On Thursday, June 17, 2010, the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing to examine recent reports from the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education looking at how higher education accrediting agencies review institutions’ policies on credit hours and program length.

On Thursday, May 27th, the Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness Subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine the results of a new GAO report on post-secondary institutions that serve low-income and minority students. The panel will review efforts to monitor the financial and programmatic performance of institutions that receive funding under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. 

More than 1,200 colleges in the United States serve predominantly minority populations.

On Tuesday, December 8, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to learn more about states’ efforts to help improve the nation’s competitiveness by adopting a common core of college and career readiness standards. To date, 48 states have joined the initiative.

On Wednesday, October 14, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competiveness will hold a hearing to examine how non-profit and for-profit colleges and universities administer and enforce student eligibility requirements for federal financial aid programs.

On Thursday, May 21, the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing to examine proposals that will make historic increases in college aid by enacting reforms that will make the nation’s federal student loan programs more reliable, effective and efficient for students, families and taxpayers.

One of the proposals the committee will examine is President Obama’s FY 2010 budget proposal, which would increase the Pell Grant scholarship and other forms of student aid by almost $100 billion over ten years – and at no cost to taxpayers. The President’s plan would be paid for by ending the subsidies the federal government currently pays to lenders in the federally-guaranteed student loan programs and re-directing those savings back into additional aid for low- and middle-income students

The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how business-education partnerships can help drive innovation and strengthen math and science education in America’s schools.

A report released by the National Math Panel in March found that the nation’s system for teaching math is “broken and must be fixed” if the U.S. wants to maintain its competitive edge. In May, the Committee first examined the report’s findings and recommendations; this hearing follows up on that hearing.