[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15909-15910]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT AND TRANSPARENCY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANDRE CARSON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 12, 2017

  Mr. CARSON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the 
Higher Education Employment and Transparency Act. This important 
legislation would help ensure that students are adequately informed of 
their choices as they navigate the process of applying to college.
  While a college degree is as valuable as ever, the choices facing 
students as they attempt to choose the right school remain daunting. 
While most students cite employment as a prime motivator for college 
attendance, they nevertheless are often inadequately informed about the 
employment outcomes at various institutions of higher education and for 
various fields.
  Navigating the college application process is hard enough. While in 
some cases data on employment and earnings information does exist, in 
too many cases it is unclear or not easily accessible to prospective 
students. Making this information more transparent--and pointing 
prospective students in the right direction--would go a long way in 
ensuring that students are making the best choices tailored to their 
individual needs.
  The Higher Education Employment and Transparency Act seeks to tackle 
these challenges. This bill represents one piece of the puzzle to 
ensure data on higher education outcomes is presented in a manner that 
is clear, transparent, standardized, and above all easily accessible to 
prospective students. Without requiring the collection of new data, the 
bill would give students better access to higher-quality information 
about the schools they are considering.
  The legislation would make a number of key changes:
  First, it would expand on current requirements for Institutions of 
Higher Education (IHEs) to disseminate certain information to 
prospective and enrolled students, through appropriate publications, 
mailings, and electronic media. The Higher Education Employment and 
Transparency Act would update this requirement to include disaggregated 
earnings and employment information, and require the use of data from 
more reliable sources.
  Second, it would expand and improve the College Navigator, which is 
already a useful tool presenting a variety of information about IHEs. 
The Higher Education Employment and Transparency Act would require 
additional information to be included on this site, in addition to what 
is currently required: a link to a page with that same, higher-quality 
information that IHEs are newly required to disclose; a link to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook website, 
which includes regional data on starting salaries in all major 
occupations; and, a link to a website that provides information about 
former students' employment and earnings information, based on high-
quality federal or state data.
  Last, under this legislation, IREs would also be required to provide 
prominent links on their own websites to each of these new pieces of 
information.
  While disagreements exist regarding potential longer-term changes to 
our higher education data regime, this bill is a key step that would 
improve students' access to data that already exists. I urge my 
colleagues to support this legislation.

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