II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 718 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make college affordable 

and accessible. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 23, 2017 

Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. BOOZMAN, and Mr. FRANKEN) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make college 

affordable and accessible. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Making Education Af5 fordable Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CREDIT-BASED ACADEMIC TRANSITION PROGRAMS. 

7 Part B of title VII of the Higher Education Act of 

8 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1138 et seq.) is amended— 

9 (1) by redesignating section 745 as section 746; 


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1 (2) in section 746, as redesignated by para2 graph (1), by striking ‘‘fiscal year 2009’’ and insert3 ing ‘‘fiscal year 2018’’; and 

4 (3) by inserting after section 744 the following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 745. CREDIT-BASED ACADEMIC TRANSITION PRO6 GRAMS. 

7 ‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to ex8 pand access for high school students to the opportunities 

9 offered in credit-based academic transition programs es10 tablished through partnerships between high schools and 

11 institutions of higher education utilizing dual or concur12 rent enrollment programs or early college high school pro13 grams that enable such students to earn college credits 

14 while in high school. 

15 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—In this section, the 

16 term ‘eligible institution’ means an institution of higher 

17 education that carries out a dual or concurrent enrollment 

18 program or an early college high school program that en19 ables high school students to earn college credits while in 

20 high school. 

21 ‘‘(c) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary may 

22 award grants to eligible institutions to carry out credit23 based academic transition programs described in sub24 section (a). 


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1 ‘‘(d) APPLICATION.—An eligible institution that de2 sires to receive a grant under this section shall submit to 

3 the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, 

4 and containing such information as the Secretary may re5 quire. 

6 ‘‘(e) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec7 tion, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible institu8 tions that serve students from low-income families, stu9 dents from rural communities, or students who are the 

10 first in their family to receive postsecondary education. 

11 ‘‘(f) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible institution that re12 ceives a grant under this section shall use the grant 

13 funds— 

14 ‘‘(1) to carry out a dual or concurrent enroll15 ment program or an early college high school pro16 gram for high school students, through which such 

17 students while enrolled in high school are enrolled in 

18 postsecondary courses at the eligible institution, 

19 through which such students can earn college credits 

20 that can be transferred to 2-year and 4-year institu21 tions of higher education in the State; 

22 ‘‘(2) to provide teachers, principals, and other 

23 school leaders with professional development activi24 ties that enhance or enable the provision of postsec25 ondary coursework through a dual or concurrent enVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Mar 28, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S718.IS S718

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1 rollment program or an early college high school 

2 program; and 

3 ‘‘(3) to support activities such as— 

4 ‘‘(A) designing the curriculum and se5 quence of courses in collaboration with teachers 

6 from the local educational agency and faculty 

7 from the eligible institution; 

8 ‘‘(B) establishing a course articulation 

9 process for defining and approving courses for 

10 high school and postsecondary credit or creden11 tials for both 2-year and 4-year institutions of 

12 higher education in the State; 

13 ‘‘(C) outreach programs to provide elemen14 tary school and secondary school students, espe15 cially those in middle grades, and their parents, 

16 teachers, school counselors, and principals in17 formation about and academic preparation for 

18 the credit-based academic transition programs 

19 described in subsection (a); 

20 ‘‘(D) helping students meet eligibility cri21 teria for postsecondary courses and ensuring 

22 that students understand how credits earned 

23 will transfer to institutions of higher education 

24 in the State; and 


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1 ‘‘(E) coordinating secondary and postsec2 ondary support services and academic cal3 endars. 

4 ‘‘(g) FLEXIBILITY OF FUNDS.—An eligible institu5 tion that receives a grant under this section may use grant 

6 funds for any of the costs associated with carrying out 

7 credit-based academic transition programs described in 

8 subsection (a), including the costs of— 

9 ‘‘(1) tuition and fees, books, and required in10 structional materials for such program so that stu11 dents will not be required to pay tuition or fees for 

12 postsecondary courses; and 

13 ‘‘(2) transportation to and from such program. 

14 ‘‘(h) EVALUATION AND REPORT.—Each eligible insti15 tution receiving a grant under this section shall— 

16 ‘‘(1) conduct an independent evaluation of the 

17 effectiveness of the activities carried out by such eli18 gible institution under this section; and 

19 ‘‘(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary a re20 port containing the results of the evaluation de21 scribed in paragraph (1). 

22 ‘‘(i) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec23 tion shall be construed to impose on any State or public 

24 institution of higher education any requirement or rule re25 garding credit-based academic transition programs deVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Mar 28, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S718.IS S718

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1 scribed in subsection (a) that is inconsistent with State 

2 law.’’. 

Æ 


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