College Affordability Act - H.R.4674

The Committee on Education and Labor introduced the College Affordability Act—a comprehensive overhaul of the higher education system that lowers the cost of college for students and families, improves the quality of higher education through stronger accountability, and expands opportunity by providing students the support and flexibility they need to succeed.

The landmark legislation comes more than 10 years after the last reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and at a time when the combination of rising tuition and inconsistent quality is undermining students’ access to the benefits of a college degree.

“The College Affordability Act is a responsible, comprehensive overhaul of our higher education system that would mean students can spend less and earn more,” said Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03). “This proposal immediately cuts the cost of college for students and families and provides relief for existing borrowers. At the same time, it improves the quality of education by holding schools accountable for their students’ success, and it meets students’ individual needs by expanding access to more flexible college options and stronger support – helping students graduate on time and move into the workforce.

“This legislation achieves all of these important goals, while spending a fraction of the cost of the GOP tax cut. The College Affordability Act is a proposal that Members across the political spectrum should be able to support. It is a necessary and sensible response to the challenges that students and families are facing every day.”

The College Affordability Act:

• Tackles the rising cost of tuition by restoring state and federal investments in public colleges and universities, which will reduce the burden that has been shifted to students and their families.
• Makes college affordable for low- and middle-income students by increasing the value of Pell Grants.
• Eases the burden of student loans by making existing student loans cheaper and easier to pay off.
• Cracks down on predatory for-profit colleges that defraud students, veterans, and taxpayers.
• Holds all schools accountable for providing students a quality education that leads to a rewarding career.  
• Improves students’ safety on campus by blocking Secretary DeVos’s survivor-blaming Title IX rule and introducing stronger accountability to track and prevent cases of sexual assault, harassment, and hazing.
• Expands students’ access to high-quality programs by making Pell Grants available for short-term programs.
• Helps improve graduation rates by providing stronger wraparound services to keep students in school and on track.
• Invests in the critical institutions that enroll underserved students by increasing and permanently reauthorizing mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and other Minority Serving Institutions.

To read a fact sheet on the College Affordability Act, click here.

To read a title by title on the College Affordability Act, click here.

For more information about the College Affordability Act, click here.

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In Opposition:

The House Committee Education and Labor Democrats passed the so-called College Affordability Act. This partisan legislation will contribute to exploding college costs, exacerbate our nation’s skills gap, and allow failing programs to go unchecked. This approach will force students to spend more to learn less.
 
“Students and families can no longer afford the status quo. The same tired idea of throwing more money into the existing system and hoping that this time things will be different is the very definition of insanity. Government overreach and unnecessary intervention has contributed to a bloated postsecondary education sector at the expense of students,” Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said during debate on the legislation. “My Democrat friends across the aisle seem to have missed this lesson and instead double down on this failing notion. A representative of the higher education sector has weighed in and said that the so-called College Affordability Act will ‘increase the cost of doing business for most institutions.’ Republicans know – and Democrats should know – that this cost won’t be borne by schools, but like any other business will instead get passed to consumers in the form of higher tuition and fees. We can do better.”

Specifically, the Democrats’ legislation will:

• Give tens of billions of dollars to colleges and faculty union members instead of investing directly in students and trusting students and families to know what college option is best for them.
• Stifle innovation and fail to recognize competency-based education and other alternative education models that would increase completion rates, lower college costs, and better equip students for the needs of today’s workforce.
• Expand the federal government’s role in higher education to limit academic freedom, turn state and institutional decisions over to the Secretary, violate student privacy, and publicly shame those entities expressing constitutionally protected rights.

Committee Republicans offered commonsense proposals, but: 

• Democrats defended public service loan forgiveness for lobbyists.
• Democrats refused to protect babies born alive in college health care facilities.
• Democrats voted to make sure the wealthy get free college.
• Democrats denied First Amendment protections for religious institutions.
• Democrats pushed a debt cancellation scheme that robs from the poor to pay for the rich.

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