Wouldn’t you like to know if the college you’re applying to is worth it? Well, Congress is weighing a proposal to help students like you.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, just signed on as a co-sponsor to the aptly named College Transparency Act. The bill, originally introduced in March, already has bipartisan support. It would create a new system that compiles graduation rates and post-graduation income data for individual majors and schools. Then published for the public, this information would help students and families choose the colleges that provide the best value for their money.
According to the College Board, an average year of tuition, fees, and room and board at a public university for an in-state student is $21,370. For a private university, it’s more than double, at $48,510. Families and individual students pour inordinate amounts of money into post-secondary education hoping that it will lead to a higher salary in the future.
For the 70% of us who can’t afford such high prices, graduating with loan debt is sometimes the most practical option. Given how much is at stake, it’s important for incoming students to have all of the information they need to invest wisely.
This is where the College Transparency Act comes in. The bill aims to spare students from wasted time and debt, creating a new post-secondary data system put together by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. This system would streamline the way that colleges and universities report their student-level information to the federal government and expand crucial categories of information.
Current law mandates colleges only report graduation rates for first-time, full-time students. This means that many students in four-year universities who transfer schools — and part-time college students — aren’t counted. Added to the fact that data on post-college earnings only covers students who receive federal financial aid, right now, students don’t have information accurate enough to make the right choice. The College Transparency Act requires the Department of Education to cover all of these exceptions and make fully accurate reporting available to Americans.
The post-college earnings measure is particularly important. If you’re like me, you based your enrollment decision on college costs and academic reputation, not on in-depth employment outcomes. This is largely because detailed reporting isn’t as easy to find as something like an arbitrary national ranking.
But imagine a world in which you could easily compare how much the average engineering graduate is making compared to the average history graduate or how much someone from one university is making compared to a graduate from another. There would be fewer people taking on tens of thousands of dollars in debt only to find themselves underemployed or jobless after graduation.
Information should be at the core of each student’s decision-making process, and the College Transparency Act would make this a reality. Just like when buying a house or investing in a company, it’s crucial to know all of the relevant information before enrolling in a university — and current law falls short of providing it. The federal government has an opportunity to address this dearth of information, which is one big driver of financial struggles in college education. So, Congress should pass the College Transparency Act, to give all Americans the tools we need to build a successful future.
Matt Liles is a student at the University of Texas and a Young Voices contributor.
