Power Struggle on Online Oversight

Initiative to simplify how colleges become authorized to offer online education outside their home state once again runs into opposition from advocacy groups, this time in New York.

Critics of for-profit colleges say an effort to streamline online education regulations will make it easier for bad actors to take advantage of students and harder for states to crack down on them.

SARA, short for the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement, was designed to ease the regulatory burden on colleges that wish to offer online programs in states other than the one in which they are physically located. Before SARA, colleges had to apply in each individual state, a lengthy process that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and even discourage some institutions from enrolling students in certain states.

As states join SARA, they agree to a common regulatory framework. Colleges then apply to join SARA, paying no more than $6,000 a year to be approved to offer online education in every member state.

The initiative has quickly proved popular. SARA signed up its first state, Indiana, in February 2014. By the end of the year, 17 more states had joined. Today, the initiative has 36 members, and most of the remaining states (as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) are making progress toward joining.

But in New York, a coalition of advocacy groups is mounting a campaign against SARA. In a letter to the state’s education commissioner, the 34 groups said joining SARA would weaken the state’s ability to take on “predatory online education companies based in other states.”

As more states join SARA, the letter continues, those predatory providers will “set up shop in the states with the lowest regulatory standards while broadcasting nationwide.” The groups further urge the commissioner to withhold her signature. 

The news was first reported by The New York Times. (Click Here)

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav

Senior Librarian

Khaitan & Co

Upcoming Event | National Conference on Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence (NCFL 2016) during April 22-23, 2016.

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