HELP Committee to Hold Hearing on Institutional Risk Sharing

On May 20, 2015, at 10:00 am, the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (“HELP”) will hold a hearing on institutional risk sharing as part of their work on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. The hearing will be held in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, and will be live streamed on the hearing website. Institutional risk sharing is the idea that rather than comply with the myriad other institutional quality metrics, that institutions of higher education should be liable to the Department of Education of the amount of loans in default exceeds some threshold.  Once the threshold is crossed, the institution would have to refund to the Department an amount to cover the risk of default.  Its a very interesting idea that HELP Committee Chairman, Senator Lamar Alexander, is very interested in.  In addition, the first panel witness, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) has a bill that would impose risk-sharing on institutions.  The witnesses for the hearing are:

Panel 1
The Honorable Senator Jack Reed

Panel 2
1.  Dr. Andrew P. Kelly, Director, Center for Higher Education Reform, American Enterprise Institute
2.  Robert S. Silberman, Executive Chairman, Strayer Education, Inc.
3.  Jennifer Wang, Policy Director, Young Invincibles
4.  Dr. Douglas A. Webber,Assistant Professor,Temple University