College Transparency Act

Key Points

• Congress is proposing a new national data system to track how students fare during and after college. This system would collect information on graduation rates, how much debt students take on, and how much money they actually earn in their careers after finishing their degrees.
• The goal is to help families and students make better choices about where to go to school. A new, easy-to-use website would allow people to compare different colleges and programs to see which ones provide the best value and the highest chance of finding a good job.
• To protect student privacy, the law would strictly forbid the system from collecting sensitive personal details like health records, religious beliefs, or immigration status. The government would also be banned from using this data for law enforcement or to create a federal ranking of 'good' or 'bad' schools.
• The plan aims to reduce paperwork for colleges by combining several different reports they already send to the government. Instead of filling out multiple forms, schools would report to one central system that shares data securely with other agencies like the IRS to verify earnings.
• If this bill becomes law, the government would have four years to build the system. An advisory group made up of students, college leaders, and privacy experts would help decide exactly what information is collected and how to keep it safe from hackers.