Higher Ed Roundup: Week of July 28 – August 1

Congress Finally Approves Higher Education Act

In a Reversal, McCain Announces Opposition to Affirmative Action

Report on State Financing for Higher Education Presents a Mixed View

Congress Finally Approves Higher Education Act

After five years of deliberations, Congress on Thursday gave final approval to legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and sent it to President Bush for his signature. The mammoth bill received overwhelming bi-partisan support from both the House, which approved the measure by a vote of 380 to 49, and the Senate, which passed it by a vote of 83 to 8. The authors of the legislation hailed the measure, saying that it would help expand access, affordability, and accountability for colleges and loan providers. “For students and parents, who continue to face soaring college costs amidst rough economic times, these reforms could not come soon enough,” Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, stated. Reactions from advocates for students and colleges were more mixed. While groups like the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the Career College Association praised the bill for opening the doors of college wider for nontraditional students (by making Pell Grants available year-round, for example), other college groups complained that the measure imposes overly burdensome reporting requirements. For more coverage of the reauthorization legislation, check out our posts from earlier this week in which we identified our favorite and least favorite provisions.

In a Reversal, McCain Announces Opposition to Affirmative Action

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, broke his silence on higher education policy last weekend when he endorsed a ballot measure in his home state of Arizona that would ban public colleges in the state from considering race and gender in admissions and hiring decisions. The Senator revealed his stance on the measure during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” saying, “I support it. I do not believe in quotas…I’ve always opposed quotas.” However, his position represents a reversal from a decade ago when he opposed a similar Arizona ballot intitiative, calling efforts to end affirmative action “divisive.” Meanwhile, speaking last weekend to a convention of minority journalists, the presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama said that he supports affirmative action as long as it doesn’t impose quotas. But Obama added that affirmative action “is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America,” as long as minority students continue to lag far behind in college preparedness.

Report on State Financing for Higher Education Presents a Mixed View

While the news in recent months has been of states scaling back their support for higher education, the latest report of “State Higher Education Finance” for FY 2007 shows that the last two years, at least, haven’t been so bad. According ot the report, per pupil support from state and local funds increased by 3.9 percent between 2006 and 2007, to $6,773 (accounting for inflation and enrollment increases). Taking a longer view, the report found that between 2002 and 2007, only 15 of 50 states increased spending on education. educational appropriations. During this time, more and more college revenue came from tuition increases, as state and local support did not keep pace with inflation. The legislation that Congress approved this week to reauthorize the Higher Education Act includes a “maintenance of effort” provision that will withhold some federal funds from states that fail to maintain their levels of funding.