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Bill aims to remove roadblocks to college

A wide-ranging higher education bill designed to protect college students from aggressive lenders and rein in soaring tuitions won approval in the House of Representatives on July 31.

Passage by the Senate would mark the first time in a decade that Congress has reauthorized the main federal law overseeing higher education and the third time in less than a year that it passed legislation to make college more affordable.

In October, Congress provided the single largest increase in federal student aid in decades. In June, it boosted college benefits for veterans by passing a $60 billion expansion of the GI Bill.

Thursday, lawmakers stopped short of imposing price controls, which they have threatened in past years.

“Today’s students face daunting obstacles on the path to college, from skyrocketing tuition prices to predatory student lending tactics,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of a House education committee. He said the bill would “address these challenges and create a higher education system that is more consumer-friendly, fairer and easier to navigate.”

President Bush is likely to sign the bill, which would:

• Ban lenders from offering gifts to college officials as a condition of making student loans and require colleges to adopt a code of conduct regarding student loans.

• Require the Education Department to publish a list showing which schools have increased their tuition fastest. Colleges with the largest percentage increases over three years would be required to explain to federal officials why their costs had risen and what steps they would take to hold them down.

• Phase in a streamlined version of the seven-page Free Application for Federal Student Aid over five years and create an even simpler version for low-income families.

• Require textbook publishers to disclose pricing to faculty and sell supplemental materials separately. The bill would also ask colleges to give students advance information on prices.

• Allow low-income students to get Pell Grants year-round.

Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, the primary higher education lobbying group, said she applauded the emphasis on affordability but an “extraordinary number” of federal reporting requirements could defeat the purpose of the bill.

The bill would require colleges to submit data annually on textbooks, tuition, fees and other things. Doing so would “be time-consuming and inevitably will increase administrative and personnel costs on campus,” she warned.

Student advocacy groups welcomed the bill.

“Congress has the opportunity and the responsibility to increase college affordability,” said Gabriel Pendas, president of the U.S. Student Association, a non-profit group based in Washington.

“The bill gives students more power as consumers,” said Nicole Allen of the Student Public Interest Research Groups, a non-profit that has pushed for textbook changes.