Hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Committee - Keeping College within Reach: Meeting the Needs of Contemporary Students

Hearing

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) Opening Statement for Full Committee Hearing on "Keeping College within Reach: Meeting the Needs of Contemporary Students"

Good morning, Chairman Kline. Thank you for holding this hearing on meeting the needs of contemporary students.

By 2018, we know that our economy will need 22 million new workers with college degrees--and that that we will fall short of that need by 3 million people.

To hit those goals, we need to recognize that many of today's students are very different from the students for whom the Higher Education Act was created.

More than one-third of today's college students are over age 25. The average age of a community college student is 29, and two thirds of community college students attend part-time.

Students rely on diverse ways of learning, like online education, which served over 5 million students in 2012 alone. Institutions are also exploring new models of education, like competency-based education.

But students face substantial barriers to completing their degrees and graduating as they move through the higher education system.

To ensure that we are preparing sufficient college graduates to meet workforce demands, we need to eliminate the barriers that prevent too many students from earning a degree and securing their place in the middle class.

Time and again I hear that students are wasting time and money as they try to transfer between institutions.

More than one-third of college students switch schools prior to receiving a degree, and many transfer more than once.

Unfortunately, too many students find themselves losing credits and unnecessarily repeating classes when they transfer. These points of friction increase as more students utilize increasingly different modes and pathways toward graduation, such as online education and credentialing of prior learning.

And that friction wastes money for taxpayers and students, as well as students' time.

It also makes students much less likely to complete their degree and graduate. This is unacceptable.

Right now, nearly 15 percent of students transferring from community colleges lose 90 percent or more of their credits, which essentially means that they need to start over.

Under a bill I introduced yesterday, with Representatives Hinojosa, Polis, and Fudge, an in-state student attending a public two-year college would be able to ensure that their associate degree transfers to an in-state public four-year college. They would receive junior status at the four-year school and save nearly $18,000 compared to a student who is forced to start over.

That would make a big dent in their college costs.

Around the country, at least 36 states have already passed legislation to establish clear transfer pathways and articulation agreements.

So the "Transferring Credits for College Completion Act of 2014" draws on those state policies.

The bill provides a framework for states to establish statewide transfer arrangements that will save students time and money, including:

* A 30-credit minimum general education core of classes shared across all two- and four-year public institutions, with common course numbering, and;

* A guarantee that an associate's degree fulfills the first two years of a related program at any public four-year institution within the state, allowing community college students to transfer with junior standing.

These kinds of policies have a proven track record of raising graduation rates and lowering costs by increasing transparency and creating guaranteed pathways to graduation.

I hope the committee will consider them.

In addition, we'll hear today that too many students are starting college behind and are not given the support they need to catch up and complete their degrees.

Remediation presents a substantial hurdle to college completion, particularly for low-income students, resulting in high drop-out and failure rates.

Across the country, colleges are beginning to identify new best practices to increase the success rate of remedial education.

Rather than mandating enrollment in non-credit-bearing remedial classes as a "pre-requisite" to college-level coursework, some institutions are experimenting with a "co-requisite" model, in which students enroll in college-level courses but simultaneously receive extra instruction and support.

Competency-Based Education, or CBE, offers another avenue to prevent wasted time and money by focusing on the self-paced attainment of competencies in a variety of subject areas, rather than the accrual of credit hours.

Mr. Chairman, with the federal government committing $140 billion a year in loan and grant dollars to fund students working toward a degree, states and institutions need to do much more.

Too many students work hard to reach college only to find that they are unprepared and cannot enroll in college-level coursework.

They start at community colleges to avoid burdensome debt, only to find that their credits will not transfer to their chosen four-year college and they need to repeat courses. They are forced to take classes in subject areas they have already mastered and in which they have real-world experience.

We need to eliminate these barriers to completion and empower students to complete their degrees and enter the workforce.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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