The TUITION Act
"The cost of college is skyrocketing. But where does the money go? How is it being spent? Students and parents have a right to know how their tuition dollars are being used." -- Congressman Pat Meehan
Students Burdened by Skyrocketing Tuition and Student Loan Debt
The average student loan debt per borrower in each year’s graduating class has steadily increased since 1993. The class of 2015 has an average student loan debt of more than $35,000. Tuition increased by average of 80% between August 2003 and August 2013. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, tuition and fees have increased by 1,225% since 1978 compared to a 634% increase in medical care and a 279% of consumer price index.
Prospective Students Need Transparent Information to Make Higher Education Decisions
As students make investments in their future, colleges and universities have a responsibility to ensure they provide prospective students and their families with information to better understand the cost of higher education and where their tuition dollars go. However, prospective students and their families do not have access to information regarding how colleges and universities spend revenue specifically generated from tuition, fees, and other institutional charges, such as room and board, collected from students.
The TUITION Act
The Tuition Use Information Transparently Identified ONline (TUITION) Act would require colleges and universities to show how they spend revenue generated from tuition and fees and to publish this information on their admissions websites annually in a manner that prospective students and their families can easily understand. Recognizing differences in accounting standards among colleges and universities, the legislation would provide flexibly to schools in reporting how student revenue is spent.
The legislation establishes an incentive for schools to keep costs down and direct resources to academic and instructional services by improving transparency and accountability in college spending and costs.
View the legislative text of the TUITION Act here.
