BIDEN ADMIN READIES ROUND TWO OF HIGHER ED ACCOUNTABILITY RULES: The Education Department is preparing to finalize another package of regulations in the coming days that would give agency regulators new tools to crack down on colleges teetering on the brink of closure. The rules would also police how colleges display financial aid information and withhold transcripts from students in some cases.
— The second package of regulations has flown a bit under the radar since they were unveiled earlier this year alongside the Biden administration’s signature “gainful employment” rule targeting the funding of low-performing career college programs and for-profit schools.
— The latest proposal would make changes to a wide range of the standards that colleges have to meet in order to receive federal student aid. Many of the most significant changes are aimed at giving the Education Department more flexibility when it comes to overseeing troubled institutions.
— “These regulations are designed to get at risky colleges across a number of different dimensions,” said Clare McCann, a higher education fellow at Arnold Ventures, who worked on earlier iterations of the proposals while at the Education Department. “They’re meant to look at where colleges present the biggest risks to students and taxpayers and how we can mitigate that.”
— The Education Department disclosed in its initial proposal that the agency collected from colleges less than one-fourth of the $1.6 billion they owed the government between 2013 and 2022. In many cases that’s because a college shut down or went bankrupt and stuck taxpayers with the cost of discharging the debts of their former students.
— The new rules outline an expanded set of circumstances in which the Education Department will require colleges to set aside money as financial protection for the agency. That includes things like lawsuits or enforcement actions by state or federal agencies or other signs of financial distress. In addition, the new rules are expected to give department regulators new powers to restrict enrollment growth or impose other restrictions on schools that are at risk of closure, changing ownership or present other problems.
— Financial aid offers: The proposal also included new requirements for colleges to display more clearly the information in their financial aid awards, such as the total cost of attendance and net price that students actually must pay. In addition, colleges would be required to demonstrate to the Education Department that they have “adequate” career services available to their students.
— Coming soon: The White House Office of Management and Budget gave the final green light to the rules earlier this month. And an Education Department spokesperson confirms the agency will meet a Nov. 1. regulatory deadline to finalize the proposals in order for them to take effect next July.
IT’S MONDAY, OCT. 23. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Please send tips and feedback to the POLITICO education team: Michael Stratford ([email protected]), Mackenzie Wilkes ([email protected]), Juan Perez Jr. ([email protected]) and Bianca Quilantan ([email protected]). Follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SAYS 305K BORROWERS HIT WITH BILLING ERRORS: The Education Department said on Friday that it believed that about 305,000 federal student loan borrowers received bills from servicers with incorrect payment amounts in recent months as they applied for Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan and prepared to begin repaying.
— “While we regret any error, the Department is working closely with student loan servicers to ensure that they are providing borrowers the information they need and holding servicers accountable when they do not,” an Education Department spokesperson said in a statement. “Because of the Department’s stringent oversight efforts and ability to quickly catch these errors, servicers are being held accountable and borrowers will not have payments due until these mistakes are fixed.”
— The Washington Post first reported earlier this month that the agency had estimated some 420,000 borrowers were affected by the erroneous billing issue. But the Education Department said Friday that the agency’s additional review shows “a smaller number of borrowers impacted by this than initially thought.”
CFPB SAYS STUDENT LOAN COMPLAINTS INCREASED AHEAD OF REPAYMENT: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday that the number of consumer complaints about federal student loans was higher than it was in recent years amid the return to repayment and vast changes in the loan programs. The volume of complaints to the CFPB about federal student loans was higher in recent months than it was before the pandemic, according to the latest data.
— Robert Cameron, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman, wrote in his annual report that the substance of the complaints reveal that borrowers are encountering “long hold times, delays in processing applications, and incorrect information regarding payment amounts and due dates.” He also said the complaints identified “significant servicer errors” on payment histories and delays in getting refunds to borrowers.
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OKLAHOMA AG SUES TO BLOCK CATHOLIC CHARTER SCHOOL: Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general on Friday sued a state panel on Friday in an effort to block the debut of the country’s first public religious charter school.
— Juan Perez Jr. reports that the lawsuit filed at the state Supreme Court opens a new legal front in a constitutional battle over church and state. It’s also the latest chapter in a fight among conservatives in the state over publicly-funded religious schools.
— Gentner Drummond, the attorney general, has repeatedly opposed St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was green-lighted by a statewide board earlier this year. His lawsuit argues that it’s a violation of the state and U.S. constitutions for a church to run a public school, and that it would open the flood gates to other religious groups requesting state funding.
— Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, a major supporter of the Catholic Church’s bid to open the public religious charter, described the lawsuit as “a political stunt.” Republican Ryan Walters, the state’s schools superintendent and another St. Isidore proponent, said the lawsuit was “misguided.”
— Drummond’s lawsuit comes after parents and faith leaders earlier this year filed a separate suit to block the state from sponsoring and funding the religious charter school.
HEAD START: Fewer than half of the Head Start centers have a public transit stop within walking distance for preschoolers, according to a new analysis being released on Monday by groups calling on policymakers to prioritize transit accessibility in the nation’s main early childhood education program for low-income families.
— The National Head Start Association and the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation’s Civic Mapping Initiative today are rolling out a new report and interactive map that measures the proximity of local transit stops to Head Start centers across the country.
— The groups found that 42 percent of Head Start centers have a transit stop within walking distance for a toddler (defined as 0.2 miles). But they also found that another 19 percent, or more than 3,000 Head Start locations, are located within a mile of a bus stop — close enough that a transit agency could potentially reconfigure a route to accommodate families trying to get there.
— How should parents and teachers talk to kids about the Israel-Hamas war? Here’s what some experts recommend: The Boston Globe.
— Michigan State apologizes for displaying picture of Adolf Hitler: POLITICO
— Teachers union in Portland, Oregon, votes to strike over class sizes, pay, lack of resources: The Associated Press.
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