Few would disagree that higher education is getting pretty expensive these days, and a newly introduced piece of legislation is an attempt to change that.
Last Wednesday, Congressman Howard McKeon (R-Calif.) announced his plan to deal with this issue with legislation aimed at maintaining college affordability.
McKeon's proposed bill, tentatively called The College Affordability in Higher Education Act, intends to increase both the affordability and accessibility of college through a number of means, which may include suspending an individual school's eligibility for federal student aid.
While the bill could potentially affect Penn, which, like the majority of schools nationwide, has seen continued tuition increases in recent years, University officials have expressed doubt that the bill will pass.
In his speech before the Education Finance Council in California last Friday, McKeon cited the goals of the bill, which involved "creating a college affordability index to measure a college's rate of tuition increase, encouraging innovative approaches to higher education with college affordability experimentation sites, increasing college affordability through a more equitable and affordable system for students wishing to transfer credits and reducing regulatory burdens on higher education institutions."
"Congressman McKeon is very optimistic about the bill," said Deana Bass, McKeon's press secretary. "Even in crazy economic climates, many colleges have been able to maintain reasonable tuitions."
The bill has already received criticism from the higher education community, mostly directed at the measure to strike down rising tuition costs.
Under the proposed legislation, a college affordability index would be formulated. If a college or university increased tuition by twice the rate of inflation or more, the institution would be required to provide the U.S. Department of Education with a statement explaining the rise and a strategic plan to keep tuition fees down in the future.
If the institution failed to keep tuition down below the affordability index, it would risk losing eligibility for federal student assistance.
McKeon believes that colleges can find ways to reduce tuition without any negative effect on quality of education, according to Bass.
"The thing that is so great about this bill is that it introduces the idea of finding innovative ways to bring down college costs," Bass said. "Colleges can appeal to the Department of Education to create different approaches to education."
According to Bass, the bill applies to both public and private institutions.
Penn's tuition rose about 5 percent this year, an increase of more than twice the rate of inflation, which was 1.5 percent.
"All Washington-based higher ed organizations are already opposed to the bill," said Carol Scheman, Penn's vice president for government, community and public affairs. "At this point, it is so early in the process that to predict any outcome is virtually impossible, but I find it hard to believe that the bill would turn into law."
Scheman added that the problem of rising tuition costs is eased by the University's need-blind admissions policies.
"What McKeon is tapping into is general sense that access to higher education is sometimes determined by cost, but at Penn, we have need-blind admissions, so this is not the case for us."
According to Bass, the bill will be formally introduced to the House of Representatives within the next several weeks.
