A bill to increase college transparency in North Carolina was signed into law on Thursday by Gov. McCrory.
Senate Bill 536, “Students Know Before You Go & Central Residency,” directs the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority to build a website that will give college applicants access to information about transfer rates, graduation rates, financial aid opportunities, employment statistics, and wage projections for every public and private college in the state.
The legislation, which was introduced in 2015 by Sen. Chad Barefoot, R-Wake, also requires the NCSEAA to provide data about the state’s projected employment needs and salary ranges. All data will be pulled from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A secondary portion of the bill streamlines the state’s process for confirming a student’s in-state public tuition and scholarship eligibility.
The bill’s transparency measure will take effect in April 2017, seeing North Carolina join several other states that have successfully enacted laws to help college applicants access more information about the risks and returns of higher education.
S.B. 536 is similar to legislation now under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives. House Resolution 3178, the “Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act,” also would increase access to consumer information for all college applicants by instructing the U.S. Secretary of Education to build a website that pulls together financial aid data, graduation rates, and job statistics from every college in the nation.
The legislation — which was recently approved by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — is a way to help students and families make smarter decisions about college, said North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th District, the bill’s primary sponsor.
“Each year, families across the country face difficult decisions about where they can afford to send their children to college and what institution is the best fit for them,” said Foxx before the committee. “Students must wade through massive and often conflicting amounts of information in order to make an informed choice.”
“Taking time to fully understand the available data can be an aggravating task that may get put off and ultimately ignored, often with disastrous consequences,” she added. “This bill will improve the information students and their families need to make smart decisions about their education, providing a more complete picture of student populations on our nation’s college campuses.”
To read more about H.R. 3178, click here.