May 17, 2023
The Honorable Virginia Foxx
Chairwoman
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Bernie Sanders
Chairman
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Mike Bost
Chairman
House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20003
The Honorable Jon Tester
Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Bobby Scott
Ranking Member
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Bill Cassidy
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Mark Takano
Ranking Member
House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20003
The Honorable Jerry Moran
Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chair Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, Chair Foxx, and Ranking Member Scott:
On behalf of the millions of veterans and their families that our organizations represent, we strongly urge Congress to pass the bicameral, bipartisan College Transparency Act (S. 1349 / H.R. 2957). Currently, higher education data is not serving those who served. Veterans don’t have access to the information they need to decide which colleges and programs best fit their educational and career goals.
The College Transparency Act would make those answers possible by improving data on student outcomes and making that information accessible to students and families – while protecting student privacy. Data on student outcomes would finally count all military-connected students whose educational journey is regularly interrupted because of deployments, and who balance school with work and family obligations at much higher rates than other students.
The College Transparency Act has tremendous bipartisan support. During the 117th Congress, CTA passed in the House of Representatives as an amendment to the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (H.R. 4521). It is also supported by more than 150 organizations, representing higher education, workforce development, business groups, and more.
The bill would:
- Ensure all students are counted in college outcomes data like graduation rates and earnings, including those who started their postsecondary education before enlisting, attend school part-time, or receive U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs benefits as their sole source of federal aid.
- Create a user-friendly website that makes privacy-protected information transparent, meaningful, and accessible for students and their families, as well as policymakers, colleges, and employers.
- Provide information to help policymakers, states, and institutions develop and implement targeted, data-informed strategies to improve how they serve their military-connected students.
- Safeguard student privacy by only providing aggregated data that cannot be traced back to individual students, limiting the type of data that will be collected (including a ban on collecting data on health, political affiliation, and religion), and strictly limiting the ways the information can be used.
The College Transparency Act is a smart, common-sense solution to fix a system that isn’t working. Therefore, we strongly urge Congress to make higher education data serve those who served by passing the College Transparency Act.
Sincerely,
CTA VSO Letter - final