Next Wednesday, May 23, 2018, the National Association of Scholars will release a citizen toolkit and detailed review of the PROSPER Act, a House bill to reauthorize and substantially rewrite the Higher Education Act. These materials will be available on our website, and at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, NAS Policy Director Rachelle Peterson will be live on Facebook to introduce these resources.
Mark Your Calendars
What: NAS Statement and Citizen Toolkit on the PROSPER Act
When: Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 2:00 PM Eastern Time
How to Watch: Watch live online at https://www.facebook.com/NationalAssociationofScholars/ or on the NAS website.
About the Higher Education Act
The Higher Education Act, enacted in 1965 and last reauthorized in 2008, provides the primary framework for the federal government’s involvement in American higher education. It defines “institutions of higher education,” provides the architecture for federal student grants and loans, sets institutional eligibility for federal money, bars discrimination, and provides for a host of regulations on colleges and universities.
The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act presents a signal opportunity to repair American colleges and universities. Last year, NAS drafted the Freedom to Learn Amendments to the Higher Education Act as a blueprint for how Congress can reform American higher education. We mailed a copy to every member of the House and Senate committees tasked with reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.
In December, Representative Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, introduced the PROSPER Act, a reauthorization bill for the Higher Education Act. The PROSPER Act represents a strong start toward reforming higher education and includes some of NAS’s policy proposals. However, there is room for the PROSPER Act to be improved, and NAS has outlined specific ways the PROSPER Act can better protect freedom of speech, promote innovation and competition in higher education, and protect due process.
Next Wednesday, May 23, NAS will release a detailed overview of the PROSPER Act, along with a toolkit outlining ways that NAS members and other concerned citizens can participate in the process of reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.
Photo: CC0 Public Domain
