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WASHINGTON – Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has introduced legislation that would help students gain access to the facts they need to make an informed decision about where to pursue higher education. 

“Currently students and families must wade through massive and often conflicting amounts of information in order to make an informed decision about college. As a result, taking time to fully understand the available data can be an aggravating task that may get put off and ultimately ignored, often with disastrous consequences,” said Foxx, who serves as chair of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education. “My legislation would streamline the overwhelming maze of information with a consumer-tested College Dashboard that provides students with key information, including enrollment, completion, net price, average loan debt and Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data.”

H.R. 3178, the Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act, would improve consumer information to provide a more complete picture of all student populations, streamline existing transparency efforts at the federal level to reduce confusion for students and require better coordination by federal agencies to avoid duplication and confusion.

The legislation would:

• require the Secretary of Education to create a consumer-tested College Dashboard that would display only key information students need when deciding which school to attend;
• ensure the College Dashboard includes information on the completion rates of all students, including contemporary students and Pell Grant recipients;
• instruct the Secretary of Education to provide a link to the College Dashboard page of each institution listed on a student’s FAFSA to make sure students know this information is available;
• direct the Secretary of Education to coordinate with other federal agencies to ensure all published higher education data is consistent with the information available on the College Dashboard;
• improve current policies governing institutional net price calculators to give students a more accurate picture of the total cost of attending a particular institution; and
• streamline and eliminate unnecessary information and federal transparency initiatives.

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U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the elected Republican Conference Secretary. Dr. Foxx is the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and serves as Vice Chair of the House Rules Committee.