State and National Higher Ed Policy Updates —August 2019

Published in

Hildreth Institute

4 min readSep 3, 2019

Massachusetts Updates:

Let’s be loud for an affordable HigherEd

UMass tuition has increased again for the 5th consecutive year, culminating to more than 20% hike. YOU have an opportunity to be loud and to demand an affordable, high-quality education here in MA! Don’t get distracted by classes starting and join us from September 9 to 13 for #UnaffordableUMass social media campaign! Learn more about it HERE.

Meanwhile, legislators coming back from their summer recess, have an opportunity to act by supporting pending legislation meant to accelerate the availability of funds for our state colleges and universities. By appropriating funding to the existing Endowment Match Program, the State would encourage private contributions to public higher education institutions through a state match. In the late 1990s, the endowment match was created and raised over $125 million in individual donations in its first four years, with the State matching these donations with $50 million in additional funding to campuses. Representing a 250% return on investment!

But the pressure won’t stop here; we will continue to be loud and come up with policy solutions until we have a high-quality ZeroDebt higher education in MA! Stay tuned and REACH OUT with YOUR ideas on how to be louder as well as your policy solutions.

Public Hearings on Colleges’ Financial Review and Risk Monitoring

We witnessed several college closures and mergers in Massachusetts and across the region. With every closure, more student refugees have nowhere to go to complete their degrees. Because experts predict more college closures; we at Hildreth Institute, continue to ask: What is the State doing to ensure that students are protected, and what are colleges’ obligations to their students? Bob Hildreth, our founder, along with Deanna Colella, former Newbury College student, attended the public hearing held by The Board of Higher Education in August on the proposed regulations to identify and monitor the private colleges and universities at risk of closure. They both testified asking tough questions to state officials. As it is crucial to show up, to apply pressure, and to be on the side of students who are often underrepresented. We are committed to demanding accountability and assurance that the regulations put in place adequately support and protect students of defunct colleges.

Other MA news:

Our View: The climbing cost to attend UMass

Legislature should look to private donations to fund UMass

UMass trustees vote to raise tuition and fees by 2.5% for 2019–2020 academic year

Despite boost in funding, tuition hike expected at UMass

Hike puts UMass tuition near $30k amid words of caution

UMass Amherst, Lowell enroll largest-ever entering classes

Viewpoint: The business models for small colleges are on verge of collapse

After public release of UMass emails, Hampshire president reiterates commitment to keeping school independent

National updates:

DeVos Ignores Defrauded Students’ Claims for Loan Forgiveness

Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has released a stricter version of the “borrower defense to repayment” rules. Which effectively eliminated the Obama-era regulations that protected student borrowers and taxpayers from predatory for-profit schools. While we welcome the expansion that all borrowers, not just those who attended for-profit colleges, are covered by the new rules. It is unclear if any students will be able to obtain relief or protection under these more stringent rules.

The new rules put an undue burden on students, who must not only prove that they have been deceived, or defrauded by their colleges; but also financially harmed by this fraud. Students must be able to show they were unable to find a job for their credentials backed by proofs of job applications, and even attendance to job fairs. These rules are unacceptable! Predatory higher education institutions should not scam students in the first place, and the burden of oversight should be on the Department of Education, and not on students!

The rules eliminate the requirement that the department automatically wipes away the loans of students whose schools closed while they were enrolled; it prevents students who were harmed from getting relief as a group. More than 180,000 defrauded borrowers have been neglected for years, these new rules cast a dark shadow on any future hopes that students will ever obtain adequate protections under the Trump/DeVos Administration.