Advancing College Choice and Ethics to Protect Taxpayers Act of 2012

Bill: 112-s-3550
Sponsor: Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]
Introduced: 2012-09-13 in the Senate
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Business ethics
Consumer affairs
Department of Education
Fraud offenses and financial crimes
Government information and archives
Higher education
Licensing and registrations
Marketing and advertising
School administration
Student aid and college costs
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2012-09-13
text: 
Advancing College Choice and Ethics to Protect Taxpayers Act of 2012 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to bar the Secretary of Education from issuing new regulations related to the prohibition against provision of incentive compensation by institutions of higher education (IHEs) to certain school employees based on their success in securing student enrollments or financial aid.
 
Prohibits IHEs from engaging in deceptive practices likely to mislead consumers or affect their decisions.
 
Requires IHEs with a Student Default Risk Index for a year of 0.1 or greater to: (1) give individuals whose enrollment has been accepted at least two weeks to confirm their enrollment decision without the school's making benefit decisions contingent on an earlier decision; and (2) notify those individuals of financial aid determinations at least one week before the enrollment confirmation deadline, if they have submitted the requested application forms.
 
Penalizes IHEs that substantially misrepresent: (1) the space available in a program for which an individual is considering enrollment, (2) admission requirements, (3) the transferability of credits, (4) whether a program qualifies students to sit for licensing examinations or obtain employment certifications, and (5) the success of their students in obtaining those licenses or certifications. (This is in addition to prohibiting a school from misrepresenting its educational program, financial charges, or graduates' employability.)
 
Increases, and alters the formula for determining, the penalties imposed on IHEs that violate title IV provisions.
 
Directs the Secretary annually to produce and make available to IHEs and the public standardized disclosure sheets with IHE data, and state, IHE category, and national averages.
 
Requires IHEs to provide their students and individuals accepted for enrollment with that disclosure sheet which includes specified information regarding student costs, financial aid, debt and default rates, transfer and dropout rates, and the school's obligations under title IV.
 
Requires IHEs to provide students and prospective students with the process for registering a complaint with the school's accreditor.
 
Requires IHEs to provide individuals that have been accepted for enrollment with certain information about financial aid, the school, its procedures, and its graduates in a manner that allows them to take that information into account before making a final enrollment decision.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2012-09-13
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2012-09-13
text: Introduced in Senate