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Community-college group urges simplification of Title IV rules, support on fraud prevention and small-balance IDR relief
Summary
The American Association of Community Colleges asked the Department of Education to simplify return-of-Title-IV rules, streamline program participation and recertification processes, provide support on identity-fraud losses, and consider shorter timelines to forgiveness for small-balance borrowers under IDR.
Catherine Gimbores, government relations manager at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), told the Department of Education that community colleges face burdensome Title IV procedures and rising costs from identity fraud and urged the department to address those issues in upcoming rulemaking.
"We encourage the department to revisit the regulations around return of title 4 funds," Gimbores said, describing those rules as "needlessly complicated, burdensome, and time consuming." She added that approval and recertification processes for program participation agreements and program reviews also "stifle the ability of community colleges to be nimble and to adapt to changing workforce and student needs."
Gimbores said community colleges are frequently targeted by fraud involving stolen identities that yield financial-aid refund losses and that colleges often must partner with costly vendors to detect fraud. "To date, we have received very little material or technical support from the department," she said, asking the department to consider the issue in negotiated rulemaking.
On repayment, the AACC urged the department to "craft policies that consider the experiences of low balance community college borrowers," noting only about 12% of community-college students borrow and they typically borrow smaller amounts; the association requested that the department consider a shorter timeline to forgiveness under IDR for small-balance borrowers.
These remarks were oral testimony; no formal departmental actions were taken during the session. AACC said it will submit detailed written comments to the department.
