow better federal funding of distance-learning programs, but with more stringent standards for preventing fraud and defaults.
Supporting Mink, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., noted that the National Education Association, the American Association of University Professors and other education groups supported revisiting the issue when the Higher Education Act comes up for review in 2003.
Republicans said reform is needed now, however, because the pace of high technology supersedes congressional action.
Responding to Democratic charges that action is happening too fast on the issue, Rep. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said, "The truth of the matter is that were not moving too fast, were way behind."
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said that requiring students log on for one day a week is not full-time and the rule will lead to abuse in the awarding of student loans.
Isakson and Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., who sponsored the bill, argued that the bill solves the problem of getting good education to Americans who are intellectually qualified, but too poor to leave their homes to attend faraway education institutions.
Similar legislation was introduced in the Senate in late September by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and co-sponsored by Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark.
Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes
