NASFAA is seeking the Membership's reaction and comments on the preliminary recommendations for changes in the Higher Education Act (HEA) made by our Reauthorization Task Force. The eight documents listed below contain recommendations on all student assistance programs: General Provisions—Part G Issues, Return of Title IV Funds, Part B and D FFELP and Direct Loan Student Loan, FSEOG, FWS, Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Methodology, and Pell Grants. Only a handful of issues will be submitted for your review later as the Task Force continues to complete its work.
[Oct. 31 Update: Additional recommendations are now posted for your review. The comment deadline is November 8, 2002.]
Since the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce has asked higher education associations, individuals, and other interested parties to submit their recommendations for changes in the HEA by December 31, we are operating on a very tight time schedule. This tight timeframe is compounded by the fact that NASFAA takes very seriously its obligation to consult with our Membership throughout the Task Force's deliberative process. Consequently, as recommendations became ripe we first circulated them to the Reauthorization Task Force Advisory Group for its initial reaction, continued with Task Force debate in light of the comments we received from the Advisory Group, and then sent those preliminary recommendations to the Membership for comment. This document continues that process.
In any event, to fully consult with the Advisory Group and NASFAA Membership, we need to complete this process to submit our recommendations to the Hill before their late December deadline. Please e-mail your comments to reauth@nasfaa.org no later than close of business October 23.
The Task Force will spend the entire week of October 27th in a series of conference calls to discuss your reactions to these preliminary reauthorization recommendations. At that point, staff will do the necessary work to prepare the material for action by the NASFAA Board of Directors at its November meeting.
Links to the preliminary recommendations follow:
The Task Force at its first meeting adopted this mission statement: "The mission of the NASFAA Reauthorization Task Force is to produce a set of proposals for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that --
- promote access to postsecondary education, and
- provide simplicity, consistency, flexibility, and program integrity in the delivery of student financial aid --
while representing the diverse needs of Association members."
In implementing its mission statement the Task Force adopted the following guiding principles that directed its decision-making process:
- Promote fairness and equity for students across all sectors of postsecondary education.
- Promote policies that address the needs of disadvantaged students.
- Promote accountability.
- Encourage simplicity.
- Provide schools with the flexibility to respond to the specific needs of their students.
- Promote the primacy of need-based aid.
- Recommend policies that accommodate the diversity of academic delivery models.
- Promote the use of technology wherever possible.
- Eliminate statutory requirements that use financial aid to enforce unrelated social policies.
- Support recommendations with research and data analysis wherever possible.
Consequently, the recommendations that follow have a philosophical foundation; that is, the recommendations are made in the context of the mission statement and guiding principles. The recommendations are meant to be taken as a whole; indeed, some recommendations would not make sense in isolation from other recommendations.
If you need further information about reauthorization, these recommendations, or other issues, please contact NASFAA staff Larry Zaglaniczny at larryz@NASFAA.org or Marty Guthrie at guthriem@NASFAA.org.
By Larry Zaglaniczny
NASFAA Director of Congressional Affairs
and
Marty Guthrie
NASFAA Director of Governmental Affairs
Posted October 11, 2002 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2002.
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