Compliance with GE
AACS wants to remind you that the clock is ticking on institutional compliance deadline regarding publication of the updated GE Disclosure Template. All institutions with programs subject to the GE regulations have until Friday, April 6, 2018 to collect and publish the updated information required.
U.S. Department of Education Releases Draft Cohort Default Rates
The U.S. Department of Education released last Wednesday the draft Cohort Default rates for all institutions. AACS encourages our community to review this information in order to determine if any appeal of your most recent rates is required.
Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act
As previously noted, in the House, Chairwoman Foxx and the Committee have completed their mark up and published the House Committee Report accompanying H.R. 4508 – The PROSPER Act. Publication of the report provides both majority and minority views of the bill itself, legislative intent, and key information regarding the cost and savings associated with various provisions contained in the proposal.
Chairwoman Foxx plans to bring the bill to the House floor as soon as possible and has already requested floor time from the House Leadership and begun whipping her colleagues for support of the bill. However, there are other major pieces of legislation that could make it hard for her to gain floor time.
First, Congress still needs to complete work on the comprehensive FY18 Omnibus Appropriations bill, providing the spending allocations for all government spending for the fiscal year that began last October 1st. The current deadline for completion of this legislation is by no later than March 23, 2018, giving Congress less than a month.
Aside from this must pass legislation, there is a strong push within the Administration and others on Capitol Hill for consideration of Infrastructure legislation. IF that legislation can be fully drafted and voted out of the Committees with jurisdiction in the next couple of weeks, it could bump HEA on the list of priorities. We will have to wait and see how this plays out, but still have hopes that the House will vote on the bill sometime in March or early April.