Some people will dismiss the renewal of the Higher Education Act as another piece of mega-legislation relevant only to the lawmakers wrangling over political minutiae.

They would be wrong.

Recognizing that changes to HEA could threaten the very foundation of public education -- access, fairness and affordability -- AFT is launching a letter-writing campaign to let legislators know preserving fairness in higher education is paramount.

By gouging financial aid, this bill could punch irreparable holes in the pockets of families already struggling to send their children to college; if left unmonitored, Congress could wind up locking many students out of higher education altogether. "It is essential that the voice of the people most affected by this bill be heard," says AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour.

Activists and others are on high alert since the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce made final changes to H.R. 609, the College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005, the House version of the Higher Ed reauthorization. As it stands, this bill threatens not only affordability and access to education but also academic freedom. AFT-backed amendments -- to increase the maximum Pell Grant, protect students from fraud and abuse at for-profit colleges, and strike "academic bill of rights" language threatening academic freedom -- were defeated by Republican leaders.

AFT members have another chance to make a difference, though, as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee begins its mark-up of the bill on September 7. In addition to encouraging members to contact their senators and the chairs of the committee, AFT will actively lobby on a number of priorities, including:

• Providing more grant aid to the neediest students, by increasing the maximum Pell Grant, capping loans at the lowest levels, and maintaining low fixed rates for consolidation. These measures could keep families from taking on second mortgages or high credit card debt to meet college costs and keep students from risking their academic careers while they spend time at low-wage jobs, earning money to pay for tuition.
• Protect students from fraud and abuse at for-profit institutions by restricting those that offer mostly distance learning to 50 percent federal funding, requiring that at least 10 percent of revenues for all for-profit institutions come from sources other than federal student aid, and preserving the definition of higher education so that federal aid is not used up at institutions whose primary concern is profit, not education.
• Retain educational support programs to ensure academically needy students are guided toward success.
• Avoid using graduation rates to measure success, as student retention is complicated by populations who attend part-time, transfer, or work during college years and take longer to graduate.
• Maintain autonomy for academe and avoid the ideological litmus test that the Academic Bill of Rights would impose on the hiring and retention of faculty.
• Provide funding for teacher education, especially at community colleges.

This is the time for constituents to tell Congress what's most important for education in this country: more grant aid, less expensive loans, no government intrusion on academic freedom, and checks on fraud and abuse at for-profits. In addition, any savings to the HEA rendered through the committee should be kept within HEA for needed education expenditures.

To write to your senator and the chair of the committee considering the HEA, visit the AFT Legislative Action Center.  You can also get further analysis of what is happening to student aid, through HEA, by requesting information from highered@aft.org.  [Virginia Kelly]

August 23, 2005