Biden admin dives into next round of higher education regulations

Jan 08, 2024

QUICK FIX

BIDEN ADMIN DIVES INTO NEXT ROUND OF HIGHER ED RULES: Just a few weeks after wrapping up negotiations over how to structure President Joe Biden’s next mass student debt relief plan, the Education Department is heading back to the virtual rulemaking table this week.

The department will convene another committee this week to begin hammering out its next round of higher education regulations. Officials already are putting up for negotiation a wide-ranging policy agenda that’s largely aimed directly at institutions of higher education and the entities — state regulators and accreditors — that are supposed to oversee them.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks with students.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona | Julia Nikhinson/AP

As the next round of rulemaking gets underway, here’s a guide to some of the biggest issues:

— The Biden administration’s “junk fee” crackdown heads to the college dining hall. The Education Department wants to stop colleges from keeping students’ unused meal plan funds — on cash-like programs like “dining dollars” — if they were purchased using a Pell Grant or federal student loan. Under the department’s proposal, schools would have to return leftover money in those accounts within 14 days after the end of a semester or term.

— The Education Department also wants to create more “student-friendly” policies on how colleges apply federal financial aid to students’ accounts. The draft proposal would require colleges to issue credit balances in more cases when financial aid excess their tuition and fees. In addition, the plan would allow colleges to automatically charge students for books and supplies only in cases where the materials aren’t available elsewhere or if there’s a compelling health or safety reason — which is aimed at allowing students to shop around for course materials.

— What’s not on the table: The Education Department isn’t proposing any changes to the campus financial products, such as debit cards, that are marketed to college students — or used by universities to disburse federal financial aid. Consumer advocates and the CFPB have raised concerns about the fees charged by those products. Obama-era Education Department rules imposed restrictions on the products for the first time, but critics have urged the department to look at banning certain types of fees altogether.

— The Biden administration is training its regulatory crosshairs on reciprocity agreements that states have reached to supervise out-of-state online programs. The most prominent consortium — National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) — includes state regulators from every state except California.

Proponents say it’s an easier and more convenient way to regulate online colleges that maintains consumer protections. But the Biden administration says it’s concerned that “current reciprocity system is influenced by regulated entities, allows manipulation to evade State rules, and prioritizes administrative convenience over student and taxpayer protection.” The draft rules would make changes to how NC-SARA handles student complaints and who is allowed to sit on its board. The proposal would prohibit school officials or trade association members, for example, from serving as public members of the board.

— The Biden administration is also proposing a range of changes to how the Education Department oversees college accreditors. Some of the effort is directed at addressing laws passed by Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Carolina — and considered elsewhere — that require state universities to frequently change their accreditor. The department said it wants the rulemaking committee to debate proposals that would address what colleges must demonstrate before the department permits accreditor changes.

Other changes are aimed at streamlining how the Education Department approves accreditors and giving department officials new flexibility to focus its reviews on accreditors that pose the biggest risk to students or taxpayers.

— Opening up college prep programs for undocumented students: The Education Department is also proposing to open up several of the agency’s TRIO Programs, such as Upward Bound, to undocumented students. The draft proposals would allow any middle or high school students in the U.S. to participate in the federally funded college preparatory initiatives, regardless of their immigration status.

— The big picture: The first negotiating session over the new policy proposals kicks off today, and subsequent sessions will be held in February and March. The Education Department needs to finalize any proposals by Nov. 1 in order for them to take effect next July.

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Congress

AN INITIAL FUNDING DEAL AS CONGRESS RETURNS: Congressional leaders on Sunday clinched a deal on overall budget totals that could pave the way for a broader government funding compromise in the coming weeks. The agreement means that some of the deepest cuts that House Republicans were seeking to education programs are likely off the table, though it’s not yet clear exactly how individual programs will fare as appropriators craft new proposals.

— POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes report that the bipartisan agreement negotiated between House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sets defense funding is set at $886 billion for the current fiscal year, in line with the total President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck as part of last summer’s debt ceiling package. For non-defense programs — including education — the deal provides a total of $773 billion, an amount that counts tens of billions of dollars agreed to alongside the debt limit package, the so-called “side deal” that conservatives tried to kill.

— House Republicans were forced to punt on a floor vote for their education funding plan, which sought steep cuts to many education programs. It had called for a 28 percent decrease in overall education spending compared to the 2023 fiscal year, including an 80 cut to Title I funding for low-income school districts.

— A bipartisan Senate funding plan, which also never made it to the floor, would have funded the Education Department at roughly the same level as the previous year. Biden’s budget had sought a 13.6 percent increase.

— What to watch: While appropriators can now forge ahead on crafting bills, there are potential policy fights ahead. Johnson wrote in a letter to GOP lawmakers that the deal gives them “a path” to “fight for the important policy riders” included in the funding bills House Republicans have drafted. Schumer, meanwhile, said that Democrats would reject any “poison pill policy changes” in any of the bills.

— Clock is ticking: The Education Department is among the agencies in the second tranche of agencies that run out of funding on Feb. 2. Lawmakers will first have to sprint towards a Jan. 19 deadline to fund other key parts of the government, including the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs.

Education Department

VP, CARDONA WILL TALK GUN VIOLENCE IN N.C. THIS WEEK: Vice President Kamala Harris and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday to discuss the administration’s gun violence prevention efforts. The White House said that Harris would announce “new funding” from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that would help schools “increase access to mental health resources for their students.”

Student Loans

TOP BIDEN CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL SAYS STUDENT DEBT WILL BE A SECOND-TERM PRIORITY: Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign manager for Biden’s reelection bid, said on Sunday that “finishing the job” on student debt cancellation would be among the president’s top priorities if he wins a second term.

— “The president has already forgiven over $132 billion for student loan debt for 3.6 million Americans, and there’s billions more to be forgiven,” Fulks said on NBC’s "Meet The Press".

— Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), meanwhile, said on Sunday that he’s “very concerned” about Biden’s standing with Black voters and that the president’s campaign messaging on things like student debt relief isn’t breaking through the “MAGA wall”.

— “This president is keeping his promises,” Clyburn said on CNN’s "State of the Union", but added that “people keep focusing on the one or two things he did not get accomplished.”

— Clyburn noted that Biden was able to cancel tens of billions of dollars of student debt despite a conservative Supreme Court blocking his signature relief program. “If you took the little simple thing [that is] student loan debt relief, he promised to relieve student loan debt, and he has done that,” Clyburn.

Higher Education

TOP COLLEGES LOOK TO PR GIANTS FOR HELP ON ISRAEL-GAZA TURMOIL: Some of the nation’s top universities are scrambling to hire heavyweight communications firms as their campuses become consumed by cultural and political proxy fights stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.

— Among the schools that have turned to firms for help in recent months: New York University, Harvard University, Columbia University, The Cooper Union and the University of California. Those academic institutions sought help from trained PR or communications professionals in navigating student protests, unrest from donors or government inquiries borne from how the schools have handled the conflict in the Middle East, according to six people familiar with the arrangements.

— While much of the pressure being applied to universities is coming from conservatives, the schools themselves have turned to Democratic-allied firms for help. Read more from Hailey Fuchs, Daniel Lippman and your host.

— Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Sunday detailed what’s next for House Republicans’ investigation into elite colleges, suggesting it would be broader than campus antisemitism. “We're going to look at DEI, which inherently has refused to bring up concerns from Jewish students of the rise of antisemitic attacks,” Stefanik said in an interview on NBC’s "Meet The Press". “We're going to look at foreign funding as well as taxpayer funding and the governance of these universities.”

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Syllabus

— At Florida’s only public historically Black university, students are wary of political influence on race education: The Associated Press.

— DEI ban at Texas public colleges leaves students and professors rattled: Austin American-Statesman.

— New North Carolina law on parents and schools begins a shaky rollout. Opponents and supporters aren’t happy: WRAL.

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