(Excerpts from Inside Higher Ed News)

• The reintroduced College Transparency Act is receiving broad support across the political spectrum and from professional organizations, but opponents of the bill in higher education are concerned about how students’ information would be shared with the federal government.
• Colleges would be required to collect and submit data to the Department of Education regarding student enrollment, persistence, transfer and completion measures for all programs and degree levels. The data would also be disaggregated by demographics, including race and ethnicity, gender, and age.
• The bill would permit the Department of Education to periodically share limited data with other federal agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration, to calculate postgraduate outcomes, such as income and career prospects.
• Lawmakers say the resulting database -- which would be publicly available online -- will help prospective students and their families better understand the return on investment for specific schools and programs.
• Luis Maldonado, vice president for government relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said AASCU wants to ensure that any measures taken to increase college transparency appropriately consider that the right data are collected and ample safeguards are in place to maintain student privacy.
• “We certainly support the basic intent of the bill,” Maldonado said. “It is the specifics around the reporting and collection mechanism that is needed and, as specified in the bill, the amount of data to be collected that provides us with some pause in order for us as an association to proceed with caution."
• Others are concerned about the potential ramifications of giving individual students’ personal information to the federal government without their express consent or the ability to opt out, said Jody Feder, director of accountability and regulatory affairs for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.