Fitzpatrick bill makes college cost data more transparent for consumers

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) on Friday introduced bipartisan legislation to give students and their families better college cost and outcome information that they need when making one of the biggest – and most expensive – decisions of their lives.

The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2017, H.R. 4479, calls for new U.S. Department of Education data sets that would show colleges and universities’ average annual student earnings after graduation, federal student loan debt rates and amounts and graduation rates. Other data sets would include students who enroll in advanced degree programs after graduation, remedial-course enrollment, and credit accumulation.

“Currently, prospective students are forced to make costly and critical decisions about furthering their education with very little or inaccurate information,” according to a summary of the bill.

“In deciding between colleges and areas of study students have a right to know how long it will take to complete their education, the likelihood they will graduate, their chances of getting a job when they finish, the odds they will default on their student loans, how much they can expect to earn and how much it will cost,” the bill summary said.

For example, no information is made available on average post-graduation earnings under current law. But under H.R. 4479, earnings would be calculated and broken down by educational institution, program of study and credential received, state of employment and completion status.

At a time when data security is on Americans’ minds, an important bill provision would require that secure multi-party computation be used for data encryption for student data from colleges and universities as well as financial information from the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service according to Fitzpatrick’s office. This ensures that higher education institutions and federal agencies will be not forced to hand over sensitive personal data that is accessible to others.

Other provisions concern data separation, or disaggregation. The measure would disaggregate information on graduation rates for full-time and part-time students, including those who are not first-time college students. Information on students who are not seeking a degree or certificate would also be disaggregated so that non-degree students would not be factored into an institution’s graduation rate.

Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), André Carson (D-IN), and Scott Peters (D-CA) joined Fitzpatrick in introducing the bill, while U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced a companion Senate bill.