- ED reaches consensus on Workforce Pell regulations
- House Committee advances four higher education bills
ED reaches consensus on Workforce Pell regulations
Last week, the Department of Education (ED) hosted the first negotiated rulemaking table for the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee.
The week-long session was dedicated entirely to the new Workforce Pell program. Tonjua Williams, president of St. Petersburg College, Florida, served as a negotiator for public institutions of higher education. Randy Stamper, associate vice chancellor for career education and workforce programs for the Virginia Community College System, served as the negotiator for state higher education officers.
Ahead of the session, the Department released the draft Workforce Pell regulations that the negotiators that have considered for discussion throughout the week. Negotiators discussed key questions on how to calculate and verify placement rates, the timing and structure of calculating the Value-Added Earnings measure, and the process for programs to regain eligibility. On Friday afternoon, ED was able to reach consensus on a regulatory package.
This week, AACC released a detailed analysis of the agreed-upon regulatory text, including negotiated changes to the initial Department of Education issue paper.
The Department is expected to release a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) early in 2026, with an aim to finalize the regulation well before the program is scheduled to start on July 1. While changes to the rule are possible, substantial alterations are unlikely. This gives institutions additional time to prepare their Workforce Pell programs.
House Committee advances four higher education bills
Last week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up four higher education-related bills, including two focused on bipartisan transparency priorities.
First, the Committee considered the Student Financial Clarity Act. Introduced by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), the bill aims to standardize financial aid offers made to students, with a host of requirements for institutions on format, definitions, and connections to other resources. While this iteration is a new proposal, standardizing financial aid offers has generated bipartisan interest in Congress for some time.
AACC strongly supports efforts to promote the clarity, consistency, and accuracy of financial aid offers and student communications. In 2022, we joined the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and nine other higher education associations to form the “College Cost Transparency (CCT) Initiative” to produce shared definitions and standards. While AACC does not see the need for further federal activity in this area, we appreciate that the Student Financial Clarity Act will allow institutions to omit from the universalized financial aid offer any aid for which the student is not eligible, the program is not eligible, or the institution does not participate in.
The Committee also considered the College Financial Aid Clarity Act, introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky). The bill would create a universal net price calculator – another transparency initiative that has enjoyed bipartisan support throughout several Congresses. However, it also significantly expands the amount of data collected for and displayed on the College Scorecard. While AACC strongly supports the Scorecard as a consumer tool and has advocated for its authorization in statute, we question whether the bill’s required expansion of data collection and disaggregation will be helpful in informing student choice. The Scorecard currently provides students with a clear and easily digestible picture of student access, costs, and success. In short, it presents them with the most important information. We are concerned that incorporating dozens of new elements on the Scorecard and requiring significant disaggregation of existing elements will be inordinately confusing, expansive, and ultimately undermine its utility as a consumer tool.
AACC also questions whether this expansion will be worth the burden it places on institutions. For example, the bill requires the disaggregation of programs by race/ethnicity, sex, and other student characteristics. For the majority of community college programs, it will be impossible to display this information to students because of privacy issues due to the small numbers of Title IV recipients in completing cohorts. In practice, colleges may be asked to undergo a significant increase in reporting to the federal government, only for students to see empty cells.
As we shared in a recent communication to Capitol Hill, AACC is eager to promote transparency in student access, affordability, and success. We look forward to working with policymakers in the House and Senate to ensure that pending proposals accomplish these goals.
In addition to these two transparency bills, the Committee considered the Home School Graduation Recognition Act, which would clarify that home school graduates are considered to have graduated high school under the Higher Education Act, and a bill to require public institutions to offer in-state tuition rates for residents of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the United States Virgin Islands.
All four bills were approved by the Committee with some bipartisan support, including from Ranking Member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia). It is not clear if or when the bills will be considered by the full House.