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News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education

Feb. 7, 2008

Real Progress (Finally) on College Affordability

By Howard P. (Buck) McKeon

After a decade and then some of commissions, studies and stern warnings, Congress is poised to finally take concrete action to hold down the rising cost of a college education. A notable consensus has emerged among lawmakers of both political parties and major elements of the higher education community that sunshine and transparency are the best first steps to empower consumers and address the college cost crisis. While agreement among these parties is a feat in itself, this achievement is even more extraordinary considering the staunch objections of a few short years ago.

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Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, a bill that will lift the veil on rampant tuition increases and hold individual colleges and universities accountable for their role in pricing students out of the dream of a higher education. The legislation couples strong consumer-driven disclosure with meaningful data comparisons so that higher education consumers and policy makers alike will be able to better understand the phenomenon of rapidly rising tuitions.

After shining a spotlight on the problem, the bill encourages solutions by requiring institutions with the greatest tuition increases to form Quality Efficiency Task Forces, whose purpose is to identify what is driving the cost increases and what can be done about them. The bill also calls on states to do their part, recognizing that for public institutions in particular, state support plays a critical role.

Keeping college affordable has been a priority of mine since I came to Congress. I earned my degree later in life, an experience that has helped keep higher education at the forefront of my agenda throughout my political career. And in the 15 years I’ve spent in the U.S. House of Representatives, rising college costs have consistently topped the list of “what’s wrong” with higher education, at least in the view of American students and families.

Even the most casual observers of American higher education recognize that there are no easy answers to the college cost crisis. The quality of our institutions has long been linked to institutional diversity, consumer choice and academic autonomy. At the same time, public and private colleges and universities alike are heavily subsidized by the public in the form of taxpayer-funded financial assistance. There has always been a tension between postsecondary independence and public accountability, a balancing act that is particularly tenuous when it comes to the question of appropriate federal intervention into hyperinflationary college prices.

In the lead-up to the 1998 Higher Education Act reauthorization, I thought the most appropriate solution was to enlist higher education experts. In doing so, we established the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education. In simplest terms, the Commission recommended that colleges be required to disclose more detailed financial information, while also self-examining to identify strategies that would hold down costs. These seemingly modest recommendations were given a cool reception, to put it mildly.

After swiftly rejecting the Commission’s proposed reforms, the higher education community pledged to deal with rising tuitions independently. Lawmakers were given assurances that colleges and universities recognized the pressing need to hold down costs, and would act accordingly, without intervention. Unfortunately, it seems the college affordability gap has only grown wider in the decade since.

When we began the current HEA reform cycle in 2003, I knew colleges could no longer go it alone. Congress needed to do something. Building on the recommendations of the Commission, I proposed a College Affordability Index to help students and families better understand and compare tuition increases. Five years later, the details have been refined but the principle remains the same — thanks to the bill we are about to consider, higher education consumers will finally be given the information they need to start exercising their power in the marketplace.

Luckily for students and families, Congressional action has not occurred in a vacuum. Colleges and universities have begun to recognize that the college cost crisis is not a figment of Congressional imagination, but a serious threat to educational equality and American competitiveness. The higher education community has also come to the conclusion that while congressional action is inevitable, institutions can still be the primary drivers of reform if they step up to the plate now and take a leadership role, rather than forcing Congress to intervene more aggressively.

Some in the higher education community continue to bury their heads in the sand and reject the very existence of a college cost crisis. Others acknowledge the problem, but spend more time criticizing our proposed solutions than offering creative responses of their own. Neither of these stances is acceptable.

Late last year, the Education and Labor Committee unanimously approved legislation that takes meaningful steps to keep college affordable. The bill will receive strong, bipartisan support in the House this week, and later this year our efforts to solve the college cost crisis will become law. College costs have dominated the 1998 and 2008 HEA reforms. Let’s hope that in another 10 years we will have finally changed the subject.

Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon of California is the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor.

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Comments

McKeon Is highly responsible for this problem

Mr. McKeon’s campaign committee is the largest recipient of cash from the Sallie Mae PAC year in and year out.

One would think that a standing member of the House Education committee would refuse donations and gifts from the student loan industry to avoid the apearance of a conflict of interest, but apparently, that’s no problem for McKeon.

It was Mr. McKeon and his friends who stripped nearly all meaningful consumer protections from student loans, and made defaulted student loans a huge moneymaker for the industry, and even for the Department of Education- they said in 2004 that they get back every dollar of principle, plus almost 20% in interest and fees from defaulted loans. This is of course, after the guarantors, and their collection companies get their piece.

There are student loan companies with shark tanks in their corporate headquarters now, since Buck did his work on the committee.

This has ruined the lives of millions of American citizens, who are treated like criminals as a result of their defaulted student loans.

Just yesterday I heard from a Harvard grad who has left the country on account of her student loans that have exploded with penalties and fees beyond what anyone could bear. At this point, we have recieved dozens of student loan refugees.

McKeon can say he’s concerned about the high cost of college all he wants. It is clear who his interests lie with, and who he fights for, and it’s certainly not the students.

Alan Collinge, Founder at Studentloanjustice.Org, at 7:20 am EST on February 7, 2008

It seems very odd to me that a bill that claims to help reduce the cost of higher education contains so many requirements that colleges spend money on things not related to their mission. How can Congress, with a straight face, claim this bill will reduce the cost of a higher education while simultaneously forcing colleges to spend millions and millions of dollars to implement useless and ineffective content filtering software? The insult is even worse when you realize those provisions are corporate welfare for the content industry and designed to prop up a failing business model.

And let us not forget that the MPAA somehow miscounted, so these million dollar “solutions” will target only 3% of the movie piracy (when you take into account how many college students actually live on campus) and likely about the same amount of music piracy.

When Congress stops pandering to the content industry, perhaps then we can have Real Progress (Finally) on College Affordability.

Kyle Johnson, at 7:20 am EST on February 7, 2008

Today the House is scheduled to vote on a bill with a history that can be traced back to LBJ’s Great Society and the War on Poverty...a bill designed to give Americans who weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths a chance to better their lives through education. Instead, this law has devolved to Federal control, often at the micromanaging level, of virtually everything that happens on college campuses nationwide. The focus of HR 4137 is more to punish colleges and implement costly bureaucratic burdens than it is to assist students, and Mr. McKeon and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle have precious little to boast about.

I agree that something should be done about rising costs, but Mr. McKeon’s kneejerk approach is simply to give schools bad PR and make them fill out endless reports. That will then be countered by spin doctoring and rationalizing by schools, and nothing will be accomplished that benefits students. When Bush became President, gas was about $1.40 a gallon, where’s Congress’ concern about those rising costs?

DS, at 9:00 am EST on February 7, 2008

The larger picture missing

As a faculty member with adolescent children, I see both the point Buck McKeon is making and also the problems with the narrow focus of his proposal. Among the total costs of college for students and their families, the share devoted to tuition is the most visible one and the one that has risen fastest in the past few decades. For the majority of college students, who attend public institutions, tuition is still a small part of the total cost (the majority is the opportunity cost of the time), but it’s not ignorable, either. This morning, I type this comment from a hotel room, and my older child is going on her first college visit this morning. Like many parents, my spouse and I want her to attend the college of her choice, but we also wonder how we’re going to pay for it and her younger brother’s choice.

But that’s not the entire picture. As a faculty member in one of those public institutions, I’m glad to see McKeon recognizes that most of the tuition hikes in public universities and colleges is cost-shifting from state budgets onto families. My own state is in a budget crisis, and we already have the highest student-faculty ratio in the country. Given the lack of state support, the only way to avoid the further erosion of educational quality is to raise tuition. Even raising tuition just to the median public four-year tuition in the country over four or five years would give us extraordinarily higher percentage increases and probably trigger all of the disincentives McKeon and his colleagues have put into their proposal. This makes no sense whatsoever, since almost any likely tuition hike would still put Florida’s public university tuition far below both public and private national averages.

Finally, the first commentator is correct in one sense: the larger focus needs to remain on student debt, not just on the most visible cost of college for students and their families. I don’t know about Sallie Mae’s contributions to Rep. McKeon, but the measures he touts are largely missing the mark. A feel-good measure that takes advantage of the high listed tuition of selective private colleges does too little to help the millions of students from poor and moderate-income families who attend public institutions and take on loans to pay for more than tuition.

Sherman Dorn, Associate Professor at University of South Florida, at 9:05 am EST on February 7, 2008

Quit Whining

When you take other people’s money and tell them that you are going to repay it, you should read and understand the terms of the loan carefully. Then pay back what you owe. Anything else is theft, Alan. The students who are borrowing money are adults, by our legal standards, Alan. They are responsible for what they do. Unfortunately college counselors do a great dis-service to students by encouraging them to enter academic disciplines which are over-supplied and therefore underpaid.

Some people shouldn’t take loans to go to school. If you are planning on majoring in Wymyns Studies, or Underwater Basketweaving, then you better think carefully about your expected future earnings, and how you’re gonna repay you loan. Or maybe some students should take up a trade, rather than waste their time and the publics money.

R. Vance, SBCC, at 11:50 am EST on February 7, 2008

Why Costs Are Increasing

Transparency is generally a good thing, and in promoting it, this bill is a step forward. However, I’ll wager that reports from higher education institutions will reveal that one major reason costs have risen is that the U.S. government, including Congress, has imposed many unfunded mandates on colleges, requiring increased staffing to fulfill their demands. It would appear that this new legislation will further increase those costs. Congress is itself partly to blame for the problem of rising tuition and shouldn’t be pointng fingers only in the direction of colleges.

Sandy Thatcher, at 11:55 am EST on February 7, 2008

Whining???

I agree that student are adults and should be treated as such. Having said that adults borrow personal loans, mortgages, lines of credit, etc AND receive the protections to which Alan alludes.

Why then should student loans be the only exception?

Don’t say “because it is tax dollars” unless you have never heard of FHA or VA mortgages, etc.

All of the protections (forbearance and administrative deferments) built into student loans are designed to maintain and safeguard the debt no matter how long it takes to pay it back.

Americorp is not a protection.

Imagine no bankruptcy protection from a predatory mortgage lender and the only protection the lender gives you (by law) is a few months off from paying, but adds interest and collection costs to your total.

Keep in mind that the amounts being borrowed by students are fast approaching the level of a mortgage, exceeding it in some instances.

I don’t agree with Alan on all of his points, but the treatment of student loans is so exceptional when compared with other debts it is glaring.

Since the intent in making the loan available to the student was to help them obtain the benefits of an education in order to move the exceptional low income student out of poverty there is a terrible irony at work here.

R.F., at 3:45 pm EST on February 7, 2008

McKeon sides agin with the banks

Today’s vote on the Davis Amendment offered a perect example of how much of a stranglehold the banks have on Congress, thanks to guys like Buck McKeon.

There was never any defensible reason for removing bankruptcy protections for private student loans. None. But McKeon, Boehner, and others made it happen for them.

When the Davis Amendment- which would have returned bankruptcy protections to private student loans- came to a vote, it passed by voice vote, but Buck McKeon interceded, and demanded a recorded vote. Then Buck and the Student Loan Mafia went to work. By the time the vote occured, the amendment no longer had the necessary support.Buck McKeon doesn’t care about the students, and he never has. As long as he and even his family members can make a buck from the industry, they will continue to allow the industry to take advantage of these unfair laws, and trample the borrowers underfoot.

Alan Collinge, Founder at Studentloanjustice.org, at 5:05 am EST on February 8, 2008

More Name Calling from Alan

It is all he knows how to do. He certainly doesn’t know how to pay back his loans. If things don’t go his way, he starts with the blame game. PAY YOUR LOANS BACK!

Student Loan Justice Exposed, at 10:30 am EST on February 8, 2008

Expose yourself

This poster has gone to great lengths to hide his/her own identity. Even the website they created is registered to an anonymous owner. What really needs to be exposed is who is behind this, and why they feel so ashamed of their arguments (or lack thereof) that they need to hide.

In the interest of meeaningful public debate on this issue, I would kindly ask the moderators of this board to refrain from publishing personal attacks from anonymous posters in the future.

Alan Collinge, Founder at Studentloanjustice.org, at 5:00 pm EST on February 8, 2008

Thanks “Buck”

You are a power of example to me. With all that is going on in the world today it is such a gift to be able to go to bed at night and sleep soundly knowing you will be looking out for the low amd middle class folks who strive to achieve their own piece of the Americam dream throught the higher education system. Your tireless and selfless efforts have been nothing short of miraculous. This is what I imagine a letter from an executive of a student loan company to Rep McKeon would look like. Seriously ‘Buck,” your article sounds more like the ramblings of a man who can feel footsteps behind him. Well “Buck,” there’s nothing wrong with your hearing after all. The American public never stays ignorant forever. Institutions of higher learning, if they are guilty of anything, have simply decided to jump on to the same gravy train that was created and carefully maintained by legistlators like yourself. Why not come clean with the rest of the voting public ? How many back room deals have you brokered to protect a system that has victimized more Americans than perhaps even the home mortgage industry ?

Edward McKinley, at 9:15 pm EST on February 8, 2008

The Buck Stops Here

Hey Bucko—

I see you really care about students who have been taken in by predatory lenders and predatory schools. I see you have made it so those of use who have lost big time in your system have recourse other than a life of poverty. I see you are preventing unethical and frequent lenders and schools from taking in and ruining the lives of vulnerable students—namely, the poor, the disadvantaged, the disabled. I see you have set up a program that makes government and accreditation agencies ALL take on the responsibility of ensuring affordable, meaningful education.

NOT.

Thanks for nothing.

kgotthardt, at 9:15 am EST on February 9, 2008

Hey SLJ Exposed

Try exposing yourself instead of trying to attack Alan.

Oh that’s right. We’d all run away in horror.

Anon, at 9:15 am EST on February 9, 2008

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