[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 92 (Tuesday, June 5, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H4770-H4773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   AFFORDABLE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government became heavily involved 
in the Nation's postsecondary education system when Congress passed the 
Higher Education Act of 1965.
  Over time, well-intentioned but misdirected policies and requirements 
have put special interests ahead of students' interests. It is time to 
develop a system designed to support students in completing an 
affordable postsecondary education that will prepare them to enter the 
workforce with the skills they need for lifelong success.
  The Education and the Workforce Committee is moving us in that 
direction, Mr. Speaker, by passing last December the PROSPER Act. The 
PROSPER Act, the word ``PROSPER'' stands for: Promoting Real 
Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform.

                              {time}  2045

  It is a really apt title for what it is that the committee is 
proposing. I emphasize this is a work of the Education and the 
Workforce Committee and the 23 Republican Members who are on that 
committee.

[[Page H4771]]

  What the PROSPER Act does is it expands student access to higher 
education in many different ways:
  It allows students to use Federal student aid, including Pell grants, 
for shorter term programs that will help students get into the 
workforce more quickly.
  It expands the availability of industry-led earn-and-learn programs 
that lead to high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.
  It improves early awareness of postsecondary Federal financial aid 
options for students in high school.
  It makes the application for Federal student aid easier for middle 
class families by streamlining the Free Application for Federal Student 
Aid, or FAFSA, making the FAFSA available on a mobile application and 
ensuring both the app and the online form are consumer tested, clear, 
and easy to use. We hear from parents all the time about how difficult 
the FAFSA is to complete.
  It repeals unfair requirements that limit low-income students' access 
to career-focused institutions.
  It supports at-risk and minority students by reforming the TRIO 
programs to better evaluate the effectiveness of these programs, expand 
access to these programs for students, and encourage institutions to 
create programs using evidence-based innovations like P4Success.
  The PROSPER Act improves student aid in the following ways: 
simplifying student aid into one grant program, one loan program, and 
one workstudy program to ease confusion for students who are deciding 
the best options available to pay for their college educations.
  Let me give you an example, Mr. Speaker, of the complications of the 
loan programs as they currently exist. There are six different loan 
programs, nine repayment options, and 32 deferment and forbearance 
options. What has that gotten us? It has gotten students $1.4 trillion 
into debt. We find that unacceptable, and PROSPER will help change 
that.
  We give a Pell grant bonus to recipients who enroll in the number of 
credits necessary to complete their education in what is considered on 
time. That will vary: for students in community colleges, 2 years; and 
for students in a baccalaureate program, 4 years.
  We add $14.5 billion back into students' pockets by eliminating 
hidden origination fees on Federal student loans that add unnecessary 
costs to college.
  Mr. Speaker, I talk every day to Members who have been misled by 
colleges and universities in their districts about what PROSPER does. 
Many well-meaning, I am sure, administrators and college presidents are 
calling Members and saying: The PROSPER Act cuts financial aid for 
students.
  Mr. Speaker, it does nothing of the sort. Because of the way we 
restructure the loan programs, however, it does save the taxpayers, 
right now, based on CBO's score, $15 billion. However, it makes 
available to students 12 million more dollars just in financial aid, 
not to count what we are talking about in the $14.5 billion in 
origination fees.
  By providing access to a new ONE Loan with reasonable loan limits and 
creating an easily accessible income-based repayment option, it offers 
an affordable monthly payment option to all borrowers, and it caps 
interest accrual. This is something else that the schools 
misunderstand. We do help the students with their loan programs not 
while they are in school, but when they are out of school.
  Many people have misunderstood the legislation and the wording in the 
PROSPER Act, so I have encouraged my colleagues to share with me the 
concerns they hear from colleges and universities so we can make sure 
that what they are being told are the facts and not either a 
misunderstanding of the legislation, because people aren't used to 
reading the legislation, or an out-and-out fabrication of what is in 
the bill.
  We reward the institutions in the workstudy program by helping the 
most vulnerable students complete their education and expand the 
ability of students to receive Federal workstudy dollars while gaining 
valuable work experience in a field of their choice.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been in education for a long, long time. I know 
40-some years ago we had studies that showed that students who 
participated in the workstudy program made better grades, made better 
use of their time, graduated at a higher rate, and were much more 
likely to get a job after graduation. What we do is we actually double 
the amount of money in the workstudy program and allow a portion of 
that money to be used by students in an industry- and institution-
approved program in the private sector.
  We all know that internships often turn into jobs, and we know it is 
much more likely that a student would get a job in the private sector 
if he or she is able to do an internship and workstudy funds can be 
used to cover those internships.
  Another thing that the PROSPER Act does is it reimagines how 
institutions best serve students in these ways, providing students 
access to new providers of postsecondary education by allowing those 
providers to partner with traditional colleges and universities for up 
to 100 percent of a student's educational program.
  We are living in a vastly changing world with all types of 
opportunities available now to students to gain an education and to 
gain the skills they need. We need to stop living in the 16th century, 
as much of education is doing in this country, and come up to speed 
with what is available to us through technology.
  We, in the PROSPER Act, encourage competency-based education by 
creating a clear pathway for competency-based education programs to be 
eligible for Federal student aid to help students attain a less costly 
degree based on their own learning rather than time spent in a seat.
  Mr. Speaker, when I taught many years ago at Appalachian State 
University, at Mayland Community College, and at Caldwell Community 
College, I often encouraged students to participate in activities 
outside the classroom because so much impressive learning can go on 
outside of sitting in a seat listening to a teacher lecturing. We need 
to do more of that.

  Students, again, have access to so many opportunities where they 
could be deemed proficient in an area and be able to get credit for 
that which would speed up their earning a degree.
  We repeal the antiquated and rigid definition of distance education 
making it possible for institutions to develop more creative methods of 
delivering postsecondary education.
  We allow, through the PROSPER Act, minority-serving institutions and 
Historically Black Colleges and Universities to use grant funds for 
certain initiatives such as pay for success, dual enrollment, and the 
development of career-centered programs.
  It is time, again, Mr. Speaker, for us to acknowledge that there are 
many, many opportunities out there for students to gain the skills that 
they need to be able to be certified and be able to get the credentials 
that they need to lead a successful life in our country, and what we 
are doing with the PROSPER Act is advancing those opportunities.
  I want to quote from an article that was recently published that 
encourages the passage of the PROSPER Act. The article was written by 
Rachelle Peterson, who is the policy director at the National 
Association of Scholars, and I am going to give a few quotes from that 
article.
  She says: ``It has been 53 years since President Lyndon Johnson 
signed the Higher Education Act into law, and 10 years since it was 
reauthorized, under President Obama. Over the years, the law--which 
touches nearly every aspect of higher education--has turned into a 
special interest bonanza. It shields traditional colleges from 
marketplace competition, weaves a labyrinthine web of student aid 
options, packs on the pork, and in the last administration served as a 
pretext for the Department of Education to invent politically charged 
regulations.''
  I couldn't have said it better myself, Mr. Speaker.
  She goes on to say: ``The PROSPER Act . . . would streamline Federal 
programs, relax burdensome regulations, forbid the Secretary of 
Education from acting outside the scope of the law, and protect the key 
principles of free speech and religious freedom.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to get a package of legislation that would do 
all of those things, but she goes on: ``Today,

[[Page H4772]]

my organization, the National Association of Scholars, released a top-
to-bottom review of the PROSPER Act, concluding that it represents the 
best opportunity to reform higher education in decades. With a few 
tweaks, the PROSPER Act should be passed at once. Two especially 
important areas--Federal student aid reform and protections for freedom 
of speech and association--show why.''
  I am very, very grateful to the National Association of Scholars and 
Rachelle Peterson for her kind words about the PROSPER Act.
  She goes on to say: ``Currently, Federal student aid is a complicated 
system that encourages students to take on unmanageable debt and 
incentivizes colleges to raise tuition.''
  She mentions the different loan programs, grants, and ways to get 
loans forgiven. She talks about the PROSPER Act simplifying Federal 
student aid, reining in costs, and making it easier for students to see 
their options.
  She goes on to say: ``PROSPER also gives colleges `skin in the game' 
by making them financial stakeholders in students' success. Individual 
programs whose students have low loan repayment rates would become 
ineligible for accepting Federal student loans, forcing these low-
performing programs either to improve their quality or to lower their 
costs. When students drop out, colleges would become liable to repay a 
portion of the students' Federal aid, creating an incentive to adopt 
high admissions standards.''
  She goes on to say: `` . . . the PROSPER Act does a remarkable job of 
cutting bureaucratic overgrowth to return Federal student aid to its 
core purpose: helping students who are prepared for college find ways 
to afford it. . . . `'

                              {time}  2100

  She goes on and on. I am not going to continue to quote from her, but 
I include in the Record this material so that every person reading the 
Congressional Record has an opportunity to read her excellent article.

                     [From The Hill, May 23, 2018]

     Congress, Pass the Prosper Act for Federal Student Aid Reform

                         (By Rochelle Peterson)

       It has been 53 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed 
     the Higher Education Act into law, and 10 years since it was 
     reauthorized, under President Obama. Over the years, the 
     law--which touches nearly every aspect of higher education--
     has turned into a special interest bonanza. It shields 
     traditional colleges from marketplace competition, weaves a 
     labyrinthine web of student aid options, packs on the pork, 
     and in the last administration served as a pretext for the 
     Department of Education to invent politically charged 
     regulations.
       The PROSPER Act, introduced in December by Rep. Virginia 
     Foxx (R-N.C.), would reauthorize the Higher Education Act and 
     clean up the mess it has become. The bill would streamline 
     federal programs, relax burdensome regulations, forbid the 
     Secretary of Education from acting outside the scope of the 
     law, and protect the key principles of free speech and 
     religious freedom.
       Today, my organization, the National Association of 
     Scholars released a top-to-bottom review of the PROSPER Act, 
     concluding that it represents the best opportunity to reform 
     higher education in decades. With a few tweaks, the PROSPER 
     Act should be passed at once. Two especially important 
     areas--federal student aid reform and protections for freedom 
     of speech and association--show why.
       Currently, federal student aid is a complicated system that 
     encourages students to take on unmanageable debt and 
     incentivizes colleges to raise tuition. The system has six 
     loan programs, numerous grants, and some four dozen options 
     for paying off or getting loans forgiven.
       The PROSPER Act simplifies federal student aid, reining in 
     costs and making it easier for students to see their options. 
     It caps the amount of money parents and students can borrow 
     from the federal government. It streamlines federal student 
     aid into a single loan program, a single grant program, and a 
     single repayment program. It eliminates special interest 
     projects, such as public service loan forgiveness, which 
     privileged government employees by forgiving their loans 
     after 10 years of payments.
       PROSPER also gives colleges ``skin in the game'' by making 
     them financial stakeholders in students' success. Individual 
     programs whose students have low loan repayment rates would 
     become ineligible for accepting federal student loans, 
     forcing these low-performing programs either to improve their 
     quality or to lower their costs. When students drop out, 
     colleges would become liable to repay a portion of the 
     students' federal aid, creating an incentive to adopt high 
     admissions standards.
       The bill misses some important elements of student aid 
     reform, such as making income-share agreements enforceable 
     and requiring colleges to spend a minimum percentage of 
     endowment income. It also maintains the Department of 
     Education's monopoly on government student aid, rather than 
     transferring financial authority to the states.
       But overall, the PROSPER Act does a remarkable job of 
     cutting bureaucratic overgrowth to return federal student aid 
     to its core purpose: helping students who are prepared for 
     college find ways to afford it, without driving up costs.
       The PROSPER Act also takes an important stand for freedom 
     of speech and association, principles that colleges have 
     recently given scant attention. The Act prevents colleges 
     from discriminating against religious student groups by 
     denying them official recognition and other standard 
     benefits, such as access to campus facilities. And it 
     protects the rights of religious institutions to govern 
     themselves in a manner consistent with their religious 
     missions.
       The PROSPER Act also addresses the need for free speech on 
     campus, although its policy changes, while laudable, need to 
     be shored up. Currently, many colleges designate ``free 
     speech zones'' as the only places students and faculty can 
     engage in public speech. In response, the PROSPER Act offers 
     the ``sense of Congress'' that free speech zones are 
     ``inherently at odds'' with the First Amendment--a principled 
     though legally unenforceable statement.
       A key amendment by Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.) requires 
     colleges and universities to disclose any speech codes, 
     providing sunlight that will help watchdog organizations and 
     free speech litigators target bad campus policies. The 
     amendment also authorizes the secretary of Education to 
     investigate colleges that are accused of using unpublished 
     rules or selective enforcement to target certain types of 
     speech. This is important for students whose free speech has 
     been abridged, because they currently have little recourse 
     but to file a lawsuit, an expensive and time-consuming 
     endeavor.
       These are key changes that go a long way toward restoring 
     freedom of speech on campus. But no bill is perfect, and the 
     PROSPER Act misses some opportunities. It should also 
     authorize the secretary of Education to investigate whether 
     colleges' policies are actually conducive to free speech in 
     the first place. Colleges should be required to report to 
     Congress annually on the state of free speech on their 
     campuses, including details on any violations of free speech, 
     punishment for offenders, and steps taken to protect free 
     speech going forward Colleges repeatedly found to be 
     malfeasant at protecting free speech should lose eligibility 
     for Title IV federal student aid.
       Students deserve a college education that is rigorous, 
     affordable, dedicated to intellectual freedom, and focused on 
     scholarship, not politicization. The PROSPER Act is a step in 
     the right direction.

  Ms. FOXX. My reason for doing this is to say that it is not just 
members of the committee, it is not just Members of Congress who 
support the PROSPER Act. It is people who understand the situation that 
exists in our country and want to see us make things better for 
students.
  Mr. Speaker, I grew up extraordinarily poor, but I knew that 
education was my key to getting out of poverty. I had to work hard, but 
I also had to get credentials. In this day and time, we know that 
having credentials is more important than ever.
  So I want to say again, the PROSPER Act, which stands for Promoting 
Real Opportunities, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform, 
is a key to doing that. This will do more to help poor students get out 
of poverty than almost anything that I have seen in a long, long time.
  Every Member of Congress hears every day that employers do not have 
people to fill the 6 million jobs that are out there that are vacant 
right now. What we do with PROSPER is make it possible for 7 million 
more students to get Pell Grants. And part of our reason for doing that 
is to help students get into short-term programs that will give them 
skills, give them credentials, and allow them to build on those skills 
over time, hopefully, to create a degree.
  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, what we are doing with PROSPER is 
allowing people to be able to get to participate in short-term programs 
where they will gain skills that will make them employable. They will 
be able to build on their credentials over time and, we hope, become 
life-long learners and ultimately earn degrees.
  But the main thing is, we have right now 6.6 million jobs vacant in 
this country. We have employers crying for people to fill those jobs. 
They cannot find those people now in this country. We have many people 
who could fill the jobs if they were able to gain the skills for them. 
By opening up Pell Grants to 7 million more students, we think we will 
get a match.

[[Page H4773]]

  It is clear right now, Mr. Speaker, that post-secondary education is 
unworkable for far too many individuals trying to enter the workforce. 
Americans deserve a better system that works for them.
  The PROSPER Act advances bold, commonsense solutions that will 
transform post-secondary education, better serve students, protect 
taxpayers, and set America up for long-term economic success.
  We are doing things in the bill that colleges and universities asked 
us to do. We are getting the Federal Government out of the way by 
repealing outdated Federal regulations and prohibiting the Secretary 
from exceeding her authority under the law.
  Again, the institutions have asked us for this. By doing this, 
everybody wins, Mr. Speaker. The PROSPER Act simplifies and improves 
Federal student aid by moving to one grant, one loan, one workstudy 
system, making it easier for students to understand their options. The 
bill encourages institutions to evolve, but holds them responsible by 
rethinking the post-secondary education accountability system.
  The bottom line is this bill is about getting people into jobs with 
the skills they need to succeed. To do that, it cuts through the morass 
of Federal red tape, eliminates the maze of Federal aid programs, and 
unleashes innovation to a sector stuck in the 20th century--I would 
argue maybe even the 19th century.
  I am going to make one or two more general comments about what 
PROSPER does, because I think it is so important that the American 
people understand what it is we are attempting to do here.
  Since 2007, Mr. Speaker, the published in-state tuition and fees at 
institutions increased at an average rate of 3.2 percent beyond 
inflation. If that had happened with the average automobile in this 
country, the average car today would be costing $80,000, instead of 
probably about $27,000. That is the inflation that has occurred in 
post-secondary education.
  We have a 6-year completion rate of only 54.8 percent. That is 
unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. Every year that a student is forced to stay 
in a college or university is costing that student $68,000 in lost 
wages and tuition and fees.
  The numbers go on and on. Eighty-one percent of parents say 4-year 
schools charge too much. Fifty-four percent of parents think 4-year 
schools are accessible to middle class Americans. In other words, many 
middle class Americans have given up on the hope of their child going 
on to school.
  Only 13 percent of people in this country believe college graduates 
are well prepared for success in the workforce. Fewer than two in five 
managers believe college graduates are well-equipped for a job in their 
field.
  Mr. Speaker, as I said, I made my living for a long time in 
education. I love education. I want everybody to get a great education. 
I know that it is the ticket to success in this country. But our 
current system is not working. What we do with the PROSPER Act, 
Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education 
Reform will give Americans a much better chance to gain the skills they 
need and be successful.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________