Reauthorizing The Higher Education Act

Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act : exploring barriers and opportunities within innovation of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, first session ... July 22, 2015.

This report presents testimony from the final 2 of a series of 44 hearings conducted in the District of Columbia and across the nation on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and contains the text of four bills proposed as amendments to the Higher Education Act. On the first day of testimony a panel of witnesses suggested reforms for the federal need analysis contained in the Higher Education Act. (These needs analyses are formulas used to determine student financial need for the purpose of distributing federal aid.) Among the witnesses were representatives from the administration, students, higher education institutions, teachers, aid administrators, the college Board and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. The second day of testimony was concerned with reform of the need analysis system and with campus safety, especially for women. A member of the House of Representatives for New Jersey, Marge Roukema, discussed restoring access to working families and middle income families and submitted an amendment designed to enact her recommendations. Next, California member of the House of Representatives, Barbara Boxer, testified in favor of amendments to the Higher Education Act titled: "Safe Campuses for Women,""Equal Justice for Women in the Courts," and "Campus Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 1991." A third panel of witnesses from institutions of higher education and higher education professional associations testified on student financial need analysis. The prepared statements of the witnesses as well as of others not present are included. (JB)