Committee adopts amendment to require colleges post employment and earnings snapshots; bill laid over

Senator Draheim presented Senate File 19-89 to the Minnesota Senate Committee on Higher Education on March 13, saying the bill’s goal is to provide students with clearer information about typical earnings and outcomes for majors and degrees to help inform college and program choices.

"The whole goal of what I'm trying to do here is to give information to the students going to college," Draheim told the committee. The measure, as discussed, would require institutions to display an online snapshot for each major showing post-graduation earnings and related information; proponents said it would help students make choices about majors, institutions and whether to pursue advanced degrees.

Committee discussion focused on which data sources to use, reporting burden on institutions, and what outcome fields should be included. Senator Aki and others emphasized the value of job-placement information in addition to initial earnings; Senator Clark and other members asked how the site would capture advanced-degree outcomes and longer-term career trajectories. After recessing to allow stakeholders to work on language, the committee took up an A2 amendment that clarifies the source and reduces potential reporting burdens.

Senator Ham explained the A2 amendment to the committee: the amendment "call[s] out this website that I'm displaying on there" as the primary feed (the U.S. Census Bureau postsecondary employment outcomes), and adds language allowing institutions that do not use that feed to provide similar data accepted by an institutional accreditor or other accepted source. "We called out this website that I'm displaying on there... and then adding language for the institutions that don't use this data but use other data that is accepted by an accredited company," Ham said.

Committee members raised concerns about audit language and verification. Senator Farnsworth asked whether the amendment removed random audit provisions; Ham and other members said the amendment was crafted to avoid imposing expensive new reporting or verification burdens on institutions. Senator Barrack asked which institutions already participate in the Census data feed; Ham read a list of participating Minnesota institutions and said the amendment would cover most public and nonprofit colleges and universities in the state while allowing alternatives for nonparticipating institutions.

The committee adopted the A2 amendment by voice vote. The chair then announced that Senate File 19-89, as amended, would be laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus package.

The bill record shows discussion points about data scope (one-, five- and 10-year earnings windows, placement rates, and graduate-degree trajectories), concerns about the cost of audits and data collection, and the practical decision in the amendment to accept the Census Bureau feed or accredited alternatives to limit expense and administrative burden. The committee did not record a roll-call vote on the amendment; the A2 amendment was adopted by voice and the amended bill was laid over for possible inclusion.