Freedom to Learn: A Toolkit on the Higher Education Act

National Association of Scholars

The National Association of Scholars is pleased to release a toolkit for NAS members and others interested in urging Congress to include important policy reforms in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, due this year. Join our Facebook live video today, May 23 at 2:00 PM, or watch here on the NAS website below. Then, download the resources in the toolkit below.

About the Higher Education Act

The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act presents a signal opportunity to repair American colleges and universities. Last year, NAS released the Freedom to Learn Amendments, a detailed list of policy recommendations for the Higher Education Act. We mailed to every member of the House and Senate education committees a copy of the Freedom to Learn Amendments along with a letter that more than 300 academics and citizens signed.

We are pleased that the PROSPER Act, which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act, includes many, though not all, of NAS’s proposed Freedom to Learn Amendments. We invite NAS members and other concerned citizens to urge Congress to pass a version of the PROSPER Act that protects freedom of speech and expression; streamlines federal student aid; reforms accreditation; protects due process; welcomes marketplace competition; and adopts other policies that will set American higher education on firmer ground.

 

Send a letter to your members of Congress.

The PROSPER Act offers important opportunities to protect freedom of speech and religious freedom, streamline and cap federal student aid, and open higher education to marketplace competition. But it fails to reform the system of accreditation, adequately protect due process, and enact other necessary reforms.

Find your members of Congress >

Download NAS’s template letter to a member of Congress >

Write an op-ed or letter to the editor of your local paper.

Over the decades, the Higher Education Act has been transformed into a special interest bonanza.  It primarily serves the interests of legacy colleges and universities, especially their administrators and bureaucrats.  Secondarily HEA has come to serve the interests of political factions, rather than the common good.  And HEA advances these special interests at the expense of American college students. The Higher Education Act needs a top-to-bottom overhaul, and the PROSPER provides a start.

See NAS’s full statement on the PROSPER Act >

If you write an op-ed or letter to the editor, please let us know! Write to us at [email protected].  

Post on social media.

Tell your members of Congress and fellow citizens about the reforms that higher education needs.

Suggested tweets:

Suggested Facebook posts:

Join the National Association of Scholars!

Stand with us as we fight for intellectual freedom and the integrity of higher education.

Join NAS today >

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