Christian Colleges Hope House Bill Will Repeal New Rules
"[There are] two things the administration says it wants to do: increase access to education and reduce the cost," Ebersole said. "The action it has taken [in state authorization] is absolutely counter to both of those objectives."
The bill sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, would not only repeal the regulations but also prohibit the DOE from establishing a federal definition of the term "credit hour" in the future.
Ebersole said he thinks the bill will eventually be passed in the House, but he's doubtful about any success in the Senate.
"Even if we could convince a few of the Democratic senators to support it, it would be very unusual for the President to sign a bill that essentially takes to task his own Department of Education," Ebersole said. "I really appreciate the spirit of the bill, but I don't think it's heading anywhere."
Morgan Feddes is editorial resident at Christianity Today.
Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Christianity Today covered the new higher education regulations in November.
Recent articles on education include:
Generic Christian U. | Ties that bind church schools are loosening. (Jan. 14, 2011)
Boarding Bust: Schools for Missionary Kids See Lower Attendance | Recent reports of child abuse overshadow another trend. (Dec. 27, 2010)
Challenging Chappies | Australia's atheist prime minister wants chaplains in schools. (Dec. 14, 2010)
Star Trek Into Darkness
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Clark Coleman
For a summary of the for-profit fraud story, see the GAO report at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-948T . The for-profit colleges are mostly trade schools, and most Christian colleges are non-profit as are secular private colleges. But the new regulations affect all private colleges, which must be licensed by the states in which they reside, even if they are not for-profit colleges.
Clark Coleman
Gordon Payne: The totalitarian leftists in Congress re-defined "accepting government assistance" decades ago. It now includes having students in your college who get student loans from the government, even if you receive ZERO grants from the government as an institution. Hillsdale College went through a fundraising campaign for more than a decade to come up with its own student loan program so they could tell students that the students are not allowed to take out federal student loans. It will be very difficult for every Christian college in the country to do this. Escaping the grip of the totalitarian Left will be very difficult until we can throw them out of power in D.C. wholesale.
Original Anna Anna
I am missing something. What is the financial fraud, is it the school filing false claims with the state, students frauding the government, what kind of fraud. It says for profit and unfortunately most religious colleges and universities do have to make a profit in order to stay in business, keep up the buildings, pay the best professors, etc. The religious university I went to lived off of charging students, major donations, student scholarships, pal grants, etc. and had to show a profit to start up the next year as any organization whether for profit or non profit does. State colleges when in financial trouble can just go to the taxpayer like the state colleges I went to, every year like clockwork. If the creditation of the institution is in question than that isn't financial fraud. That's the state board's responsibility for crediting an institution, not the federal government. This sounds like a way to close down religious colleges who hang by a financial thread always.