After months on the sidelines, Senate Democrats have begun releasing proposals indicating the direction they would like to see reauthorization of the Higher Education Act take. On Oct. 28, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced a bill that would penalize states that cut their funding to higher education by more than 10 percent, sock hefty increases into the Pell Grant program and impose heavy reporting requirements on institutions that use early admissions or legacy programs.

A few days later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D.-Conn.), a candidate for president, presented his higher education platform, which emphasizes more support for Pell Grants but also tighter accountability requirements for institutions. Lieberman would require institutions to publish their enrollment and graduation rates in the form of “report cards.”

Kennedy and fellow Democrats from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a press conference to release their bill, called the College Quality, Affordability and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003 (QUAD Act). Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the act, noted that the bill would address “a disinvestment in public higher education by the states.” Higher education is changing, she said, “from a public commodity well-funded by the public to a private commodity priced beyond the reach of middle- and low-income families.”

To counter that, the Democrats propose increases in Pells to $4,500 from the current $4,050 in the first year, and then $1,800 increases in each of the next four years.

In a letter sent to Sen. Kennedy the day the QUAD Act was introduced, AFT legislation director Charlotte Fraas expressed the union’s support for the bill, saying it “should contribute to greater access to higher education and enhanced teacher preparation.”

The act would strengthen teacher preparation programs by providing for a one-year internship that would serve as an induction period for new teachers. It would also create a structured mentoring program, as well as programs that encourage paraprofessionals to become teachers. The act “provides innovative approaches to helping individuals become teachers and ensuring their success in the classroom,” the AFT letter noted.

A bill introduced in the House earlier in October by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R.-Calif.), the Affordability in Higher Education Act, would penalize colleges that raise their tuition by more than the Consumer Price Index by cutting off Title IV funds (financial aid).

McKeon’s committee, the Subcommittee on Education and the Workforce, has been working on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act since this past summer, holding hearings and proposing legislation on a title by title basis. Thus far, the House has passed four bills. In July it passed two bills tightening teacher preparation and providing loan forgiveness for teachers in high-need subjects. The other two bills relate to graduate education and international education.

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