Time To Change The Rules?

Career College Central summary:

A growing number of reform-minded lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to see more of online “innovations” like competency-based education. To help out, some are making noise about changing federal financial aid policy and the accreditation system.
That was the message during a hearing Thursday of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The hearing and several emerging pieces of legislation are harbingers of how the looming debate over the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act might shake out.
For example, Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said this week that he plans to soon introduce a bill that would give state regulators a new option to either act as accreditors or create their own accreditation systems. Under the bill, Lee said states could work with the U.S. Department of Education to sign agreements that would authorize the flow of federal financial aid to a wide range of course providers, some of which look nothing like colleges.
The federal government isn't likely to seriously ramp up spending on financial aid. So any new money for those emerging models would likely come out of the coffers of traditional colleges.

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