High school students looking to go to college, their parents or legal guardians, and all higher education institutions need to follow the progress of the College Transparency Act (CTA). It is a bipartisan amendment that Congress added to the America COMPETES Act in February 2022, sponsored by Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) District 30.

In March 2021, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reintroduced the CTA, legislation to ensure students and families have clear and absorbable information as they consider higher education opportunities.

Current law prohibits the federal government from collecting and reporting accurate data on student outcomes at each college and university in the U.S. This lack of information makes it a challenge for students and families to make well-informed choices about their education.  As for institutions and policymakers, they cannot craft evidence-based policies to help students succeed.  This data blind spot makes it harder to ensure higher education is serving all students fairly and equitably. This also means employers are missing out on having a talent pipeline they need to grow the economy.

But this act would require colleges and universities to collect and file data to the U.S. Department of Education on student enrollment, transfer, persistence, and completion across all programs and degrees.  The data would also be disaggregated by demographics, like age, ethnicity, gender, and race. As a result, there would be more information about how colleges perform at educating their students.

The America COMPETES Act would allocate billions of dollars to bolster U.S. research to compete with China, particularly in STEM. But the Senate’s version of the COMPETES Act does not include the CTA provisions.

But supporters are hopeful the four chief Senate sponsors of the bill in the Senate—can work out the differences and get the act approved in conference committee.

I support the C-T-A.  It has been endorsed by more than 150 organizations…from state higher education associations and entities like the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  They all believe all students deserve accurate and complete information about college outcomes BEFORE they invest their lives and money into a college.

Magesh Rajan, Ph.D., P.E., MBA
Vice President, Research & Innovation