In advance of last night’s State of the Union address by President Obama, federal officials, including the incoming chair of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness, aired ideological differences over issues that are likely to be at the heart of major policy struggles during the new Congress. Discussion on for-profit schools, the controversial gainful employment regulation, college financial aid funding, and the evolving role of government in higher education emerged as top issues Tuesday morning at the 2011 annual conference of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The council is an association that represents more than 3,000 postsecondary institutions and helps set policies for the 60 accrediting organizations recognized by the council, including regional and national accreditors .
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), who is the new chairwoman of the House Education and Labor’s subcommittee on higher education, reiterated her party’s mantra that good government is small and that, the larger it becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain transparency and flexibility. She plans to hold subcommittee hearings during which experts can offer advice about how to streamline federal government regulation of American higher education institutions.
In addition, Foxx also said that she plans to explore whether state and local governments are better suited to handle oversight of higher education. Rather than “rushing to legislate,” Foxx said she would focus more on holding hearings. She also hinted that the Pell grant program would receive a lot more scrutiny because of its explosive growth.
Foxx recognizes the need to hold institutions that receive federal aid accountable, but said that she is not certain that the proposed gainful employment rule makes sense. She also suggested that it might make more sense to apply the rule to both nonprofit and for-profit institutions.
That’s the sort of talk that makes Dr. Larry Earvin, president and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University nervous.
“Given that many of our HBCUs are liberal arts institutions, there’s considerable concern about the gainful employment rule and its impact on [them],” Earvin said. “Liberal arts institutions tend to provide education for students in a variety of areas and not just one specific career path. If you’re talking about schools of business or engineering or programs like that, then gainful employment has a certain applicability.”
Dr. Eduardo Ochoa, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, who also addressed the conference, said that the Department of Education will release a final gainful employment regulation in “the early part of this year” and that it has been revised to allay some of the fears expressed by the for-profit sector, although he declined to provide details.
