Advancing Competency-Based Education Demonstration Project Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chairman, with the dramatic rise in the cost of obtaining a college degree which we have witnessed over the last decade, it has become even more important to focus on ways to remove Federal roadblocks which prevent efforts to make higher education less costly.

H.R. 3136, the Advancing Competency-Based Education Demonstration Project Act, represents one of the innovative steps promoted by the House Education and the Workforce Committee to ensure we actually measure what students are learning, not just the time they have spent sitting in a class.

My amendment builds on this approach and will allow participating entities in the demonstration projects to expand an approved project to a maximum of 5,000 students.

To ensure accountability and program quality, any entity wishing to expand a project must provide the Secretary a new proposed maximum number of students, a description of how the project will successfully carry out the expanded enrollment, and a description of any other amendments to the initial application related to the new enrollment number.

The small-scale expansion allowed by my amendment will help institutions develop techniques for increasing their competency-based education projects so more students can realize the benefits of a self-paced, lower-cost degree.

This approach will also help inform policymakers and the public of what projects are doing the best job at advancing this innovative education delivery model.

I want to thank Representative Salmon and Chairman Kline for their leadership on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and the underlying bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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