For some time, lawmakers have been pondering what should go into a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Now GOP lawmakers overseeing education issues in Congress appear set to take another crack at updating the law, which was last renewed in 2008.
In a recent story, we looked at some issues lawmakers will be tackling in a refreshed HEA that are likely to have an impact on public schools, and in particular those students who are preparing to make the transition from secondary to postsecondary life. It’s clearly on Sen. Lamar Alexander’s mind—the Senate education committee chairman and Tennessee Republican recently told us that reauthorizing the law will be his committee’s “major focus” over the next year.
Among those issues are what kind of information about colleges and universities prospective students will be able to see. The Obama administration released a new “College Scorecard” with information about debt loads and graduation rates. But it’s based on a limited pool of information, and skeptics question whether the information is particularly useful (or used often) by prospective students…
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