Re-creating Regulatory Reform

Student aid requirements have mired institutions and the Department itself in a Web of complexity that threatens our capacity to administer effectively. The Higher Education Act, when enacted in 1965, consisted of 52 pages. Today, it comes in at 497. The growth in the amount and extent of implementing regulations has kept pace with the growth of the Act itself.

New student aid and other programs that are important to providing access and opportunities for innovation in higher education are one cause in the growth of the Act, a very positive one. However, these are balanced by more and more requirements governing the administration of student aid, many of which were deemed necessary to correct lapses in program integrity by often a small number of institutions. New approaches to regulation, such as negotiated rulemaking that involves representatives from the various groups of Title IV stakeholders, have helped to craft regulations that are somewhat more workable. However, these approaches have continued to focus on the details of administering Title IV aid and not the overall structure of the requirements.

Examining this body of requirements to determine how they might be refocused to simplify the administration of student aid is a forbidding task with an uncertain result. The task itself—to relieve the administrative burden and at the same time to provide the protections needed to assure the integrity of the programs—would be difficult in and of itself. In addition, it would be difficult to reach any broad consensus on the direction of change among the higher education community, and equally difficult to gain the support necessary to amend the Higher Education Act to effect the change. It would also be a long task; the first phase would lead up to the next authorization of the Higher Education Act. However, if there is not the will among the stakeholders to begin this task now, the only alternative will be to add to the growing complexity as new issues arise in the student aid programs.

Responding to these challenges must be a shared responsibility. The public and the private sectors, non-profit and for-profit institutions, corporate and entrepreneurial entities, all must work individually and in partnership to make lifetime learning a reality for all Americans.

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