A bipartisan quartet of U.S. Senators issued a report Friday that details methods Congress and the Department of Education can use to reduce federal red tape and streamline processes for American colleges and universities without inconveniencing college students or taxpayers.
A hearing to discuss and review the findings of the report, which is supported by the American Council on Education, will take place this month. The bipartisan group was made up of Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), all members of the Senate Education Committee.
“The stack of federal regulations on colleges and universities today, which stretches as tall as I am, is simply the piling up of well-intentioned laws and regulations, done without anyone first weeding the garden,” Alexander said. “This report will guide our efforts to weed the garden and allow colleges to spend more of their time and money educating students, instead of filling out mountains of paperwork.”
In 2013, the senators formed the Task Force on Government Regulation of Higher Education, a group of 16 college and university presidents and higher education experts to conduct a full and unbiased review of the U.S. Department of Education’s regulations and reporting requirements on colleges and universities. The task force’s purpose was to develop recommendations on doing away with duplicative or cumbersome rules and requirements.
“When I helped convene this task force, I had one goal in mind: to support our institutions of higher education – help them be them as they work to educate our next generation,” Mikulski said. “I have heard many concerns from these institutions regarding federal requirements that, while well-intentioned, often end up being duplicative and burdensome. I agree that we need to regulate, not strangulate.
Burr said a “tidal wave” of regulations results in higher tuition costs to students.
“Not only has this report confirmed, with specificity, the extent of these problems, it shows that every day the situation worsens as a result of the Department of Education’s never-ending addiction to regulating colleges and universities,” Burr said. “My hope is Congress can put the report’s recommendations to action as soon as possible.”
The task force is chaired by chancellors William Kirwan of the University System of Maryland and Nicholas Zeppos of Vanderbilt. Other members include Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad; former Sen. Bill Armstrong, president of Colorado Christian University; Bruce Benson, president of University of Colorado; Thomas Chema, president emeritus of Hiram College; Margaret Drugovich, president of Hartwick College; Dana Hoyt, president of Sam Houston State University; Brice Harris, chancellor of the California Community College System; Jonathan Kaplan, CEO of Laureate Online Education; Neil Kerwin, president of American University; J. Michael Locke, former CEO of Rasmussen College; Harold Martin, chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; Claude Pressnell, president of Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association; Tom Ross, president of University of North Carolina; and Bob Templin, president of Northern Virginia Community College.