BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S PRINCIPLES TO MODERNIZE THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 18, 2019

BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S PRINCIPLES TO MODERNIZE THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT   Via Teleconference 12:06 P.M. EDT     MS. DITTO: Thank you.  And thank you all for joining today's background briefing on the Trump administration's Principles to Modernize the Higher Education Act.      Before we begin the call, I want to go over some ground rules.  The information will be embargoed until the conclusion of the call.  The call will be led by Ivanka Trump, Advisor to the President, who will provide opening comment; and James Redstone, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, who will walk you through the principles document and answer questions.      Ivanka's opening comments will be on the record, and then she must depart to lead the council meeting that is taking place this afternoon.      Earlier today, Ivanka was speaking at the Society for Human Resource Management meeting with CEO Johnny Taylor, a member of our advisory board, talking about these priorities.  It is really important that we continue to engage the private sector as we move along these workforce priorities.      James will be available to answer questions, and the Q&A portion and his comments will be on background, attributable to a senior administration official.      The purpose of the call is to discuss the principles to modernize the Higher Ed Act that we are releasing today.  We kindly ask that you keep your questions on that topic.  And please keep in mind, following the release of the agenda at the council meeting, which will be taking place shortly, the White House will issue a statement with a link to the principles for access to all media.      With that, I will turn it over to Ivanka Trump for opening comments.      MS. TRUMP:  Thank you, Jessica.  Thank you all.  Today, we are pleased to announce that the National Council for the American Worker released a set of White House proposals to reform the Higher Education Act to create a more innovative and demand-driven system that is responsive to students, workers, employers, and taxpayers.      We need to modernize our higher education system to make it affordable, flexible, and outcome-oriented so all Americans, young and old, can learn the skills they need to secure and retain good-paying jobs. We look forward to working with bipartisan members of Congress to pass these policies into law.  Chairman Alexander has already been very supportive of our priorities and has expressed his appreciation for the White House leadership.      Since the President signed the executive order establishing the National Council for the American Worker, we have been aggressively working on the objectives and encouraging more private sector engagement.      Today is the third meeting of the council.  I, along with Secretary Ross, Secretary DeVos, and Joe Grogan, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, will lead today's discussion of higher ed reform.      Over the past two years, the White House has worked with members on both sides of the aisle to promote workforce development and improve the affordability and accessibility of higher learning opportunities.      Since the signing of the executive order, more than 200 private sector companies and associations have signed our Pledge to America's Workers, promising more than $6.5 million new, enhanced career and training opportunities.      Last summer, the President signed Strengthening Career and Technical Education for 21st Century Act that reauthorized and modernized the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, making more than $1 billion available for career and technical education programs that reach more than 11 million students and workers across the nation.      Over the past two years, the President has called for the expansion of apprenticeships, creating industry-recognized apprenticeships to help more Americans earn a paycheck while also earning an industry-recognized credential.      At the White House, we’ll continue to push for inclusive growth in this booming economy and look for ways that the private sector and bipartisan legislation can empower American workers.  The Higher Education Act reforms that we are proposing include, but are not limited to: simplifying student loan repayment; allowing low-income students and workers to use Pell grants for short-term, high-quality programs; enhancing outcome-based transparency; and expanding federal aid for workforce training programs for prisoners eligible for release.      We think these are absolutely critical reforms and, really, the most comprehensive approach to higher ed reform in over a decade.      So we're very excited to work with members on both sides of the aisle as we advance these and other important education initiatives.     So, with that, I will turn it over to my colleague… so with that I will turn it over to my colleague.  And thank you all for participating and joining us.      MS. DITTO:  All right, [senior administration official] feel free to walk through this entire document.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Right, so we'll take these in sequential order.  And thanks for being here.      When it comes to our principles, we start by asking that our creditors focus on student outcomes.  We are less concerned with how education is provided and more concerned with making sure that students are getting access to academic experiences and support services that they need to have a positive experience.  And I think by evaluating students based on the quality of their -- by evaluating the quality of students' experience based on the outcome the students receive, that's the best way to ensure that.      Moving forward, we're asking for increased innovations.  We understand that, as the system currently exists, it was designed and it's grown in a way that suits traditional students well, or students matriculating directly from high school to a postsecondary program.  Where we see the system having challenges is providing services to students who might be returning to school or to students who are first-generational college students. nd we want to provide increased access to non-traditional programs that might be able to offer them a quality academic experience and workforce development experience that is aligned to their particular needs.    And from our perspective, in many cases, that means an accelerated program.  And we think many of the best programs provided right now are on the non-credit side of the shop.      We're requesting that Congress reorient the Higher Education Act and focus more on the workforce needs.  And as part of that, we want to provide increased access on the credit side to accelerated programs.  These include the Pell grant reforms that Ms. Trump previously mentioned and changes to the federal work study program to ensure that federal work study dollars can be used to support students getting a quality work experience aligned to their career goals, rather than simply a subsidized employment program for on-campus jobs.      As part of this ongoing conversation, we want to make sure that students are getting good value for their dollars and that taxpayers are getting good value for their dollars.  And we want to hold institutions accountable.      And again, this is based on outcome measures.  We understand that there a lot of challenges when it comes to institutional accountability, and we look forward to working with Congress in this session.      And then, we want to increase -- we want to accelerate program completion.  There's a lot of confusion regarding what credits are accepted by institutions, particularly for students who are enrolling with AP credits or CLEP credits.  And we want to make sure that they understand whether these credits will be accepted by their institution.  We think doing this will help accelerate completion and reduce program costs.      Given the administration's leadership on supporting historically black colleges and universities, we think Congress should recognize this and then continue the administration’s initiative in this front.  And we think that actually doing this through statute is the best way to ensure that the initiative lasts longer than the administration.      Finally, we want to encourage responsible borrowing.  We are concerned about the lack of responsible limits on the Parent PLUS and grad loan programs.  And we would like to reinstitute limits on the Parent PLUS and grad programs.      We understand college administrators have the best understanding of expected program outcomes and we think they can help students more responsibly (inaudible) the federal government.  That includes potentially setting programmatic-long caps rather than an institutional-wide-long caps.      Finally, we want to make sure that students are getting the information they need to make an effective career choice and education choice so that they have some understand of what their future earnings might be, tied to the future or the current cost of their education.      When it comes to student loan repayment, we understand a simplified system will help borrowers more effectively manage their debt, and we've proposed a 12.5 percent cap on a borrower’s discretionary income for all students.  This would offer students loan forgiveness after 180 months of repayment for all their undergraduate loans, regardless of where they're working.  And we think that this system can be reformed by using IRS tax data to do it.      Lastly, we want to support academic access for returning students.  This is an expansion of Pell and (inaudible) federal and financial aid for student -- for incarcerated Americans who are eligible for parole.  Thank you.      MS. DITTO:  All right, with that, Operator, [senior administration official] is available to take a few questions.      Q    Hello, this is Toby Capion calling from EWTN.  Are you adding money to the pool of funds available to college students or simply shifting it around and creating a new set of winners and losers?      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  You know, based on the structure of the federal student loan portfolio or federal student aid, we're changing the rules for how you can access it.   We think this will expand access for students who are pursuing short-term programs without necessarily affecting the access of federal student loan dollars.      Q    Hello, this is Kyle Mazza from UNF News.  Thank you so much for hosting the call.  Can you expand on your talk about the loan forgiveness for 180 days -- put that in a little bit more perspective?  Thank you.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think it should be made clear that it's 180 payments.  And this is for undergraduate loans.  The current program is exclusive to folks operating in the for-profit sector, and this would expand the programmatic eligibility and it would exclude graduate loans from the program.      Q    Hey, this is Michael Stratford at Politico.  Thanks for doing the call.  Two quick questions.  One, can you talk about if you have a timeline for when you'd like to see Congress do this?  I know Senator Alexander has talked about getting a law passed by the end of the year.  Is that the same timeline you’re operating on? And then, secondly, when you talk about reinstituting limits on Parent PLUS and grad PLUS loans, do you have an idea of what those limits -- you want to see those limits set up? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I think we'd like to see a bill happen as soon as possible, but we support Chairman Alexander's timeline.  And then I think we're open to having a robust conversation about what the appropriate loan limits are. Q    Hi, this is Andrew Kreighbaum with Inside Higher Ed.  I’ve got a question for you about the College Transparency proposal you guys have included in here.  I know that Congress has -- there have been a couple of different approaches proposed in Congress, and the administration is -- the Department is also looking to expand the college scorecard.  So does the White House like either the College Transparency Act -- the approach there -- or what was offered in the PROSPER Act?  Is there a legislative approach to transparency that the White House likes? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  We're looking to improve access to program-level outcome data.  We don’t have a position on the approach taken. Q    Hi, thanks for taking my question.  Carolyn Phenicie with The 74.  I know both Senator Alexander and Murray have said they're open to discussing the Title IX and sexual assault issues in the Higher Ed reauthorization.  Where are you guys on that? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  We understand that’s the rule-making process at ED, and defer you to the Department of Education and the White House Press Office for that. MS. DITTO:  All right.  Thank you, Operator.  And thank you all for joining today's background briefing. To reiterate the ground rules, everything was embargoed until the conclusion of this call.  Ivanka's opening comments are on the record, and the background information and Q&A portion are on background, attributable to a senior administration official. We will be issuing a press statement with a link to the principles available on the website.  And if there's anything else, please do not hesitate to reach out to Judd Deere in the White House Press Office for any follow-up questions that you might have. With that, we thank you for participating and we'll be providing additional information throughout the day.                           END                 12:20 P.M. EDT