Seven million unfilled jobs and more than $1.5 trillion in student debt means that the status quo is doing more harm than good. In the 115th Congress, the Committee on Education and the Workforce changed the conversation around higher education.
Seven million unfilled jobs and more than $1.5 trillion in student debt means that the status quo is doing more harm than good. In the 115th Congress, the Committee on Education and the Workforce changed the conversation around higher education.
Americans have invested billions of dollars and countless hours of hard work into higher education in an effort to earn a better job and live a fulfilling life. Unfortunately, today’s chaotic maze of federal aid programs, requirements, and red tape has driven up college costs and made pursuing and finishing a postsecondary education unworkable for far too many individuals. We are failing the next generation at a time when more businesses are demanding their employees attain postsecondary credentials to fill technical, high-skill, good-paying jobs. Americans deserve a better postsecondary education system that works for them.
The PROSPER Act, which the Education and Workforce Committee approved late last year, would support students in completing an affordable postsecondary education and prepare them to enter the workforce with the skills they need for lifelong success.
The legislation would transform the college marketplace by promoting innovation, access, and completion; simplifying and improving student aid; empowering students and families to make informed decisions; and ensuring strong accountability and a limited federal role.
The PROSPER Act would encourage institutions to evolve in ways that meet the needs of today’s students by expanding access to innovative forms of education, creating a pathway for competency-based education programs, and allowing new providers of higher education to collaborate with traditional colleges and universities.
The legislation would equip institutions to prepare students for careers by reforming the federal work-study program, allowing students to use federal student aid for shorter-term programs that will get them into the workforce more quickly, and encouraging partnerships between colleges and industry to expand earn-and-learn opportunities leading to high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.
PROSPER would emphasize the importance of completion by providing an incentive to students to complete on time, requiring colleges that receive institutional aid to meet a completion rate threshold, limiting annual and aggregate borrowing, rewarding institutions who help the most vulnerable students complete their education, and requiring institutions to share in the risk of non-completion.
It would simplify and improve student aid by moving to a one grant, one loan, and one work-study system. Our reasonable annual and aggregate loan caps on all borrowers, combined with institutional flexibility to lower loan limits, robust annual loan counseling, and the elimination of costly hidden fees, will help students borrow responsibly to pay for their education.
The bill would provide better information to reduce students’ and families’ confusion by creating a consumer-tested College Dashboard that displays key facts about colleges and universities, including program-level information on average debt and earnings of federal financial aid recipients. This new information will assist students and families in making the best postsecondary decision for their individual situation.
The PROSPER Act would hold institutions accountable by requiring accreditors to focus on student learning and educational outcomes as a part of their review and have a system in place to annually identify institutions that may be experiencing difficulties accomplishing their missions. It would hold all programs at institutions accountable to a loan repayment rate. If an institution’s program did not set a student up for success in repayment, the program would not be eligible for federal aid.
PROSPER would get the federal government out of the way by repealing federal regulations and requirements from the books and prohibiting the Secretary from exceeding her authority under the law.
