To: AASCU Presidents, Chancellors and Government Relations staff
From: Ed Elmendorf, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Policy Analysis
Barmak Nassirian, Director of Federal Policy Analysis
Makese Motley, Assistant Director of Federal Relations and Policy Analysis
Date: September 2, 2014
Re: AASCU Federal Update: HEA Reauthorization, Teacher Education & Rulemaking
1- Reauthorization Update
Earlier
this summer, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions (HELP) released a "discussion draft" of its bill to reauthorize
the Higher Education Act. The Committee indicated that it plans to
formally mark up a bill this fall, and requested comments from the
higher education community by Friday, August 29, 2014.
AASCU worked with other higher education groups on a set of detailed comments
that were submitted on behalf of a coalition of associations.
Separately, AASCU also worked with other members of the Higher Education
Task Force for Teacher Preparation on comments regarding teacher preparation provisions of the draft. In addition, AASCU submitted a separate letter on
the provision of the discussion draft that we view as its most
consequential feature for the future of public higher education and for
affordability, i.e., the State-Federal Affordability Partnership.
As you are aware, this provision of the draft is modeled after a proposal that AASCU published earlier this year,
and it is designed to create a strong, voluntary economic incentive for
states to increase funding of operating subsidies for public
institutions. We view the alignment of state funding practices with
federal efforts at increasing student aid as the most credible path
toward restoring affordability and broad access. The restoration of
proper state funding of the public sector and the reversal of the
privatization trend of the last three decades are the only remedy to the
escalating educational
debt crisis.
This proposal, while strongly supported by the three
associations representing public institutions and by a majority of the
HELP Committee has predictably drawn opposition from various quarters
ranging from private institutions to advocates for various state grant
programs.
We encourage you to review the two joint submissions and the AASCU
letter on the State-Federal Affordability Partnership proposal and share
your views with your delegation and with us. As always, we welcome your
comments and counsel on the entire range of pending issues, and would
use them to inform the redrafting of the 2015 AASCU
Public Policy Agenda.
2- New Round of Rulemaking to Be Announced
This notice will be in tomorrow's
Federal Register. It announces the intent to create a negotiating
committee to develop regulations to expand eligibility for Pay As You
Earn (PAYE) to millions more federal student loans borrowers. Written
comments suggesting issues other than PAYE to be considered by the
negotiating committee must be submitted on or before November 4, 2014. Two public hearings will be held for interested parties to suggest additional issues to be considered by the committee
(in DC on Oct 23 and in Anaheim, CA on Nov 4). Everyone
who submitted comments urging the Department to address default rate
and 90/10 manipulation in 2013 should do so again, both in writing and
at one of the hearings.
Excerpt from the notice: "We intend to convene a committee to
develop proposed regulations to allow more student borrowers of
Federal Direct Loans to use the "Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan", in
accordance with the Presidential Memorandum
issued on June 9, 2014. Section 1 of the memorandum directs the
Secretary to issue, within one year, proposed regulations that expand
the President's Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan to more Federal Direct
Loan borrowers by allowing additional Federal Direct Loan borrowers to
cap their Federal student loan payments at 10 percent of their income. The
memorandum directs the Secretary to seek to target this option to those
borrowers who would otherwise struggle to repay their loans,
and to issue final regulations in a timely fashion after considering all
public comments, as appropriate, with the goal of making the repayment
option available to borrowers by December 31, 2015.
After a complete review of the public comments presented at the public
hearings and in the written submissions, we will publish a document (or
documents) in the Federal Register announcing the specific subject areas
for which we intend to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee, and
a request for nominations for individual negotiators for the committee
who represent the communities of interest that would be significantly
affected by the proposed regulations." [emphasis added]
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