Taking the Biden administration back to school on college costs

OPINION:

Over the last few years of President Biden’s administration, taxpayers have gotten stuck with the bill for more than a hundred billion dollars in student loan debt. And this fall, millions of families will receive an invoice from a college or university for their children’s tuition. Many of these families will have sticker shock at the exorbitant prices—college costs have increased over 130% over the last twenty years. The costs of housing, books, meals, and more all make the burden heavier on families seeking to secure their child’s future. Unfortunately, among the biggest drivers of this six-figure bill are inefficiencies passed along by the universities themselves due to free-flowing federal dollars in the higher education system. A lack of information and transparency about degree programs and their return on investment can lead students astray, in turn generating crushing debts, which the Biden administration keeps trying to pass along to all taxpayers.

The House Education and Workforce Committee, led by Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has developed a uniquely tailored solution to both problems, called the College Costs Reduction Act (CCRA). This fall, Congress should help lower costs for all taxpayers and families with kids seeking to attend college by passing this legislation immediately.

Unfortunately, by contrast, President Biden has taken exactly the wrong approach to this issue. His attempts to unilaterally cancel student loan debts would pass the financial load onto the backs of taxpayers, the majority of whom did not attend university. Many of these attempts have been ruled unconstitutional, but the Biden administration has not let up, approving hundreds of millions in forgiveness recently.

The College Costs Reduction Act would take several new approaches to decreasing the strain that college places on family finances. First, the legislation would create more accountability mechanisms for families to understand the return on investment for varying degree programs. Adding a net price calculator along with a comparison tool for different programs will allow for easier and more prudent decision-making on college selection. Another provision would cap the total allowable amount of federal aid at the median cost of similar degree programs. Finally, the CCRA would add new limits on the amount that borrowers can take out by ending the uncapped PLUS graduate loan program. All these provisions would help to slow runaway college costs by making higher education programs more judicious with their tuition charges. With these innovations, and by consolidating other loan programs, this legislation would rein in cost drivers, help families make more informed decisions, and discourage rampant tuition inflation.

There’s plenty of good news in CCRA for families with kids going to college. But what about for all taxpayers, particularly those currently footing the bill for President Biden’s student loan debt transfers? Well, there’s a lot to like in this legislation, since the bill would ban further debt cancellations from the administration. This would potentially save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and prevent executive branch overreach on this issue. Even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper for Congress, says this legislation would save taxpayers $185 billion over the ten-year budget window. In a time when excessive government spending is contributing to price increases that squeeze taxpayers at checkout, this bill would help reduce that burden.

Overall, what back-to-school legislation could be a riper apple on the desks of all taxpayers? The CCRA takes an innovative and detailed approach to making concrete improvements to the factors behind spiraling higher ed costs for taxpayers and families. Creating more accountability for institutions themselves will reduce the incentives to continually pass along price inefficiencies to families. And by providing better tools for families to make decisions on degrees that will pay for themselves, taxpayers will also win by not having to foot the bill for every exorbitant college experience. Congress should take the opportunity to pass this legislation and educate the Biden administration on how to meaningfully improve the college debt crisis.

• Nicholas Johns is a policy and government affairs manager for the National Taxpayers Union, a nonprofit dedicated to sound fiscal policy for taxpayers everywhere.