By Emmi Navarro
Do you ever close your eyes to take a quick nap and wake up 6 hours later? This year was a little bit like that — an intense dream that ended more quickly than expected, for better or worse. Queen Elizabeth II passed, Twitter is on fire, a volcano in Hawaii erupted, and it was also another record year for higher education.
So, in true @ThirdWayEdu tradition, join me for a journey into the past as we reflect on some of the biggest things to happen in 2022, as told by our Twitter handle (for maybe the last time?!).
We hit the ground running as we kicked off the year with the first session of negotiated rulemaking at the Department of Education (Department). Fondly called neg reg, this is the process the Department uses to make new rules affecting stakeholders like borrowers, students, and institutions. This year’s sessions included topics like gainful employment, the 90/10 rule, and financial responsibility. Advocates also urged the Department to include more student voices in future neg reg sessions, as only one seat out of 13 is reserved for a student voice, even though these issues affect them directly.
While the Department was making big changes to our nation’s higher ed system, our education team was experiencing some transformations of our own. Our fearless leader, Tamara Hiler, left Third Way after 8 years leading our higher ed policy program, for (colder) pastures in Colorado to lead the Governor Polis’s education portfolio. We also brought on two new team members — Angelina Nastasi (Education Press Coordinator) and Chazz Robinson (Education Policy Advisor) — and hosted a research associate for the summer, Emily Rounds.
In March, President Biden introduced his 2023 budget request, which included several higher education measures. The Administration has championed issues like expanding the Pell Grant, new funding for evidence-based college completion programs, and investing in under-resourced institutions. These measures have shown just how committed the Biden Administration is to making long-lasting, transformational changes to our higher education system and working steadfastly to undo the harm done by the previous Administration. It’s clear that they are paving the way to putting students first and striving for more equitable outcomes in higher ed.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program offers debt relief for those who commit their careers to service — like teachers, firefighters, nurses, and others. Unfortunately, the system is overly complex and wrought with a lot of administrative burden, making it challenging for students to see the relief they deserve. This spring Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Jim Baird (R-IN) introduced a bill to simplify the process based on measures temporarily introduced at the start of the pandemic.
When we started working on our Price-to-Earnings Premium (PEP) and Economic Mobility Index (EMI), we couldn’t have anticipated how much of an impact it would have on the broader higher education value conversation. Our PEP and EMI work uses return on investment formulas to understand how quickly students recoup their higher education investment and the economic boost they can expect to receive from attending a given institution. It redefines value in higher education and offers a new accountability metric for schools to assess how they are serving students. Major media outlets are starting to take note and this year, Money Magazine integrated the EMI into their college rankings to help ensure a more holistic review. Advocates and higher ed professionals have been critical of college rankings for years, and we’re heartened to see that more media outlets and institutions are paying attention.
In May, we held the first ever #CollegeCompletionDay to advocate for completion measures, which are critical given that colleges and universities graduate about half of all the students that they enroll. Initially proposed in the American Families Plan of 2021, the College Completion Fund is a historic, first-time federal investment in evidence-based completion and retention programs. While it was an important first step towards helping more students graduate, institutions — especially those with large student populations from underserved communities — need continued financial support. Advocates and students from all over the country joined us to share their stories and emphasize how transformational a college degree can be for us all.
Gainful Employment (GE) is one of the rules that was up for revision during this year’s neg reg sessions. The rule intends to protect students from predatory colleges by requiring an institution to show that most of their graduates go on to earn enough to pay down their student debt. However, negotiators were unable to reach consensus on the proposed revisions and expansion of the rule. We’ll be watching the Department’s next moves with bated breath next spring when they release their final ruling.
In August, President Biden announced his plan for blanket debt cancellation, which offers those who make under $125,000 individually, or $250,000 jointly, up to $20,000 in forgiveness if they were Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for all others. We were encouraged to see that the plan was more targeted than initially proposed, as research shows that those with smaller loans are more likely to struggle with repayment, and the Department estimated about 75% of eligible households have incomes of $88,000 or less. Elements of the plan propose strong fixes for the most vulnerable borrowers — most notably the additional forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients and proposed accountability provisions for colleges and universities — but debt cancellation alone is a band aid fix to our student debt crisis that does nothing to support future students. Without structural changes to our higher education system, we’ll be back in the same place in a few short years. The good news is that there are changes we can make; we’ve got a few ideas you can read about here.
One of the other topics on the neg reg table this year was borrower defense (BD) — a debt forgiveness measure we can get behind. BD allows for loan discharges for students who have been defrauded by their institution, and the Department released changes to the regulation to make it more streamlined and equitable. In fact, the Administration has discharged a record amount of loans for defrauded borrowers this year — about $14.5 billion for 1.1 million borrowers.
As the year ends, we have one more big piece of legislation on our minds: the College Transparency Act (CTA). Right now, higher ed has a data gap; CTA would allow for the secure collection of student data, so prospective students and their families have access to comprehensive information about student outcomes when deciding where to invest in and pursue their higher education. This information will also make it easier for researchers and policymakers to do their jobs and make informed decisions to better serve students.
2022 was a big year for higher education, and our team accomplished A LOT. We led multiple advocacy campaigns, produced products that offered equitable and pragmatic solutions to higher ed’s biggest questions, and faced the year’s challenges head on. As we reflect back, we’re proud of the impact higher education advocates, students, and policymakers have made this year. We’re looking forward to welcoming the 118th Congress and swinging right back into action in January — after some much-needed rest, lots of puppy cuddles, and maybe even the DC area’s first snow of the season?
