House Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to End The College Blackout

As any even casual reader of our work knows, we are a bit obsessed with the fact that students, families, taxpayers, and policy makers can’t get basic information about how students are faring in and after college. We can’t answer basic questions like whether Pell students are graduating, whether students are able to transfer, and whether students are able to earn enough relative to what they borrowed to comfortably pay down their debts. This isn’t because the data don’t exist—they do. But we haven’t been able to leverage the already-existing data to answer critical questions about student and institutional outcomes (see our report College Blackout for the whole sad tale). This may be changing. Yesterday, the House introduced a bill with high-profile bi-partisan cosponsors that would “Free up information that currently exists, but is not currently accessible” in order to provide students, families, taxpayers, and policy makers with answers to critical questions about college outcomes and value.

The “Student Right to Know Before You Go Act,” was co-authored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) and is cosponsored by Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and former Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI) as well as Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and Rep. John Carney (D-DE). The Senate version of the bill was introduced earlier this session by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Mark Warner (D-VA).

This is a welcome change from a kick-the-can-down-the-road-by-calling-for-another-study approach to data that the House proposed last year. Among other things, this bill would allow students, families, taxpayers, and policy makers to look at the following outcomes:

• Post-graduation earnings averages at both the institutional and program levels.
• Graduation rates for more than just first and full-time students. This bill would finally count the successes of part-time and transfer students who make up such a high proportion of our nation’s students (and without the huge burden it would otherwise impose on colleges and universities. See here and here).
• Loan debt information for graduates and non-completers.
• Information on whether students go on to graduate school, law school, etc.

Further, this bill would enable these outcome measures to be disaggregated by Pell, Stafford, and GI benefit status—so we could know which institutions are serving these students well (and which are just taking their money and saddling them with debt and no meaningful degree).

If you think it’s crazy that we can’t already answer these questions, you're right. Luckily, the bipartisan interest in giving students and families better information to make one of the most important and expensive decisions in their lives seems to be moving from talk to action—at least with a few prominent members of Congress. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee (and former Chair of the Budget Committee), thinks it's a good idea. Will the House Education and Workforce Committee follow suit?

 

(I'll be updating as more information and links become available)"