Washington — The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has denied the Education Department’s “emergency” request for approval to immediately survey Pell Grant recipients who have transferred from one institution to another, according to a statement on the Web site of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
The association and several others representing traditional colleges opposed the department’s request and questioned both its motive in pursuing the survey and its rationale for treating the matter as an emergency. Eleven higher-education associations signed a letter urging the Office of Management and Budget to deny the request.
The groups said in the letter that they believed “there is no appropriate federal rationale for this survey to be done without giving the public, including the higher-education institutions, an opportunity to comment.”
The survey, according to the department, was intended to identify any problems that Pell recipients may face when they try to transfer credits and courses between institutions. The department normally must go through a process of public comment before spending federal money on such a survey.
There isn’t time for such a process, however, the department said in its request: “Given that this population is particularly difficult to reach, there is significant risk that our sample may degrade if we delay data collection further.”
The department also sought a hasty survey because Congress has nearly completed work on legislation to rewrite the Higher Education Act, the main law setting federal policy toward colleges. One provision in the bill would require colleges to publicly state their policies for handling requests from students who want to transfer credits from other institutions. —Sara Hebel
Correction (7/24, 12:10 p.m.): The White House’s Office of Management and Budget said this morning that the Education Department’s request had not been denied. According to Jane K. Lee, a spokeswoman for the White House office, the department’s emergency request was still under review.
