Federal legislation co-authored by Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz to help make college more affordable and reduce the burden that college debt puts on students is set to be introduced early next month.
The proposed bill would set up a commission of students and education experts to create minimum standards colleges would need to meet to continue receiving federal funding. The national standards would focus on affordability, access for low- and middle-income students, and quality.
Schatz co-wrote the legislation with fellow Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Both are still paying off college loans.
Murphy, 40, and Schatz, 41 — the two youngest members of the U.S. Senate — said in a joint statement that skyrocketing tuition has put higher education out of reach for many Americans, with college costs having tripled in the past 30 years. And they say too many people are leaving college with burdensome loan debts.
"The cost of college is one of the biggest middle-class issues of our time. No generation escapes the issue," Schatz said in a statement. "Despite the federal government investing more money than ever before in higher education, the cost keeps going up, and in many ways, schools are not held accountable to students and taxpayers."
The U.S. Department of Education awards about $150 billion a year in grants, work-study funds and low-interest loans to more than 14 million students. Thousands of schools participate in federal student aid programs that help cover tuition, room and board, books and supplies, and other related expenses.
Schatz recently shared his plan with students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in a forum organized by Social Leaders at Manoa, a student group. Schatz said in-state tuition for Hawaii’s public four-year universities has doubled since 2006.
Resident tuition at UH’s flagship Manoa campus has more than doubled since then, from $4,320 a year for full-time undergraduate students in 2006-07 to $9,144 a year this school year.
Still, UH’s costs are lower than the national average.
Nationally, the average student pays about $18,400 a year in in-state tuition, fees and room and board at a four-year public college or university, according to the College Board. The same average cost at a private university is about $40,900 a year.
Meanwhile, about 60 percent of students who earned bachelor’s degrees in 2011-12 graduated with debt, borrowing an average of $26,500, the College Board reported in October. Hawaii’s average student debt was the second-lowest in the nation at $17,447.
UH-Manoa junior Rio Kwon said the university’s relatively low tuition was a big factor in his decision to stay in Hawaii to attend UH.
"For students like myself, and I can imagine for a lot of other students, having college be affordable is a big deal," said Kwon, who is double-majoring in political science and English and who attended Schatz’s talk-story session.
"I can appreciate the government taking our side to ensure tuition stays low, while also making sure that educational quality is kept high," Kwon added. "I think schools need to be more accountable in terms of making college more affordable. I got the impression that the senator’s legislation and his efforts will have some impact."
A fact sheet on the bill provided by Schatz’s office says some colleges are not delivering on the value of their product for the price they charge, and the federal government needs to be smarter about how it distributes federal student aid.
In addition to setting accountability standards, the bill would:
» Fund a new evidence-based competitive pilot program that will encourage institutions to develop programs that offer high-quality education that lowers the cost and reduces the time for completing a degree.
» Establish a system to reward schools that do best on accountability measures. Institutions that consistently fall below those standards will be incentivized to improve. If they fail to improve, they will have to return increasing amounts of their federal funding or ultimately lose eligibility.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
