please put our school and our children first. we can't thank you enough. >> up next on c-span3, a conversation on heyer education

costs. then british prime minister david cameron discusses some of the issues covered at this week's g-7 summit in germany. later, the irs talks about the security breach. after that, president obama on the affordable care act. >> with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span here on c-span3, we compliment that cover age coverage the programs that tell our nation's story, including six unique theories. the civil war's 150e anniversary, vilthsing battle fields and key events. american artifacts touring museums and sites to discover what artifacts reveal.

like us and follows on twiser. next education under secretary ted mitchell on the role of the 1965 higher education act and president obama's plan to make the first two years of community college free. we'll also hear from senator le march alexander, cheer of the education committee. this is from a forum on college costs hosted by national journal. it's just over two hours.

>> i'd like to welcome all of you here today as well as watching the live stream. taking 50 years at the higher education act. this event is made possible with the generous support of the bill and melinda gates foundation as well as the lumina foundation. at this time i ask that you silence your cell phones, but please don't put them away. we would love for you to share your comments and questions via social media at hashtag njnextamerica. we would have audience q&a after each portion of the event. we have standing microphones throughout the room. if you have a question stand up and please stayed your name and organization. we are taking questions via twitter. use hashtag askmj.

50 years ago a, president lyndon johnson signed the higher education act into law with the objective of making higher education more accessible for students. this morning, we plan to discuss to what extent we have succeeded in fulfilling these goals. and here is a brief overview of the event which features two key note speakers. first, under secretary of education ted mitchell, we'll take the stage followed by senator lamar alexander. ron brownstein editorial director will be moderating both the keynote interviews. and then to close our program, our staff correspondent at national journal sophie quintin will moderate our expert panel discussions. tlanks again for joining us. just a reminder use hashtag

njnextamerica during our program. thanks. >> please welcome to the stage johanna, senior executive in advertising. please welcome to the stage u.s. department of education under secretary ted mitchell and ron brownstein.

>> good morning everyone. it looks like we've got quite a good group. thanks to the national journal, the gates foundation for and the ilumina foundation for inviting me today and for inviting me to be a part of the program. the next american series is important because we need more than ever strategic thinking and strategic action as we adapt to the unprecedented challenges and the unprecedented opportunities that are presented by this area of change. huge technological, social, demographic and structural shifts are redefining what college is who attends college and how much it costs and how much it, frankly, it should cost. it's important to take stock of what's happened in the half century since we passed the higher education act and its companion, the elementary and secondary education act. both laws advance the idea and make a commitment to equal access to a quality education

and a moral imperative and a civil right in america. when they signed it in 1965 they called it a promise that quote, the leadership of our country believes it is the obligation of our nation to provide and permit and assist every child born in these borders to receive all the education that he can take, end quote. since then it has been our mission to make that promise real for every student. we've made progress but the task has never been more urgent and our work is far from complete. president obama captured the urgency of higher education for all with the goal that he set soon after taking office that america will again have the best educated population and the most competitive workforce measured in part by americans leading the way in the attainment of post secondary degrees and credentials. to achieve that goal we worked with partners at the national,

state, local and institutional level to strengthen the education pipeline. focusing funds on equity opportunity and innovation encouraging career and college ready standards and assessments modernizing the teaching profession and making college access, college affordability, college quality and completion for all students a top priority. we look forward to deepening that work in the conversations ahead on the higher education act reauthorization. today, thanks to the hard work of educators students, families and communities, our high school graduation rate is the highest ever with the biggest gains being made by students of color, low income earners and students of disability. persistent achievement gaps have begun to close as we reach the historic milestone where the majority of our students in the

educational system are now coming from the minority communities. we can now equipped minority a larger diversity of students with better skills to be prepared for college and later in live. to achieve the goals, we must make post secondary education available to every student as a civil right, as a civic good and as a ladder to the middle class. today, college enrollment is growing with the number of black and hispanic students up by more than a million since 2008. the administration has certainly tried to do our part. we've increased the total aid available to students by over $50 billion in 2008 to 2016 and created tax benefits that have added another $12 billion to resources available to families to afford college. as a result, more students are graduating college than ever before. still, the math of access,

finance and completion is complicated, especially for students of limited means, families new to the college experience working adults, returning veterans displaced workers. the diversity of today's learner is something that we've not seen in the past. it is a result of the expansion of opportunity and is itself an opportunity for us to think differently about higher education going forward. for these families and others it can be hard to gauge the quality of teaching and learning they'll receive to secure the funds that are necessary, and to have the information accessible to them so that they can navigate the college experience. too often and for too long our most vulnerable students have wound up in the worst place possible with no degree little earning power and with debt that can persist for decades. this, too, has to change. why? well, first and foremost, this is a matter of principle of

deep, moral principle. opportunity for everyone, that's our commitment. that is the north star. that's what we stand for as a people and as a nation. this is also about the prosperity of our country. never in our history has the ability to complete college mattered so much to individual life outcomes and to national competitiveness. yet the very real threat looms that this opportunity will become the exclusive province of the wealthy. college, the ticket to the middle class must not become a luxury good. not unless we're prepared to relinquish the fundamental hope that our children and grandchildren will be better off than we are. now, there is good news. we've seen a wave of positive reforms on campuses and in states and national networks. there are many islands of excellence. we need to scale these islands, bring them together and create an overall template for the future. overall, probably one of the

best pieces of news is that there's a growing consensus that as the president said in this year's state of the union speech in the 21st century universal access to public support of education must extend down to pre-k and up into college. more states and institutions are setting strategic plans and setting annual targets to increased completion rates and increased funding to success. we are seeing more enrollment in high school programs and policies that ensure transfer between two and four-year institutions. several state and city-led efforts to make two-year colleges free for all students are under way, inspiring the administration's own america college promise. programs for vulnerable learners are on the rise along with a range of nonprofit, association and coalition efforts aimed to help meet the president's north star goal.

innovation at the institution and systems level are harnessing technology to both broaden and deepen learning and often lower costs and speed time to degree. all of this suggestion that this is an exciting and hopeful time for higher education and a wonderful time for the conversation about the reauthorization of hea. but managing change at this particular time in a way that benefits all students will take all of us, states, institutions, accrediters, national networks nonprofits, the administration and congress. it will take unprecedented effort, investment, innovation and compromise. we're innovating at the federal level. we're working to keep college in rooch by improving the process for applying for financial aid and along with the other resources like the pay as you are loan and consumer policy

resources, consumer servicing, we're trying to make the path to and through college and the path towards repaying loans as smooth as possible. we're using federal funds to fuel creativity, to build a stronger body of evidence about what works for america's diverse learners and to increase the adoption of effective practices nationwide. and we're continuing to hold institutions accountable to improve the value of their programs, to protect students from abusive practices where they exist and to safeguard the interest of taxpayers. since taking office, the president's objective for higher education, recognizing both the opportunities and challenges fais phasing our nation have been consistently aimed toward meeting a needle and moving the north star goal. that's the administration's strategy and focus has been on expanding opportunity, ensuring affordability and improving outcome. as i said, the add mip

administration has set the course for this effort working with congress whenever possible to take action to ensure that our nation makes continued process for getting all americans the knowledge and the skills they need to grow our economy and strengthen our democracy. some of this work we've accomplished without congress. but more work remains that requires legislative action to protect what we have achieved together and to make some key changes needed to improve the overall performance of the sector. we hope that a renewed conversation on reauthorization of the higher education act provides congress with the momentum to take timely action. through 50 years multiple reauthorizations, interim legislation changes and budget reconciliations, hea has embodied a federal commitment equalizing college opportunities. and the law's scope has broadened to assist students seeking a variety of post secondary degrees and critical.

for the administration improving the performance of our nation's higher education has meant focusing on the investments needed to ensure that college remains affordable for the middle and low income families. the kinds of reforms that make it possible for all americans too much the opportunity to succeed in college. this has meant supporting innovation and competition designed to lead to breakthroughs on cost and quality that can accommodate 21st century learners. and it is required doing all we can to build a better and more reliability financial aid system that helps more americans better management their student debt and afford college. for many years, congress has focused intently on the cost of the federal student loan system, the subsidies paid to bank to make student loans and those loans' terms and conditions. one of president obama's biggest achievement is to remove banks

from the equation with colleges using loans with capital provided directly from the federal government. this resulted in $60 billion in savings that we were able to reinvest in aid to students and savings for taxpayers. finally, all of these efforts must be built on a strong shared system of accountability that keeps out bad actors and helps all colleges improve. as recent events have made clear, we need to ask more than states, from institutions and from accrediters. we also need to protect a significant accomplishments we've made to reinforce program integrity, including gainful employment regulation and we need to empower the department with more enforcement tools. this is where we need congress to act with us. we want to work with congress to focus on making college more affordable, financial aid more accessible and loan repayment easier. a key step toward that is to make two years of community

college as universal as high school was a century ago and encourage states to reinvest in higher education. this means strengthening and safeguarding the pell program to ensure the maximum grant keeps pace with college. costs. while we've taken significant steps to simplify the aid application and form, we want to make fasfa filing simple, easier and earlier. we also want to simplify and reform income driven repayment and the president's budget proposal proposed a single, simple, better targeted plan. building on the work that we've done with tools like the college scorecards, financial aid shopping sheet and ratings we believe that we are putting in the hands of students, families and the public tools that will help us all understand how the investment we are making in higher education is paying off for individuals in society. we believe that these tools will

promote -- help promote strong student outcomes and help colleges continuously improve their performance. as we continue -- as we continue to push for stronger accountability thigh stronger enforcement measures, we also want to reward schools for outcome. we want to encourage innovation and we want to help colleges improve. for example, through the pell bonus program and campus-based aid reforms. additionally, we can build on efforts to promote innovation in competition such as the administration's first in the world program that allows for, encourages the development and scaling of new evidence-based intervention leading to college success. finally, and believe it or not i am interested in starting our conversation let me close by saying that at the department we are looking forward to working with congress -- and i know you'll hear from chairman alexander later this morning. we're looking forward to working with senator murray, chairman alexander and with all of our

stakeholders on these important issues that are interestingly both time left and timely as we look to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the vast changes afoot and the increasing pace of change. one more americans have higher levels of education, we all benefit. college credentials lead to higher earnings and a better quality of life for individual and a stronger, safer, more prosperous democracy. now, more than ever, our work that aim toes modernize and expand post secondary education must ensure that america stays true to our founding values and keeps faith with everyone who dreams of a better life. our work must help foster a more prosperous inclusive society to

preserve a vibrant future. thank you so much for lisping and, ron, i'm now in your hands. >> thank you. thank you for that terrific view of the education wore rideson. i want to talk about some of the specifics on the hea authorization and your thinking on that. but i want to start with something that you touched on and that joe anna touched on that we are 50 years since lyndon johnson traveled from his own alma mater to fund the education act. he was trying to pay his way through school until he was planning to sign the bill outside of a building that he had swept as a janitor while a student. and when he signed the bill he said when we leave here this morning, i want you to go back and say to your children and to your grandchildren and to those who come after you and follow you, tell them we have made a promise to them.

tell them that the truth is here for them to see and tell them that we have opened the road and pulled the gates down and the way is open and we expect them to travel it. now, apart from the eloquence of what was probably richard goodwin, how do you think -- if we are assessing 50 years later if the fundamental goal of the president laid out was democratizing higher education how would he grade us on achieving that? >> i would he would grade us at a b plus. and i think the positive side, and it is an enormous positive is that we have opened the gates far more broadly to a diverse population of college goers and one can look at that in terms of the number of african-americans, the number of latinos. i think you know that the pugh center just released results in the last month that showed that sxanic 12th graders are now more

likely for the first time to attend college than their anglo peers. so i think all of that is very good news. students with learning differences, coming to college in increasing numbers. and i think fundamentally, we have begun to think of college not as an experience for bright shiny 18-year-olds heading off to an institution but thinking of college, small "c," as a lifelong experience for people looking for ways to retrain, reskill, upskill and new skill. and i think that has maybe even created a different date than president johnson had in mind. the fact that i'm a hard grader on this is i think that we have a long way to go. and in particular we -- while college going rates are increasing and college completion rates are increasing college completion rates still lag where we need them to be.

>> and that is if you look at the data over this stretch, a big increase in college going starting across the income ladder across racial lines. but the xleex gaps between families whose kids are at the top and the bottom of the ladder is wider today than it was in 1970. i'm wondering your thoughts on why we are seeing this completion gap persist and widen even as the college going differential has narrowed. >> i think back to my own experience as a college president and as a university dean. i think that at the same time, we are expanding access to low income families, families who are the first in their -- get through the first in their family to go to college. we have been slow to recognize that those groups may need different kinds of support than the formerly typical high school student. i think it comes in two flavors.

i think there's been much researched issue about differentials in cultural capital that students come to college with. so universities and colleges are now working hard to create support mechanisms for those students. and i think the other thing that we need to recognize is the -- the fact that too many students are leaving high school with a high school diploma, but not the skills to be able to move right into college work. so this gap we need to talk about the remediation gap is both substantively and psychologically a huge barrier for far too many students. >> so you're talking about help when they get to campus. the third leg is affordability. >> i think affordability is certainly the third leg of this stool. and i know both from an

institutional point of view and from a national policy perspective, the fact that states have chosen to disinvest so dramatically in higher education since the beginning of the great recession has moved costs to the federal government, and we've expanded american opportunity tax credit, to make student loans more accessible but the research is pretty clear that the bulk of that burden has fallen on families at just the time we're expanding access to low income students. >> that is. >> tough. >> and you come out of this background. why do you think that's happening? >> i think there are a couple of reasons. states obviously face really awful strait tradeoffs at the beginning of the great recession. and i think anytime a state legislature or a governor has to choose between basic social

services and health care benefits and high erer education there's going to be a discussion and a decision made. i worry more frankly, about the fact that the states have not reinvested coming out of the great recession and i think there is a little bit of a sense that it didn't break, did it? and i think the problem is it's breaking, it's creaking, it's cracking. >> on the affordability, you made a good deal of news yesterday. loan forgiveness of students declares that it should cost $3.5 billion if all students over to past five years received debt relief. what is the authority under

which you're reacting? >> it is a part of hea and we have both some -- there's statute and regulations. to determine the conditions under which students make claims and under which the department is to assess the claims. the decision that we anoinsed yesterday applies to one portion of the students who are enrolled in colleges and those who are enrolled in specific programs where we had established that corinthian had falsified replacement rates. they had a claim under in this case california state law to bring a pay, they can bring it directly to us. that set invited them to a ply

for forgiveness on their stoonts student loans. >> let's turn to the reauthorization itself. what are the administrations top goals? >> well we're working through our blueprint document that we hoped to engage the house and the senate with. and we're getting good collaboration on that. i think we want to be continuing to simplify loan programs, we want to simplify access through fasfa through the federal financial aid system. we want to protect the pell grant program. we want to make sure that the pell grant, the purchasing power of the pell grant remains high. i think those -- so there are two edgy ideas that republicans in particular on the committee and around have.

one, the chairman had commissioned earlier this spring on the idea of giving colleges and universities skin in the game, having a share of risk for loans that go into default for their graduates. what do you think of that idea? >> i think that we've -- you know we have always thought about colleges and universities needing to share in accountability. for outcomes. and so risk sharing for us is one of the ideas in that overall bucket and the administration mentioned i think routinely interested in engaging universities as partners. >> another idea, marco rubio in particular and others are talking about basically deregulating the accreditation and trying to create more pathways in the institution that can access federal student loans. >> two states of unions also

address this and address, i think, what we regard as the -- sort of the twin problems in accreditation. one is that we think there needs to be more rigger in the accreditation process. and on the other hahn think there needs to be more chrisbility in the accreditation process. we are working with the critters to -- >> you had your own advisory commission on that right? do you think they pointed you towards the open? >> we've been working heavily. you mentioned that the two years of free community college. that idea, at least as you presented it has received a stoney perception from congress. have you thinking about tweaking it in any way to try so get to get it off the runway? >> the legislative process is always one of give-and-take and we're in that process now.

at the same time we've been -- i'm sorry, i'm talking over my shoulder to all of you but you can see ron and he's better looking than i am. we've been heartened at the conversations that we've had at the state and local levels that have been of the flavor we don't want to wait. we want to start to tackle this on our own. we've had a series of those conversations both in several states and have now begun inviting folks in to talk with us. so we've been very encouraged at the spread of the idea and really at the core is this interest that in the 21st century, universal publicly supported education needs to start at pre-k and go deep into college. >> so that's the way we continue to provide access. that's the way we create opportunity. >> if you noted, so far in the

re reauthorization there's been a lot of income based repayments. and you talked about that and the committee has talked about that. there were unprecedented, the element of the democratic party should be access with public higher education for students. that should be the goal. and we should find a way to finance that goal. >> what does the administration think about that? is that a reasonable goal? would that be a counterproductive goal? >> it's certainly on the table. it's in the air, in the water. so we are talking about it and thinking about it. we think that affordability doesn't necessarily end up at zero. and so we think there's a lot of distance to be made up between where we are in zero and that we should be making sure that we're focused on that.

>> and is there -- do you see unintended consequences in going to zero? is that what you're suggesting that affordability doesn't necessarily end up at zero? >> i honestly haven't thought enough about it. >> you mentioned before we have significantly increased programs spending over the last you know, since roughly 2007. but yet debt continues to rise and the question becomes is there a treadmill? >> which is why i think it's important as we've thought about the america's college promise proposal that one of the key elements is an idea so that states would need to maintain funding levels in higher education and so that there isn't that kind of supplant policy going on. and we do think that states need

to do more and that the federal government is not going to be in a position to make up all that. >> you alluded to this in r on your -- on the other hand you alluded to this that there are a number of state, mostly public institutions doing interesting things using data, using aid, using counseling in new ways to improve completion rates among the unrepresented groups. as like arizona state or florida international or central florida. what do you find particularly promising? and what can you do to encourage more institutions? >> you just mentioned a few of them and they're very encouraging. in addition to the work of those individual institutions, the university of innovation alliance has gathered together large public research universities and is not only working on ways that individual institutions can innovate and improve the throughput, but how they can work together.

in addition to that, at the state level, there have been a number of states experimenting with performance-based funding. and this is what i alluded to when i was talking about helping to promote success among institutions is to be able to provide more resources to institutions that are doing the right thing by low income first generation students. >> we're going to go to questions in a few minutes so if you want to start lining up from the audience we'll introduce questions at the two microphones that are there. the gainful employment regulation, you had a ruling in your favor in late may. are the rules on track to go into effect in july? >> rules we are on track to go into effect. there is one more lawsuit pending, and so we're interested in how that turns out, but we're doing our work. we're punching our numbers and institutions will be reporting their data to us on july 1st. >> chairman alexander has been very critical of these regulations. do you expect congress to try to

stop you? >> no prediction. >> no? have they given you any indication privately that they will be attempting to block this, use any means that they have? >> we have not -- >> necessary? >> we have not heard that. >> what about the college rating system? the department website says it will be available for students entering the 2015 school year. where are you? >> so i -- most of you know in december we put out a framework document asking for comments. we got a lot from many of the people. so we've been working off of those comments running models looking at our own data our own tools that we're making available. still, we're on track. >> timetable supposed to be -- >> we are still on the timetable to provide this to students and to the world before the beginning of the 2015 year.

>> rubio, again, and biden have legislation, the right to know act. will that supersede what you're doing? will that make it -- >> i don't think so. and i think administration basic position about this is that transparency is very valuable and more information in the hands of citizens and consumers is a good thing. >> do you want to let the audience come in. you mentioned arizona state before. they've gotten a lot of attention recently to this idea of an online freshman year that you would pay only if you pass the finals and pursue the credits. and the thought is that ultimately that would be about half the cost, even if you went through a boat load of courses of a traditional freshman year. is that a -- view that idea as a positive experiment or do you worry that it leads to a two-tier education system where

the luxury good of having a professor is reserved for more affluent students and those without means are shunned to a laptop? >> i think that's a concern. we need to keep our eyes on it. backing up a step, i am very excited by the experimentation that's going on and the experimentation in both delivery models and higher ed. i think higher ed often gets a bad wrap for being old and stodgy. i think what we're seeing is a lot of experimentation. and the job for institutions and the job i think for philanthropic partners is to begin to do the kind of evaluation that we would need to answer the question is this cheaper but not cheapened. and i think that that's the goal, right? >> so you'd like to say go ahead, then? >> i'd like to see it go ahead but i'd like to see it rigorously evaluated and this is in the department's -- the admin strae administration's first in the world program. we've put out $60 million for

projects that seek to innovate on delivery systems and in that, you know we want to be sure that we're doing the evaluation necessary to make sure that there aren't kinds of unintended consequences. >> i'm going to reserve one more thing to ask you about in a minute. if anybody wants to ask a question, the microphone is open. >> hi. is this on? sara with congressional quarter quarterly. i wanted to ask you about leadership at the department. and it looks like the department's assistant secretary, that position has been open and has had acting assistant secretary since 2013. president obama just withdrew the nomination that's been pending since 2013. i wanted to know about that position, what you see happening with that role and how important that is in this discussion as you move forward with these conversations with congress. >> yep. so it's no secret that we have

been -- we've been frustrated by the inability to coming confirm a number of our key appointments and those confirmations have been slow and we would hope that congress would understand the need for us to have a full squad on the field as we move through the next tw years. >> one other thing that maybe is a little bit over the horizon and not necessarily in the immediate debate looking -- arguing if you look at the tax exempt private universities the tax subsidy they receive per student significantly exceeds the public appropriations in the same states. if you look at a harvard, the taxes and treatment of the endowment translates to $48,000 per student compared to 9,900 for umass.

it turned out harvard received a $400 million donation after receiving a $350 million donation from another. in that report, and the century foundation has talked about it talked about taxing endowments above a certain level but allowing students to -- excuse me institutions to offset the tax by providing more financial aid. have you looked at all of this issue of the kind of -- the way endowments may be exacerbating what you described before of post secondary education potentially becoming only a luxury good? >> it was interesting and i think the -- we need to keep in mind the broad broad diversity of american higher education and i think if you look at even just the -- the private not for profit sector ranging from entirely tuition driven institutions to heavily endowment supported institution

there's such a range that i think we need to be careful of that drawing otherall conclusions and certainly making a one-size-fits-all policy. that said i think one of the things that we have seen is that the institutions with a very large endowment have already, on their own, taken up the cause of low income first generation students and are creating income level thresholds beyond -- below which students have either aid packages or free tuition altogether. and i think one of the problems that we have is that that information has not been broadly available. and so to understand as a student if my income range south side $40,000 to $60,000 what is this harvard education going to cost me as opposed to a umass education.

we need to crack that open more and we think that light will help us solve this problem. >> on the other hand if you look at what my money the most important, it would she georgetown center on education and the workforce. what they've shown is as you've pointed out, an increase in the nrt of education, but the vast majority of those students have been channeled through the two and four-year colleges. the institutions putting the most resources to students and getting the best outcomes are putting more towards the systems. ultimately, the higher education developing into a two-tier system that has the ability to reinforce as opposed to breaking down the divisions in society? >> i do think it's a risk. i think we have to keep an eye on this problem of education becoming a luxury good.

we have to reward institutions when they do do more. the second piece of social science research of enormous significance is undermatching research. i think that some of these are information problems and we need to really double down on the information problems. and i don't want to dismiss the idea that we should think broadly about the whole range of subsidies that institutions get from a variety of different sources. >> so you would be open to looking at that question of whether the public subsidies are in effect supporting the students and institutions with the most to begin with? >> i think as a part of this overall accountability and what is it that we -- as a nation using the tools that we have, want to we want to hold institutions accountable for, we need to look at the whole range of what we provide. >> one more question. when you think about this

tracking snap we'retrack ing ing that we're talking about, do you think ultimately the answer is going to be increasing the resources available to the institutions that are now under funded or finding ways to go lower income generations of minors into the richer institutions? >> if you look at where the bulk of students of all stripes, you know, they go to four year comprehensive public institutions and community colleges. i think that we need to invest where the students prp and we need to make sure that those institutions are funded that they innovating around the new demands that the diverse student body is bringing them and that they are focused laser light on outcomes for those students. >> one final thought so we can get your reaction. you noted two things. that you are surprised and frustrated by the continued strain on public higher education even coming out of the recession and that you also noted that this is the first school year ever where a

majority of the k-12 population is nonwhite, first time in american history. are those two facts related? >> i don't think so. >> okay. all right. we'll leave it there. thank you very much. >> thanks. thanks, everyone. >> thank you, sir. ♪ please welcome to the sky daniel green sky, director of success for the bill and melinda gates foundation. >> thank you. welcome. we are here at the end of graduation season where this year something like 2 million people will receive a college degree or a certificate they've been working towards over a period of serve r several years. so let's congratulate our

graduates. their accomplishments are heroic especially when you think the majority, nearly three quarters, were not the traditional college student attending a traditional cleanly for four years after high school. the majority juggled life and jobs and families while they were working to get their degrees. nearly a third were first in their families to go to college. which means that they couldn't draw on the usual family supports and navigating the complexity of higher education. nearly a quarter attended several colleges along the way and more than two-thirds graduated with debt. there's more than a trillion dollars of student debt out there today and that's crushing particularly crushing for those in the 40% that attend college and don't complete their degree. the so-called nontraditional students, they don't look a whole lot like us. they represent the majority of america's college students today. and to me, in this season especially, they are america's heros.

but as they walk across the stage to accept their diplomas, i'm also thinking about 800,000 more of their fellow students who began with them in college but who will not make it this far. 40% of students who begin don't complete their degree. we have to do better. our economy depends on it. as jamie marisota originals in his book "america needs more cleanly-educated talent, a lot more." by 2025, two-thirds of all jobs in the united states will require an education beyond high school. at the current rate, our colleges and universities will be producing an estimated shortfall of at least 11 million workers with post secondary credentials to fill those jobs. 11 million.

for the geeks amongst us that's an annual growth rate. when here knows a college or university that aspires to improve its degree production by 4% or 4.5% a year? but there is another reason to improve college education rates. in this country college education is the key to getting a job. success in college is a dividing line between striving and struggling to achieve the american dream. yet today ininequitablely disturbing in a way thatfreshmen born into the bottom half of the income distribution will manage to complete a degree by age 24. almost 90% of their peers born into the top quarter will go on to finish their degree by that time. and frankly, these economic development and equity goals

they're braided together. we can't meet our workforce development needs in a sustainable way without doing much better with students from low income and historically underserved backgrounds. the good news is that we actually know how to improve success for all students. rich and poor, black, brown and white. over the past decades with the innovations that secretary mitchell alluded to we have seen colleges increasing their rates sometimes in double digits. improving the way we deliver implementation. using technologies to support great faculty and student advisers so students get a personalized education. attacking costs and packaging aid in way that ensures higher ed remains affordable. paying attention to quality in ways that incorporate higher

education. so impressive is the body of evidence that's being built under a relatively small number of high impact practices that there's no excuse left for colleges whose graduation rates are at or slightly above average. there is no excuse for not going as an industry, as a nation, after that 4.5% annual compound growth rate. we know how to improve rates to meet our workforce development needs and close the attainment gap. the question isn't any longer how, it's why not. thank you. [ applause ] ♪ >> please welcome jamie mer

merisotis. >> good morning. i'm going to key off of dan's remarks in a bit. but i want to begin first with a different point which is, you know, the fact that dan and i are here reflecting on these issues is probably a strong indicator of the proactive role that private foundations are now playing in this space. now, we're well aware that not everyone is terribly accustomed to or comfortable with this role in a national dialogue about higher education. frankly in the last reauthorization, foundations weren't all that engaged. but the reality is that we're seeing the same data and information that everyone else is seeing. and we share the same objective that our partners in the various sectors have expressed. simply put we need a more affordable, more equitable high-quality post secondary education system that leads to higher attainment rates educational attainment rates that will significantly improve

our economic and social well being as a nation. so i like everything that dan had to say about equity and costs and affordability and talent development. he's right. we also really appreciate the leadership that our colleagues at the gates foundation have offered in several different areas from better financial aid reform. what i'd like to do is offer a few more observations. one of the things the data tell us is that the higher education system needs more capacity. the need for increasing attainment, the demand for talent is growing ever stronger. the problem is that system that we have today just isn't able to serve the number of students we need it to. we need it to find better ways to adapt, to serve more students, and to serve them better. now, a conversation around regulations is also needed. regulation, of course plays an essential role in protecting the rights and interests of students who really should be at the

center of the system. but the goal of the conversation about regulation shouldn't be about reducing the burdens on the institutions. in fact, institutions should not be at the center of the debate. students should. the regulation conversation should be about reducing the barriers to innovation, because those barriers to innovation are one element of what's getting in the way of greater student success. now, to encourage innovation, it's going to be necessary to focus on three broad areas. the first is creating and expanding transparent pathways to high quality degrees and credentials credentials. this includes recognizing a wider array of post secondary education providers. experimenting with new ways for students to earn credentials. and directing federal funds for the providers who serve the students best. next is ensuring that college is affordable.

costs need to be predictable, transparent, and aligned with our attainment goals. especially for low income and underserved populations. student aid should be easily accessed monitored, and able to be used at a wide variety of providers. and third ensuring quality by measuring student learning. through the responsible use of metrics, new and existing validaters must be able to assess educational quality based on student learning rather than seat time. publicly available information about key indicators of quality will protect students and taxpayers against waste fraud and abuse. the fact is higher education is at a critical juncture. i've been around higher education policy for awhile now. in fact, i first worked in a 1986 higher ed act reauthorization and i played a role to some degree in every reauthorization since then. '92, '98, 2008. you get the idea.

in my view none is as consequential as this next reauthorization. new technology is in delivery modes like looming fiscal realities and changing student demographics have created major opportunities as well as challenges for higher education. the new legislation must be as savvy, as varied and as forward thinking as the student population it seeks to serve. the stakes are high and we're going to have to move quickly. to many of us, it really feels like the current law is designed for a higher education landscape that's rapidly disappearing. when the higher education act was first passed in 1965 america was the unquestioned world leader in post-secondary education. every reauthorization since then, we felt that same sense of global leadership. but, you know, now we're not so sure. other nations have passed the u.s. by in post-secondary attainment.

innovation is taking place in ways we didn't anticipate. the world has changed. to be clear, the world is not waiting for us to pass this reauthorization. it's moving ahead of us. technology is moving ahead of us. and student needs have moved beyond the narrow scope. the higher education act has had a tremendous impact since it was first passed in 1965. it's a critical part of what's defined our success as a nation in the second half of the 20th century. but here in the 21st century things are different. and we must change to reflect that new reality. so thank you all very much for being here. i'm looking forward to the rest of this rich and productive conversation. [ applause ]

>> senator alexander is just on his way up so he will be here in about one minute. so we'll take a quick break and we'll be on in about a minute. thank you so much. ♪ >> please welcome to the stage united states senator alexander. [ applause ]

>> good morning. i looked over the list of attendees and saw there's some higher education people in the room and it reminded me of my days at the university of tennessee when i was president of that institution. and i learned humility very rapidly. my faculty member walked up and said mr. alexander he said, welcome to the campus. said, you seem so excited. you remind me of mark kerr. i said that's a very nice compliment. clark kerr was the distinguished president of the university of california. i said how is that. she said he arrived and left the same way. fired with enthusiasm.

we'll be about 5 million jobs short by 2020 of people who have the proper post-secondary skills. so what do we do about that is the question. and i think the answer is we've done quite a bit. at the end of world war ii 5% of americans had a college degree. in 1965 when the higher education act passed for the first time about 10% had a college degree. and today it's 35%. so we've made some progress and many would argue we have the best in the world. at least we have people lined up to go to them from other countries. and i believe that's become because quite by accident mainly the g.i. bill for veterans in

1944 that began to give money to students and allow them to choose any institution of their choice, we've got lots of choice, lots of competition. 6,000 institutions. and that has created the best system of college and universities. think how different that is from the kind of marketplace we have in k through 12. i'd like to mention quickly three things today i think we could do to improve things. then we'll talk about them. one, clear out the jungle of red tape that is regulating higher education. two is stop telling students that they can't afford college because most of them can. and three four more steps to make students less likely to borrow more than they should. on the first point, red tape. two years ago, four of us asked a distinguished group of academics to give us specific

recommendations about how to reduce the regulatory overburden of colleges. they gave us 59 recommendations. and among the things they told us was that vanderbilt university hired the boston consulting group to tell vanderbilt how much it cost the university to comply with federal rules and regulation. and the answer was $150 million. that's $11,000 per student. some of you know about this. this is called the fafsa. 20 million americans fill this out every year online. it's 108 questions. testimony before our committee says that two questions would do. the president can think of 30 questions that we don't need. so if we can get it closer to two, we could release an army of people who are helping students fill out forms to help them choose among colleges.

and the president of a community college in memphis told me he thinks he loses 1500 stuntzdents a semester because of the complexity of the forms. so we have something we called the fast act that would make that simpler. cut it down to two questions. is what we'd like to do. i'll ask students to take it in their junior year not their senior year. fill it out in their junior year. we would also simplify the student loan repayment form and do some other things. this report that i mentioned of the university people said that every workday, every one of our 6,000 higher education institutions gets a letter or a guidance or a new rule or something from the u.s. department of education. every day. every work day. the national academy of sciences has a group that's reported twice that 42% of investigators time with research is spent on

administrative tasks. every governor knows one reason tuition is up is that federal medicaid mandates soak up state dollars that would otherwise go to higher education. so getting rid of red tape is one thing we're going to try to do when we reauthorize the higher education act. second thing i've said i said the other day in chattanooga and they said you never hear that. which is politicians should stop telling students they can't afford college, because most of students can afford college. you never hear that. and if you don't believe it i'd like to suggest that you think of 40% in three different ways. nearly 40% of undergraduates attend public two-year colleges. another nearly 40% attend public four-year colleges. 40% of all those students that i just mentioned are eligible for a federal pell grant that they don't have to pay back of up to $5,700. so as a result two years of college in the united states is

free or nearly free for every low-income student in the country. nationally community college tuition and fees average $3,300 a year. the average pell grant averages $3,260 a year. in tennessee, community college is now free for every student. what about public four-year universities where another 40% go? the average tuition is $9,000. remember about 40% have a pell grant. at the university of tennessee almost all have an in-state state grant called the hope scholarship. $3,500 annually for sophomores, up to $4500 for juniors and seniors. so a degree is available for most students. what about really expensive colleges? the elite so-called schools. tuition is about $31,000. i saw the georgetown university president the other day. he said this is what they do.

they figure out how much a family or student can afford. they ask the student to borrow up to $4,500 a year. they ask the student to work 10 or 15 hours a week in a work study program and the university pays the rest. they help students pay $60,000 a year at georgetown. and many other private universities do the same. so for many so-called elite universities, they are available. in spite of all this some people still need money. so you can borrow money. we hear a lot about student loans. our taxpayers generous enough, is borrowing for college a good investment. are students borrowing too much? one way to answer this question is to compare student loans to automobile loans. when i was 25 years old, i bought my first car. and i had to get an auto loan. i was outraged that the bank made my father cosign the loan because i had no assets and no credit rating. they took my car as collateral

and said i had to pay it back in three years. compare that to your student loan today. taxpayers will loan you up to $6,000 a year. that's in addition to the pell grant you don't have to pay back. your credit rating doesn't matter. your interest rate is 4.25% for this year. at a fixed rate. you may pay the loan back using no more than 10% of your disposal income. if it's not paid back after 20 years, it's forgiven. is your student loan a better investment than your auto loan? cars depreciate. student loans appreciate. college board estimates that during your lifetime you'll earn a million more dollars if you have a four-year degree. is there too much student loan borrowing? according to the federal reserve, the average debt for a student who graduates with a four-year degree is $27,000. that's about exactly the average debt for a car loan in the

united states. the total amount of outstanding student loans is $1.2 trillion. that's a lot of money. but the total amount of car loans is $950 billion and i don't hear anybody suggesting that that's too many auto loans. what about the $100,000 loans? that's only 4% of all the loans and 90% of those are graduate loans. lawyers, business people, others who have elected to do that. but still costs are up 9% of students are in default on their loans. what can we do to reduce the cost of college and to make it easier for students not to borrow too much? one, we can change the federal laws that discourage colleges from counseling students about borrowing too much. we make it hard for colleges to do that. number two allow students to use the pell grant year round so they can get through faster. that saves money. number three simplify the student aid application forms and loan repayment.

i described a very generous loan repayment program but most students find it too complicated to do. i ran into a university president the other day that said he took nine months trying to pay off his daughter's student loan and he had the help of his financial aid officer. and then clear out the jungle of red tape. so these five steps would help reduce the cost of college. it would help discourage students from borrowing more than they could pay back. we should get rid of the red tape as much as we can. and i believe politicians ought to stop telling students they can't afford to go to college because most students can. if you look at the amount of student loans and the amount of federal aid that is available. even if you borrow $27,000 to help you get a four-year degree, which is the average amount your student loan is going to be roughly equal to your auto loan.

and your degree is a far better investment for you and for our country. thank you. [ applause ] >> senator. >> right here? >> thanks for joining us. i covered you long enough i think the biggest issue will be remembering to call you senator, not governor. >> i've been called much worse. >> let's talk a little bit about how the ideas and the priorities that you just laid out figure into the reauthorization of the hea. you laid out cutting regulation cutting red tape rethinking the whole affordability question skinning in the game for colleges and universities. how do these rank among your priorities for the reauthorization? what are you looking to achieve primarily in the reauthorization? >> first of all, let me say i'll be working for close with patti

murray. we were able to produce a bill to fix no child left behind after two congresses couldn't do it. so it won't just be my priority. it'll be hers as well. and we'll try by september to produce for the committee to consider a draft bill. now, the priorities that i'd like to see included are the jungle of red tape. we've done a lot of work on this. this is mccullski and bennett and burr and me. we'll be introducing legislation that could be part of it. the simplifies of the student aid is six of us senators. we call it the fast act. that's a good candidate to be included. there is a lot of interest in dealing with the issue of sexual assault on campus. i met with a group of senators the other day. they will be having a hearing on that. we've got to