How many students and how much federal money may be at stake is unclear, federal officials say. Nor does anyone know precisely how many schools are affected. It's anyone's guess how many more people might attend college in cyberspace if they received aid. Online college is ideal for such individuals, but current law makes it harder for such people to find programs and to pay for it, Mosisa said. Teacher opposition U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., fresh from helping lead a yearlong look at how online education is flourishing, plans to push to get rid of those obstacles.
Online advocates say it's time.
This provision of the law was written in 1992 and that was a couple of eons ago in terms of distance learning. The American Federation of Teachers, whose million members include 120,000 in higher education, acknowledges the law could use improvement, but warns against losing safeguards. An Internet-based degree program, like a correspondence school, is much harder to audit than a traditional program, and the chances for abuse are greater. At issue is a 1992 change to the Higher Education Act of 1965. This financial aid consists of student loans provided or backed by the U.S. government, and outright grants like the Pell for needy undergraduates.