What You Need to Know About the Inspector General’s Audit of Western Governors U.

Amy Laitinen was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the federal audit challenging Western Governors University and competency-based education:

Amy Laitinen, director for higher education with the education-policy program at New America, put it this way in a tweet: "WGU has regular. It has substantive. But not in same person."

"I would say it does not have to be in the same person," Ms. Laitinen added in an interview with The Chronicle. The inspector general, however, "is saying it does."

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Experts on higher-ed policy, however, don’t expect Ms. DeVos to follow the recommendations. "There is no administration that would ask WGU to give back the money," Ms. Laitinen said.

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But the incident could also have an outcome that advocates of competency-based education would like to see: congressional action to update the legal language cited in the audit for the age of the internet. Despite how it’s been applied here, Ms. Laitinen doesn’t believe Congress should scrap the provision about faculty involvement — just update it. "The question isn’t will Congress do something," she said, "but will Congress do something thoughtful?"