When the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee asked education groups in May for recommendations on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, the AFT moved expeditiously to comply.  So did the National Education Association. In fact, they worked in concert and came up with comments they submitted jointly this month to the committee.

"Our primary goal is to speak as one voice for higher education professionals," says Gabriela Gomez, AFT assistant director of legislation. That voice, as the statement's introduction notes, is 4 million-strong—the combined membership of the NEA and AFT.  While the higher education divisions of the NEA and AFT have collaborated on many fronts in recent years, this is the first time the two national legislative departments have done joint lobbying.

The document provides the framework of the two unions' legislative priorities for higher education, especially in regards to the law that is the most important piece of federal legislation for colleges, universities and the students they serve. The Higher Education Act, reauthorized every five years, has been close review by first the House of Representatives and now the Senate for almost two years.  The AFT/NEA position paper encompasses issues of access, quality, accountability and student services, diversity, academic freedom and teacher education. It also offers specific language suggestions for how the law might be adapted and where current law should be retained.

To highlight chief points of the statement, it calls for:

• Making the Pell grant program an entitlement and more than doubling the size or the maximum grant in the next five years.
• Expanding the direct loan program, eliminating excessive subsidies to lenders, continuing fixed loan consolidation and expand loan forgiveness for teacher education and other public service fields.
• Strengthen quality by incorporating faculty and shared governance priorities in the accreditation process and recruiting a more diverse faculty.
• Retain current law protections against fraud and abuse.
• Retain current law programs such as TRIO, Upward Bound and GEAR-UP that improve student success.
• Retain current protections for academic freedom.
• Strengthen the induction, mentoring and all teacher education programs that help individuals become successful teachers.

The statement is posted on the AFT Web site. [Barbara McKenna]

June 15, 2005