Hawley files bills to go after higher education ‘monopoly’

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has filed two bills in what he calls a bid to break up what he calls a “higher education monopoly.”

One bill would make more job-training and certification programs eligible for the federal financial aid known as Pell Grants. The other would require colleges and universities to pay half the outstanding balance when students default on loans.

The student loan bill will “require institutions of higher education to have skin in the game when it comes to cost and student outcomes by requiring them to repay a portion of the loan balance of students who are unable to repay their debt,” according to a release from Hawley’s office.

“The factor (in creating the bills) is talking to families all across our state over and over again,” Hawley said in an interview with ABC 17 News. “Students and workers who say they need more opportunities for jobs. They need job training. They need to get skills training. They need to get the kind of vocational training that they want and need for the workforce.”

But Hawley said the people he talked to told him they wanted to get that training without having to take on the “burden” of an expensive four-year degree.

Information from the Missouri Department of Higher Education showed the total tuition and required fees for students at various universities across the state, per year. In 2019, the average University of Missouri student paid $9,879.06 per year in tuition and fees, according to the Missouri Department of Higher Education. A graduate student paid $10,017.30.

Other colleges in Missouri had similar numbers. The average Lincoln University student paid $7,632 in 2019. The average Missouri State University student paid $7,376 in 2019.

“You shouldn’t have to take on a mountain of debt and get a four-year degree that you don’t want in order to get a good job in our state or our country,” Hawley said.

He said he believes the student loan bill will force colleges to pay attention to the types of education students are getting.

According to the Institute for College Access and Success, the average debt of MU graduates in 2017 was $27,364. The organization says 52 percent of 2017 MU graduates left school with student loan debts.

MU spokesman Christian Basi said the university’s loan default rate is 4.1 percent out of the 52 percent of students who have debt. But he said the national default loan rate is 10.8 percent.

“Right now we’ve seen way too many examples across the country of colleges happy to take the students’ money, happy to help sign that student up for all of the loans, and then they don’t really pay attention to whether or not the student is succeeding,” Hawley said. “They don’t give them any kind of career guidance counseling.”

Basi said the university would not comment on the merits of Hawley’s proposals.

Basi said the university has already tried combating student loans by lowering room and board rates 3 percent during the 2018-19 school year and plans to drop the rate again for the coming school year.

Basi also said MU students are required to go through a counseling session related to student loans before they graduate.

Hawley said he spoke with higher educators “in all sectors” while creating the bill.

Hawley, a Republican who was a law professor at the University of Missouri before winning election to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and then the U.S. Senate, has been critical of higher education. During his campaign for Senate last year Hawley frequently talked about higher education, questioning the worth of degrees students get and saying higher education indoctrinates students with far-left ideology.

His wife, Erin, is still employed by the University of Missouri.

ABC 17 reached out to several universities and organizations for comment on the legislation, but did not hear back.

Listen to the full interview with Sen. Hawley: