NASFAA Mention: California Students Caught in the Middle

"For years, the U.S. Education Department (over two administrations) has battled with states, college leaders and consumer advocates over rules requiring institutions operating online to secure approval from each state in which they intend to enroll students. The issue has often seemed arcane and the debate impersonal," Inside Higher Ed reports

"No longer. Education Department officials announced Monday that Californians who are enrolled in online programs at public or private nonprofit colleges and universities in other states will be ineligible for federal financial aid under the 2016 state authorization rules that took effect in May because of a judge's ruling.

The federal judge, acting in a lawsuit brought by two professors' unions, had ordered the department to put in place the long-delayed state authorization rules drafted in the waning days of the Obama administration rather than a new version of the rules negotiated last spring by a panel appointed by the Trump administration, which consumer advocates (and their allies in the faculty unions) said would loosen restrictions on for-profit online providers.

Ironically, though, the students who are put in harm's way by the impasse between the Education Department and the unions over the state authorization rules are enrolled at public and private nonprofit colleges, not for-profit institutions.

That's because the 2016 rules require states to have a process through which online students can submit complaints to a state agency about their institutions. While California has such a process for for-profit colleges operating in the state, through the Bureau for Private and Post-Secondary Education, it does not have an equivalent process for nonprofit colleges because it has not had a functioning statewide coordinating board for nearly a decade.

...

What might the impact be? Anything that would make multiple tens of thousands of students ineligible for federal financial aid is a big deal. And the situation could be even more complicated if some of the financial aid due to these students for the fall semester has already been distributed, the president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Justin Draeger, said on Twitter Tuesday.

Draeger's point is that the department could require students who have already received their financial aid to repay it, and require their institutions to help collect it -- a daunting and unpleasant prospect."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

 

Publication Date: 7/24/2019

View Desktop Version