April 10, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 62 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S2381-S2382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     STRENGTHENING ACCOUNTABILITY TO PROTECT STUDENTS AND TAXPAYERS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President I ask unanimous consent that a copy of 
my opening statement at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and 
Pensions Committee be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

     Strengthening Accountability To Protect Students and Taxpayers

       Mr. ALEXANDER. When I was president of the University of 
     Tennessee, I asked David Gardner, who was then president of 
     the University of California, why his university was 
     considered one of the best in the world. He told me: First, 
     autonomy. We basically have four branches of government, he 
     said, and one of them is the University of California. 
     Second, competition and choice--large amounts of state and 
     federal money following students to the campus of their 
     choice. Third, a commitment to excellence by institutional 
     leaders and faculty.
       As a former university president, I am very much aware that 
     despite that autonomy, our country's 6,000 colleges and 
     universities report to a lot of bosses--they are accountable 
     to a great many individuals, boards, governments and other 
     entities.
       First, they are accountable to the students who may take 
     their federal and state grants and loans to any accredited 
     institution that will admit them; next, to 44 federally 
     recognized accrediting agencies whose certification of 
     quality is necessary before institutions are allowed to 
     accept students who bring $30 billion in new Pell grants and 
     $100 billion in in federal student loans each year; to ensure 
     that these billions of dollars are spent wisely, the federal 
     government measures how many students default on their loans; 
     for the 80 percent of students who attend public colleges and 
     universities, states have governors, state legislators, laws, 
     and state higher education authorities; every institution, 
     public or private, also has its own board of trustees or 
     directors; and in addition, there are specific federal rules 
     for the for-profit institutions, which about five percent of 
     students attend, in order to stop fraud against students and 
     taxpayers; and when making a list of bosses, no former 
     university president should leave out the faculty--most 
     faculty members I have known take great pride in maintaining 
     institutional excellence.
       So any president of an American higher education 
     institution has a lot of bosses and a lot of people to whom 
     he or she is accountable. And that has been a mostly 
     successful approach. Most surveys show that the United States 
     has most of the best colleges and universities in the world. 
     The dream of many of the best students from around the world 
     is to attend American colleges and universities. Still, I 
     hear often from students asking if college is worth their 
     time and money.
       I believe there are steps we can take to make our higher 
     education institutions more accountable--to provide those 
     students, and the taxpayers backing their loans, with a clear 
     yes, college is worth it.
       In March, at our first bipartisan hearing during this 
     Congress on updating the Higher Education Act, we looked at 
     how to simplify how 20 million families apply for federal 
     student aid. Last week, we held a bipartisan hearing about 
     how to create a safe environment for students attending 
     college.
       Today's hearing will be looking at ways to ensure that 
     students are earning degrees worth their time and money and 
     that taxpayers are paid back the hundreds of billions that 
     they have loaned students to earn degrees.
       To hold colleges accountable for the $130 billion a year in 
     grants and loans, in 1990, Congress created the Cohort 
     Default Rate, which applies to all colleges and universities. 
     This measure makes a college ineligible to receive federal 
     student aid if, for three consecutive years, more than 30 
     percent of its borrowers are in default or over 40 percent in 
     any one year. However this cohort default rate has proven to 
     be a poor instrument of accountability, since it does not 
     take into account the one third of borrowers who are not yet 
     in default but don't make payments on time. Over the last 
     decade, only 20 schools have become ineligible for federal 
     student aid under the Cohort Default Rate, according to the 
     Congressional Research Service.
       And then there are two federal accountability rules that 
     apply only to for-profit institutions. One, the 90-10 rule, 
     which requires that at least ten percent of a for-profit's 
     revenue come from nonfederal sources; and two, the Gainful 
     Employment Rule, which looks at how much debt a graduate has 
     compared to his or her salary. This comparison of debt to 
     salary has proved to be a confusing and ineffective measure 
     of accountability because it is too complex and does not 
     account for students who take out loans but do not complete 
     their degrees. So we need a more effective measure of 
     accountability.
       But I do not want the federal government acting as a sort 
     of National School Board for Colleges--telling states and 
     accreditors and boards of directors at institutions how to 
     manage the 6,000 colleges and universities. Four years ago, 
     this Committee passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which 
     reversed the trend towards a national school board for 
     elementary and secondary education. For the same reasons, 
     Washington should resist the urge to send thousands of 
     federal bureaucrats to evaluate our colleges and 
     universities, which would, in effect, create a national 
     school board for colleges.
       Instead, Congress should create a new measure of 
     accountability that looks at whether students are actually 
     repaying their loans. This would be a more effective and 
     simpler way to ensure that taxpayers aren't financing degrees 
     that are priced so high and worth so little that students are 
     never able to pay back their loans. This proposal is much 
     like the Gainful Employment Rule--but it would apply to every 
     program at every college--public, private, and for-profit and 
     would include students who took out loans but dropped out 
     before graduating. For some programs, this new measure should 
     provide colleges with an incentive to lower tuition and help 
     their students stay in school to finish their degrees and 
     find a job so they can repay their loans.
       A second step to improve accountability would be for the 
     federal government to make the data it collects from colleges 
     more useful to students and families. The Department has 
     struggled for years under all administrations to make such 
     information easily accessible to students and families. As we 
     work on updating the Higher Education Act, we first need to 
     identify what information schools actually need to report, 
     and second to provide direction to the Department on how to 
     make that information accessible and useful to students.
       And third, we should strengthen the 44 federally recognized 
     accrediting agencies upon which we rely for certifying that 
     students are receiving a quality education. For example, 
     instead of requiring that accreditors

[[Page S2382]]

     have a standard of ``student achievement,'' Congress could 
     more clearly require that accreditors measure whether 
     students are both learning and succeeding, but leave the 
     specific ways of measuring those to accreditors and 
     institutions.
       Our goal needs to be to help students know that their 
     degrees are going to be worth their time and money and to 
     help taxpayers know that the federal government isn't 
     financing programs that do not provide students with a 
     valuable education.

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