Katrina-Relief Bill in Senate Would Give Online Colleges Long-Sought Break on Student-Aid Rule

By DAN CARNEVALE

Related materials

More Coverage: Articles about how Hurricane Katrina has affected colleges, plus photo galleries, an interactive map, commentaries, and other information.

Katrina Update: Announcements from colleges, associations, and government agencies.

Colloquy: Read the transcript of a live discussion with Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane University, about his institution's efforts to recover.

Forum: Discuss the effects of the hurricane and exchange information.

Charitable aid: Coverage from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines New Mexico State U. President Fires Off New Allegations in Dispute With Professors Two whose contracts were not renewed by the university, in what they say was a case of discrimination, now say they are also the victims of baseless allegations by the university's president. U. of Iowa Puts Flood Damage at More Than $230-Million Professors Cry Foul as Kean U. Increases Required Office Hours Portfolios Replace Qualifying Exams as Step Toward Dissertations Robots Hit the Ivies Commentary Updating Higher Education's Past: 1940 to 2005

Headlines

Education Department convenes new commission to develop "national strategy" for higher education

Katrina-relief bill in Senate would give online colleges long-sought break on student-aid rule

Princeton trims number of A's in first year of campaign against grade inflation

Colleges decline to outsource some operations even though they could save money, report says

25 new MacArthur Fellows each to get half a million dollars

Thai official proposes enlisting violent vocational students to rid Bangkok streets of homeless people

Information Technology
New software that allows professors to share large data files is set for release

Information Technology
Educational Testing Service expands efforts to measure computer- and information-literacy

A bill to provide education relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina would temporarily remove a controversial distance-education regulation, allowing some students attending virtual colleges to receive federal financial aid for the first time.

Embedded in the $3.7-billion education-relief bill (S 1715), which was introduced last week in the Senate, is a provision that would alter the definition of an institution of higher education to include online colleges and universities. That change would overturn a longstanding rule that limits the size of colleges' distance-education programs if they want to be considered higher-education institutions for purposes of federal student-aid programs.

Currently, colleges that enroll more than 50 percent of their students at a distance, or offer more than 50 percent of their courses through distance education, cannot participate in the federal aid programs. The rule was established in 1992, after a string of fraudulent correspondence programs ripped off students during the 1980s.

Since then, with the advent of online education, distance learning has taken off, and many colleges have asked that the rule be eased. Members of Congress have proposed doing just that in bills to extend the Higher Education Act, the law that governs most federal student-aid programs, for the next six years.

But in the aftermath of the hurricane, passage of that legislation is likely to be postponed, delaying any change to the rule. The House of Representatives is expected to vote today to approve a six-month extension to the Higher Education Act, putting off final passage of the legislation until at least next year.

Language to ease the 50-percent rule is now included in S 1715, which is designed to help students from kindergarten through college who were displaced by Katrina to continue their course work elsewhere in the country. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Michael B. Enzi, a Republican from Wyoming, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. They are, respectively, the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Ryan Taylor, a spokesman for the committee, said changing that rule would help students affected by Katrina enroll in college programs even if they did not live near a particular institution's campus. Already colleges across the country have accepted such students into their distance-education programs, he said.

"We didn't want to hinder the higher-education process for displaced students," Mr. Taylor said. "Wherever they're going to go, it's going to help them."

The provision in the bill would expire in January 2006, unless Congress chooses to extend it.

Critics of the provision accused the senators of trying to pull a fast one. Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said lawmakers were trying to sneak something into a victim-relief bill that is controversial among higher-education officials. What's worse, he said, is that the rule waiver would apply to all colleges, not just those in the Gulf Coast region or those that have accepted displaced students.

"It makes no reference whatsoever to any linkage to Katrina," Mr. Nassirian said. "It almost represents a second wave of looting after Katrina."

With lobbyists and lawmakers wrangling over whether the regulation should be eased in the Higher Education Act, he said, it would be inappropriate to include such a disputed provision in a Katrina-relief package, even if the change is only temporary.

"It really is a form of special-interest legislation masquerading as victim relief, and it's candidly quite offensive," Mr. Nassirian said. "It's really high risk to eliminate this important safeguard."

Laura Capps, a spokeswoman for Senator Kennedy, said the bill's language may be changed to limit it only to institutions that have taken in more students in their distance-education programs because of Hurricane Katrina.

"It was intended to be written only for Katrina-impacted schools," Ms. Capps said. "We will clarify it."

Mr. Taylor, however, said the language had been intentionally drafted to give students the greatest flexibility. The bill may be combined with other Katrina-relief legislation, which the Senate is expected to take up within the next few weeks.

• Notable Provisions in the Senate Version of the Higher Education Act (9/23/2005)

• College Leaders and Associations Say Bush's Hurricane-Relief Proposals Aren't Enough to Rebuild (9/19/2005)

• Bush Proposes Hurricane-Relief Package That Would Help Displaced Students and the Colleges That Have Taken Them In (9/16/2005)

• Lawmakers Are Urged to 'Go Slowly' on Loosening Rules for For-Profit Colleges (3/2/2005)

• Bush's Proposals for a Second Term Would Favor Community Colleges and the For-Profit Sector (9/7/2004)

• Limit on Aid for Distance Students May Do More Harm Than Good, Congressional Report Says (2/27/2004)

• A Federal Rule Bedevils Online Institutions (12/12/2003)