2011 Legislative
Primer
ten issues affecting colleges in the 112th Congress
BY DAVID BAIME
The 111th Congress enacted a series of bills that positively impact community colleges and their students. Chief among these was a dramatic increase in the Pell Grant maximum, a greatly improved higher education tax credit (the American Opportunity Tax Credit), significant education funding to states in the form of “stabilization funds,” and an array of job training grant opportunities, including the $2 billion
Community College and Career Training Grant Program. What follows is
a discussion of key issues that the 112th Congress, along with the executive branch and higher education policy experts, will likely consider in
the months to come.
the pell grant program
The Pell Grant program represents the federal government’s most important investment in community college education, assisting close to 3 million students each
year. Community colleges serve the highest percentage of low-income students in
traditional higher education, and their campuses would look dramatically different
without Pell Grant support. Overall, more than 8. 7 million students are projected
to receive grants next academic year, a phenomenal 64 percent increase from 5. 4
million just four years before. Many members of the 112th Congress will be fixated
on restraining expenditures, and the Pell Grant program, with its recent maximum
grant increases and ongoing financing difficulties, could be targeted for retrenchment. AACC intends to vigorously oppose any such efforts. Maintaining a robust
Pell Grant program, with the basic educational opportunity it embodies, will remain
front and center for AACC in the next Congress and for the foreseeable future.
workforce delivery structure. The law
has been expired since F. Y. 2004, even
though there is broad bipartisan agreement that reauthorization is needed.
Community colleges have much to gain
by a WIA reauthorization. This includes reduced reporting requirements,
better integration of adult education
programs into workforce training, an
emphasis on longer-term training
programs, and statutory authorization
of the Career Pathways Innovation
Fund. AACC’s most important WIA
reauthorization goal is for community
colleges to be given a true “partnership”
role in the system, rather than a more
utilitarian role.
american graduation initiative
The American Graduation Initiative (AGI), which raised such high hopes on community college campuses, will probably not be fully revived in the 112th Congress.
But Congress’ failure to enact the initiative should not obscure its historic nature
and longer-term policy implications. The centerpiece of AGI was its unprecedented,
roughly $9 billion commitment to community colleges, within the context of a $12
billion, 10-year proposal. Though AGI failed to carry Congress, it ultimately resulted
in community colleges receiving a tremendous infusion of federal support—$2 billion
over four years via the Community College and Career Training Program in the Trade
Adjustment Assistance Act. AGI also catalyzed community college interest in the
Completion Agenda—the graduation imperative is front and center on campuses in a
much more focused and explicit way. AACC played its part by adopting a “Call to Action”
that commits community college organizations to improving completion rates.
Workforce policy
Consistent with their role in educating the nation’s workforce and the growing
recognition of that role in Congress, community colleges are a focal point of federal
policy discussions about the nation’s career and technical training programs. The
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) remains the centerpiece of the federal government’s
For-profit Higher education
For-profit higher education has created
significant complications for community colleges that, in all likelihood, will
increase. The industry’s multibillion-dollar profits will continue to give it a
leg up in advocacy, particularly with
the renewed strength of the Republican Party, which historically has been
sympathetic to the industry’s positions.
For-profit colleges are created to maximize earnings, with high tuitions and
heavy student debt serving as the basic
formula for generating profit. The bulk
of these institutions receive an overwhelming majority of their revenues
from federal student aid (pushing 90
percent in most cases, in contrast with
less than 15 percent at community
colleges). The Obama administration’s
controversial “gainful employment”
regulations are a notable effort to assert greater oversight of the for-profit
industry and protect students. But the
regulations could also affect community colleges—an example of the uneasy
entanglements created by the for-profit
industry.
