By a bipartisan vote of 354 to 58, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Feb. 7 to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. Known as the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, the legislation reflects Congress' determination to provide more aid to college students, to encourage institutions to rein in tuition hikes, and to clean up the student loan programs.

The bill authorizes the maximum Pell Grant at $9,000, up from $5,800, and makes the grants available year-round. It authorizes up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness for people who go into public service careers, taking jobs as teachers, nurses, police and firefighters. It raises standards for teacher education programs and offers incentives for teachers to go into high-demand fields.

"The Higher Education Act is an extremely important piece of legislation that will make higher education more affordable and no longer just a dream for millions of low-income and middle-class families," says AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "Increasing Pell Grants to $9,000 and expanding loan forgiveness programs will greatly offset soaring tuition costs."

An important victory for the AFT and for the Free Exchange on Campus coalition, of which the AFT is a part, was seeing that the bill did not contain so-called academic bill of rights language. The language is part of a right-wing campaign to restrict faculty freedoms and invite government intervention into hiring and curriculum decisions. The national union and the coalition worked over the course of two years-and literally up until the last hour-to keep this language out.

The day before the House voted, the White House released a long statement strongly opposing the bill. Its leading objection related to Congress blocking administrative efforts to allow the U.S. Department of Education greater control in regulating the accreditation process and how colleges are held accountable for student learning.

"The Bush administration's proposal for the federal government to get involved in regulating student accountability is misguided," notes McElroy, "as every college and university has its own mission and should set its own standards and evaluation measures."

The bill addresses the college cost issue by requiring the Department of Education to maintain a consumer Web site with information about college pricing. The bill ensures that states maintain higher education funding. It requires institutions and lenders to adopt strict codes of conduct regarding student loans, and protects students from aggressive practices by private lenders.

The bill also addresses textbook costs, file sharing, and music and movie downloading. An effort supported by the AFT to allow student loan debt to be handled in the same way as other consumer debt-in bankruptcy proceedings-failed. Another controversial amendment that failed would have forced colleges to spend up to 5 percent of their endowment assets each year to keep costs to students down.

The Senate has already passed its version of the higher education bill. The AFT will work hard to make sure that the bill that results from the conference process is one that reflects our members' priorities.