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Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Report to Congress Says Financial-Aid Rules Are Hurting Distance Programs By DAN CARNEVALE In a report to sent to Congress last week, the U.S. Department of Education says that a lack of flexibility in financial-aid regulations hurts the advancement of distance-education programs. Regulations restricting which institutions can provide federal financial aid are complex and inhibiting, the report says, and should be updated to reflect the growth of alternative education. Those rules mentioned include one that prevents institutions offering more than 50 percent of their courses at a distance from providing federal student aid. Another rule requires that students enroll in at least 12 hours of course work a week to qualify for full-time status and with it the maximum amount of student aid. The regulations were originally written to prevent fraud. The report is the department's first on the results of the Distance Education Demonstration Program, which waives some rules and regulations affecting financial aid for participating institutions. The program currently has 15 participants, some of which are systems or consortia, bringing the total number of institutions participating to 111. Up to 35 more participants will be added in the coming months.  Congress required that the first report on the program be submitted after 18 months and that subsequent reports be written annually. The report responds to some of the concerns that institutions have about federal rules and statutes, but it does not propose any solutions. "It doesn't make specific recommendations about what Congress should do," said Maureen McLaughlin, deputy assistant secretary for policy, planning, and innovation at the department. "The question is, What kind of changes would you make?" Ed Klonoski, director of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium, which is among the participating consortia, said the demonstration program had shown that the rules need to be permanently changed. As evidence, he noted that one member of the Connecticut consortium, Charter Oak State College, would not be eligible to provide federal financial aid if not for the waivers allowed by the program. "They needed all of the flexibility that they could get with the demonstration program," he said. Although he didn't have specific recommendations for changing the 50-percent and 12-hour rules, Mr. Klonoski said he would rather see the Education Department evaluate institutions by measuring student performance. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Bush offers proposals on tuition-savings accounts and college-school partnerships Indiana U. president calls for sports reform, while Knight Commission continues hearings Colleges are urged to devise better ways to measure learning Mississippi Valley State University punished for athletics violations British academics debate article charging that university tests have been "feminized" Hong Kong faculty group asks government to ban sleeping in class Wolf Foundation announces prizes in medicine and art Students use the Web to protest Iran's punishment of scholars and journalists Report to Congress says financial-aid rules are hurting distance programs