The Tuition Use Information Transparently Identified Online (TUITION) Act was unveiled on Thursday by U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) to requires colleges and universities to clearly show, in an easy-to-find and understandable manner, how tuition dollars are spent.
“Students and parents have a right to know how their tuition dollars are spent,” Meehan said. “How is it spent, and how are colleges making use of your tuition dollars? Which schools are putting more money into student instruction and academic resources instead of overhead and administrative bloat? The answers are challenging to find. They’re often buried in annual reports or IRS-mandated regulatory filings that could run a hundred pages or more. They’re not accessible to the average student or parent.”
Under the proposed legislation, schools would be incentivized to keep costs down and to direct resources to academic and instruction services through the improvement of transparency and accountability in college spending and costs.
“Students and parents have a right to know how their tuition dollars are being spent,” Meehan said. “The cost of college is skyrocketing while household incomes are stagnating. Too many students are faced with two choices: take on a massive amount of debt, or forgo a degree altogether.”
The TUITION Act would require that data from a school regarding its use of tuition dollars be available in its public website’s admissions section. Schools would also have to make such information available “in a manner that clearly presents the information to parents and prospective students.”
“More transparency means more competition and more accountability,” Meehan said. “Arming consumers with more information about how schools deliver value incentivizes them to use tuition dollars more effectively. Ultimately, this legislation will help students and their parents determine which school is the best fit for them.”