Colleges list priorities for Higher Education Act reauthorization

As Congress considers updating the law guiding federal policy on higher education, college officials across the country have offered a set of three dozen recommendations related to student loans and aid, access and accountability, and the collection of key data.The Higher Education Committee of 50's ideas for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) include: streamlining the Free Application for Federal Student Aid; supporting expansion in online instruction; eliminating higher ed tax credits and using those funds to expand Pell Grant access; and reverting the 90/10 rule ratio to 85/15.It also wants to develop a broad Student Unit Record Data System that would collect and disseminate student-level data, stripped of personal details, to provide better information about national, regional and institutional outcomes. The HEA was last reauthorized in 2008 and has since fallen off its pace of updates every few years, according to a review of the process and its current prospects by The Atlantic. Current cross-aisle talk among key legislators could be threatened by the reality of their different political positions, the publication concluded.