Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 3 - Issue 20

On Tuesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Aspen Institute, and the Consumer Bankers Association hosted an event on Capitol Hill at which Representative Donna Shalala (D-FL-27), a new but influential member of the House Education and Labor Committee, indicated that Senate education committee chairman Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) would like to take a “limited approach” to reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA). However, Senate and House Democrats have indicated they would like to see a more comprehensive bill. Also, at the event there was a debate about graduate borrowing and the PLUS loan programs. You can watch a replay of the event here.

Reporting and our information suggest that some HEA legislation, whatever form it takes, could be released as early as the end of this month. We will keep you posted and likely call on you to contact your members of Congress if the legislation contains policies that would be harmful to law students, schools and graduates. We have resources and a toolkit to get you up to speed.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy released a new series of policy papers recommending improvements to federal and state-level postsecondary data systems, while maintaining the privacy and security of student data.

Chicago Booth Review reports on the role of for-profit colleges in student loan defaults and the impact on low-income students.

Three more law schools—Florida International University, University of New Hampshire, and University of California, Irvine—now accept the GRE exam in admissions consideration, which makes for a total of 41 law schools that currently accept the GRE.

The following bill(s) have been recently introduced for consideration by the 116^th Congress (2019-2020):

H.R. 2648 | S. 1414 – Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 [Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10) et al. | Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) et al.] would eliminate the section of the Bankruptcy Code that makes private and federal student loans non-dischargeable.

S. 1428 – Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act [Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) et al.] would allow student loan payments to be considered as elective deferrals for purposes of employer matching contributions to retirement plans.

H.R. 2728 | S. 1496 – Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act [Rep. David Price (D-NC-4) et al. | Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) et al.] would allow borrowers who are liable for a joint consolidation loan to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Education to split their joint loan into two separate federal Direct Loans.