Joint Statement of Priorities for the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which together represent more than 90 percent of America's unionized higher education faculty and professional staff, jointly support the following priorities for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA).

Since its inception, the core goal of the HEA has been to increase access to a college and university education, and any reauthorization proposal must build on that goal. Along with access, the Act addresses issues of quality, accountability and student services to ensure that federal aid dollars finance only soundly managed and high-standard colleges and universities and that all students receive the educational support they need to succeed in college and beyond. The HEA also recognizes the importance of providing educational opportunities to meet the growing diversity of students, faculty and institutions. Finally, the Act has always recognized the importance of safeguarding academic freedom by observing a policy of non-intervention in educational decision-making on campus.

In keeping with these priorities, AFT and NEA make the following joint recommendations regarding the reauthorization. These recommendations express our major interests and concerns regarding the Higher Education Act, and our effort to provide them jointly indicates that the faculty and other education professionals at a wide range of our nation's postsecondary institutions are in strong agreement on these issues. Each organization may well provide additional material on specific aspects of the bill during the Congressional reauthorization process.

Since 1965, the HEA has embodied the nation's commitment to ensure, as a matter of basic fairness, that no one is denied a college education because of his or her financial circumstances. Millions of students have attended higher education because of the financial assistance provided by this law. Today however, the decreased purchasing power of federal student aid and the increasing reliance on loans rather than grants, particularly by financially disadvantaged students, is putting this 40-year commitment in jeopardy. Therefore, we propose the following:

• Ensure, first and foremost, that students with the greatest financial need receive sufficient federal aid to attend college.
• Provide more grant aid to the lowest income students and restore the lost purchasing power of the Pell Grant so that students are not overburdened with loan debt.
• Bring stability to Pell Grant funding by ensuring that it is provided to all who are entitled to it based on eligibility requirements rather than subjecting it to the politics and fluctuations of annual funding battles.
• Ensure that the federal system for analyzing student need addresses fairly the financial needs of working and nontraditional students, including child care needs.
• Ensure that a diversity of federal student aid programs remains accessible and viable, including direct lending, fixed rate loan consolidations and Perkins loans.
• Ensure that students in good standing who otherwise qualify for student financial aid are not excluded from the programs based on their legal status, or that of their parents.
• Broaden the scope of loan forgiveness for educators in high need public schools to include all subject areas as well as other job categories.

Quality, Accountability and Student Services

In order to make sure that "access" is not a meaningless term, federal aid dollars should finance only institutions that exhibit a basic level of quality and integrity, and students must receive the educational support they need to succeed. The following, we believe, are the building blocks of that obligation:

Quality

• Continue private institutional accreditation as a condition for participation in federal programs.
• Require accrediting agencies to (a) implement rigorous quality standards in the area of distance education; and (b) require participating institutions to maintain a strong system of shared governance and maintain a substantial corps of full-time tenured faculty.

• Provide controls to guard against fraud and abuse at institutions run for a profit, particularly distance education programs where the possibilities of abuse are multiplied.
• Retain the 50 percent rule limiting federal aid to institutions offering most of their instruction through distance education pending a national study of the potential impact of this provision on needy students and educational quality.
• Retain the "90/10" rule, which ensures that institutions participating in the student aid programs have a sound and independent financial base.
• Oppose a change in the definition of an "institution of higher education" that would allow for-profit institutions to participate in the total range of federal higher education programs, not just student aid.

Student Support Services

• Retain and expand campus-based educational support programs such as TRIO, Upward Bound and Gear-Up to ensure that educationally and financially disadvantaged students have the support they need to succeed in postsecondary education.
• Increase support for the International Studies programs in Title VI, including those programs providing instruction in foreign languages.
• Provide new federal support to improve student persistence through grants to colleges with large numbers of nontraditional students.
• Oppose the use of graduation rates to reward or punish colleges and universities, as that measure does not accurately assess student retention or assist students in improving persistence.
• Provide increased support for faculty development by strengthening and supporting increased funding to graduate education programs under Title VII of the HEA.

Diversity

Federal policy must continue to encourage the provision of educational opportunities that reflect the growing diversity of the U.S. student population:

• Maintain funding for institutional aid programs currently authorized under Title III and V that provide aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Hispanic Serving Institutions.
• Expand access to funds, and authorize increased funding to accommodate the expansion, for institutions serving large numbers of recent immigrants and students for whom English is not a first language.
• Strengthen programs that support institutional policies seeking to recruit and retain diverse undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty.
• Support a separate program that provides funding for institutions serving a large number of Asian-Pacific Islanders.

Academic Freedom

Academic freedom in speech, teaching and research is a core focus and guiding principle in postsecondary education:

• Ensure that international scholars and students visiting this country continue to have full access to institutions of higher education so that they can build on the many contributions they have already made to advances in American science, engineering, medicine and other disciplines.
• Maintain the independence of Title VI international studies programs and oppose the creation of a federal oversight board.
• Firmly reject proposals to insert a so-called "Student Bill of Rights" or "Academic Bill of Rights" into the HEA, which would have the effect of imposing an ideological litmus test on the appointment of faculty, curriculum development and classroom teaching.

Teacher Education [HEA Title II]

The importance of promoting opportunities for teachers and enhancing teacher quality has attracted significant attention since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act and reports of an expected teacher shortage. We believe the HEA is an opportunity to strengthen teacher preparation by bringing higher quality, greater resources and much more coherence to the way teacher education prepares teacher candidates:

• Provide funding to encourage K-12 faculty, college liberal arts faculty and teacher education faculty to develop a strong liberal arts based teacher preparation program for prospective education students.
• Support strong models in student teaching, transition from teacher preparation programs to the classroom, and early career support services that include mentoring.
• Provide funding to enhance the role of community colleges in teacher education, as well as articulation between two- and four-year programs.