ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


786 / C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 1998

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynn E. Bradley

W ashington Office news: Higher 
Education Act reauthorized
In this report we will touch on the reauthori­
zation o f the Higher Education Act (HEA). 
Other legislation important to academic librar­
ies, passed by Congress and signed by President 
Clinton, include the copyright treaty bill and 
the copyright term extension bill. This intel­
lectual property legislation and other issues, 
such as access to government information, will 
be covered in subsequent C&RL News reports. 
(Also refer to ALAWON, a free, irregular elec­
tronic publication o f the ALA Washington 
Office. To subscribe, send the message: sub­
scribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] 
to listproc@ala.org. Or, visit the ALA Web 
site at http://www.alawash.org.)

On October 7, Clinton signed a five-year 
reauthorization of the HEA. The areas o f the 
HEA of special interest to academic libraries 
include student financial aid and work study, 
teacher training, and international education.

The new HEA establishes interest rates at 
7.46 percent for student loans (standard ten- 
year repay cycle) for school year 1999-2000, 
down from a rate o f 8.23 percent earlier this 
year. Pell grants for low-income students were 
raised to $5,800 per academic year, up from 
the present level of $3,000. Pell grant students 
should also find it easier to work without los­
ing their benefits. Some of the guidelines for 
work-study students were adjusted, although 
local impact will be determined on an indi­
vidual campus basis.

The HEA consolidates a number of teacher 
education programs into state block grants, au­
thorizing them at $300 million for FY99- An­
other provision focuses on forgiving up to 
$5,000 in student loans for new teachers who 
agree to teach in schools in low-income com­
munities for five years. The HEA also provides 
for some experimentation with distance learn­
ing programs.

A new Technological Innovation and Co­
operation Program to replace the old Section 
607, Foreign Periodicals Program, is one of

Lynne E. Bradley is d e puty executive d ire c to r o f ALA's 
Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org

several recommendations from the Coalition 
for International Education (CIE) (o f which 
ALA is a member) included in HEA Title VI. 
The interest of ACRL members helped main­
tain this section. Special appreciation is due 
Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey) and his 
staff, who shepherd the Section 606 language 
through the legislative maze.

According to CIE, this will “stimulate Title 
VI grant recipients, libraries and other institu­
tions of higher education to engage in collabo­
rative projects utilizing innovative applications 
of information technology, thereby expanding 
Title V i’s reach and effectiveness. Projects 
would collect, preserve and provide broad ac­
cess to critically needed and expensive resource 
and instructional materials on world regions 
and foreign languages.”

Libraries are also referenced under a sec­
tion on “planning for the development and ex­
pansion of programs in undergraduate inter­
national studies and foreign languages in sup­
port o f teaching, research, curriculum devel­
opment, faculty training in the United States 
or abroad, and other related activities.”

One phrase in Section 602 on National Re­
source Centers for international education relates 
to “…  Grants to Maintain Library Collections 
. . .  as determined by the Secretary.” It pro­
vides that the Secretary (of Education) may de­
termine what international education centers have 
important library collections that might receive 
some funding through this program.

Meanwhile, colleges and universities will 
be allowed to release student information on 
any student who has admitted to or been found 
guilty of committing a violent crime or a non­
violent sexual offense. Institutions will also be 
allowed to report to parents if students under 
21 have violated laws relating to use or posses­
sion of alcohol and drugs.

Watch for notices from the U.S. Depart­
ment of Education in the Congressional Record 
and elsewhere about implementation issues and 
proceedings regarding the above programs. The 
next battle on the HEA will be to make sure 
that all authorized funding for each title o f 
the HEA is fully appropriated in the next Con­
gress. ■

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C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 1998 / 787