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Opening Statement of Howard P. "Buck" McKeon September 11, 2003 Good morning. Thank you for joining us this morning to hear testimony regarding H.R. 3039, the Expanding Opportunities in Higher Education Act of 2003. This legislation, introduced by my friend and colleague, Representative Tom Cole, breaks down existing barriers and opens the doors of post-secondary education a bit wider to all students, especially low-income and minority students. I appreciate our witnesses taking the time to discuss this legislation with us today and look forward to a productive and open discussion. With the passage of the Higher Education Act in 1965, the federal government made great gains in affording our nation’s students the opportunity to pursue postsecondary education. In our knowledge based economy, it is more important than ever to remove road blocks to innovative ideas and methods of providing education to students seeking to pursue their dream of access to, and completion of, a postsecondary education. We must all open our minds to the advancement of technology in pursuit of those goals and, while reviewing the past in making future decisions, recognize that times have indeed changed and we must change with them. We must promote advancement in distance education, clarify the treatment and classification of educational institutions and simplify the methods used to determine a student’s financial need for student aid purposes. H.R. 3039 strives to accomplish this by improving access, expanding opportunities and removing unnecessary and outdated barriers within the Higher Education Act, all while maintaining the integrity and security of the student aid programs. This legislation strengthens and extends student support programs and enhances the ability of minority serving institutions to meet the needs of their students. First, this bill amends current law by combining the now separate definitions of "institutions of higher education" under one section within the law. The definitions do not change, other than in one area I will talk about in a minute. The bill simply combines the existing definitions, and it does so WITHOUT changing any of safeguards currently within the law. This combined definition will allow more institutions the opportunity to apply for competitive grants within the HEA and thereby better serve more students. Congress has made tremendous strides over the years to improve access to higher education, while at the same time ensuring that the poorly performing institutions of the past no longer are able to participate. Institutions themselves have done a good job over the years in monitoring the conduct and administrative capability of other institutions. No one wants a return to the past of high student loan default rates or bad institutions providing substandard education. This bill does not allow those events to reoccur. As mentioned earlier, the bill makes one change to the existing definition of an eligible institution, that is the repeal of a requirement known as the 90/10 rule. Current law requires only for-profit institutions to demonstrate that at least 10 percent of the revenue they receive is derived from sources other than Title IV funds. Unfortunately, this rule may actually force these schools to raise their tuition as many of them serve fully federally-funded students in our nation's most impoverished areas. There are also questions as to the application of this rule and whether the sources of funds considered "derived from Title IV funds" is fair and accurate. Do we want to terminate high quality institutions solely because their ratio may be 89/11? H.R. 3039 also enhances access to distance education programs. Current law prohibits colleges and universities from having more than 50 percent of their students enrolled in distance education programs and does not allow them to offer more than 50 percent of courses through distance education. This rule thwarts the efforts of many from pursuing higher education, including working adults, urban residents, minorities, and others. By repealing this rule, but ensuring that accreditors are monitoring the quality of these programs, more students will gain access to postsecondary education. Some have said if we repeal this rule, the Title IV student aid programs will be at risk. In a report recently released by the U.S. Department of Education in reviewing the distance education demonstration program now in law, it says:
Furthermore, this bill strives to provide minority students with additional educational opportunities. The bill provides additional assistance to allow Minority Serving Institutions to develop and enhance their internet and technological capabilities. H.R. 3039 also simplifies the grant process for Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, as well as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions. These changes for Minority Serving Institutions will build upon the work we accomplished earlier this year with the Ready to Teach Act, a bill which made improvements to the nation’s teacher training programs. In that legislation, because we recognize the importance of Minority Serving Institutions among the institutions training the teachers of tomorrow, we provided for the establishment of Centers of Excellence for teacher training programs at high quality Minority Serving Institutions. These Centers of Excellence would strengthen and improve teacher preparation programs at Minority Serving Institutions including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges or Universities, Alaska Native Serving Institutions, or Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions. In addition, the Centers of Excellence would provide an opportunity to increase teacher recruitment and development at Minority Serving Institutions, and provide assistance in the form of scholarships to help provide for the cost of completing a teacher preparation program. Recognizing that we must continue to support programs that provide quality educational services to students from low-income families where neither parent graduated from college, H.R. 3039 enhances support services to expand opportunities for low-income individuals. It increases the minimum grant levels to the TRIO program and builds upon the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) to augment services to migrant or seasonal farmer workers and their families. This bill also includes bipartisan legislation I recently introduced, H.R. 2956, the Financial Aid Simplification Act, to examine and simplify the current need analysis formula and financial aid forms that all students applying for aid must complete. This will go a long way in expanding access, as the complex formula and forms can very often intimidate students and their families, discouraging them from ever even beginning the process. The bill also makes many other enhancements to the Higher Education Act too numerous to mention here, that will improve programs, make necessary technical changes and enhance services. As we continue our work to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, providing students with access to a quality higher education remains our central goal. We must remove unnecessary barriers, improve and simplify programs and processes and allow these critical programs to reach their full potential to serve students and help them reach their educational dreams. I hope we can all work together to do what we know is right for the students and families we want to assist and not allow substance and policy to fall victim to politics. I look forward to the comments and recommendations that our witnesses may have. I will now yield to Mr. Kildee for any opening statement that he may have. |