Cassidy gears up to fight Biden’s student debt relief

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CASSIDY, NEW SENATE GOP EDUCATION CHIEF, TACKLES BIDEN’S STUDENT DEBT RELIEF: Republicans are charting a new path to take on President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan even as it remains in limbo at the Supreme Court.

A decision on Friday by the Government Accountability Office that Biden’s debt relief program is subject to the congressional review opens a new procedural tool for GOP lawmakers to try to block the measure — even if it has little chance of overcoming a presidential veto.

Leading the effort is Sen. Bill Cassidy, who took over the top GOP spot on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this year. Cassidy, along with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), plans to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the student debt relief program.

Cassidy said that Biden’s approach to student debt was “incredibly irresponsible.” He said the more than $400 billion relief plan, which offers up to $20,000 of loan forgiveness per borrower, was unfair to Americans who never attended college or already paid off their loans.

The Louisiana Republican sat down with POLITICO last week to talk about student loans and his other priorities as ranking member of the HELP committee this Congress:

—Cassidy suggested that Biden’s student debt relief policies should be part of discussions surrounding lifting the debt ceiling. But he didn’t go as far as the House Freedom Caucus, which earlier this month said that rescinding debt relief should be one several conditions for raising the debt ceiling.

“Biden is accelerating the exhaustion of our borrowing capacity by pausing student loans,” Cassidy said. “I think it’s $5 billion a month. He wants to add $420 billion with the debt forgiveness. It’s a total mess. He doesn’t want any preconditions on raising the debt ceiling, and he’s driving the exhaustion of our ability to borrow.”

—On higher education, Cassidy said that passing the College Transparency Act is a top priority. The bipartisan bill, which has been introduced for the past several years, would allow the Education Department to track student outcomes, such as completion rates and earnings, across higher education.

“Universities present financial aid information in a way — which is frankly deceiving — and kids end up with massive amounts of debt with no kind of reasonable expectation of return on investment relative to the amount of money that they have borrowed,” he said. “The institution ends up, of course, with the cash that comes from the child going deeply in debt with no consequence to the school. We need to empower those students and those families to enable them to make better decisions.”

—Cassidy’s GOP counterpart in the House, Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the education committee, has long been opposed to the bill over concerns about privacy. The bill would overturn a 2008 ban on federal data collection that Foxx wrote.

Cassidy had conversations with Foxx about finding a path forward on the College Transparency Act last year, he said, but those talks haven’t yet resumed this year. “Everything you do is kind of a negotiation, and you hope to get something into a shape that they can accept it — or at least accept it as part of a bigger package,” he said. “So it’s just one of those things that we will work at.”

—On K-12 education, Cassidy said that he’ll continue to push on school choice issues. He earlier this year introduced legislation — the Educational Choice for Children Act — that would create a federal tax credit to support scholarships for school choice, an idea that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pushed during the Trump administration.

“The money should follow the student,” he said. “We saw after the pandemic that the parochial schools were the ones that stepped up and provided education, but the folks who want the legislature and the bureaucrats to control what a child is taught don’t like that. They don’t like the idea that parochial schools may teach something different. Frankly, the parents prefer it. That’s why the parents send their child there.”

—Cassidy also said he’s pushing for more dyslexia screening in schools, a longtime personal priority. His wife, Laura Cassidy, is a co-founder and board chair of the Louisiana Key Academy school network for students with dyslexia.

“Twenty percent of the population is dyslexic, which means they learn to read differently. And if you teach them in a way which is appropriate for dyslexia, they learn to read. But if not, they may end up functionally illiterate,” Cassidy said. “Right now, most states have no screening for children’s dyslexia period. So it’s affecting 20 percent of the population, we got NAEP scores stuck in neutral, not budging. And if you’ve got $20,000 a year to pay tuition, you send your child to that private school to get them accommodated. But if you’re more of modest means, then you never do.”

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In Congress

HOUSE TEES UP VOTE ON ‘PARENTAL RIGHTS’ BILL: House Republicans are preparing to bring their signature K-12 education bill for a floor vote this week. The House is expected to begin consideration of the GOP “Parents Bill of Rights” legislation — H.R. 5 — on Thursday and take a final vote on Friday, according to a weekly schedule published by Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

— Republicans advanced the measure out of committee earlier this month after a marathon markup. The bill would change federal education privacy rules and require districts to publicly disclose budget and curriculum information. GOP lawmakers also added an amendment that would force schools to obtain parental consent before allowing a student to use a different name or pronouns on school forms or use a different bathroom or locker room.

—The House Rules Committee will first have to decide whether to allow floor votes on dozens of amendments that were submitted last week. House education committee Chair Virginia Foxx’s manager’s amendment is here.

ALSO HAPPENING ON THE HILL THIS WEEK: The House education committee’s higher education subcommittee, led by Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), will hold a hearing Thursday to scrutinize the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness policies. Witnesses have not yet been announced.

—The House appropriations panel overseeing education funding will host a “public witness day” on Thursday to solicit testimony from outside groups on various funding priorities.

—Also on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which said it plans to focus on the company’s data privacy practices and the platform’s impact on children.

DELAURO BLASTS GOP PROPOSALS TO SCALE BACK EDUCATION SPENDING: Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, this morning is releasing new information from the Biden administration on how federal agencies would respond to spending cuts that are being floated by Republican leaders.

— DeLauro earlier this year asked agency heads, including the Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, to detail the impact of capping discretionary spending for the 2024 fiscal year at fiscal 2022 levels, as some GOP lawmakers are proposing (Biden’s budget, by contrast, seeks a nearly 14 percent boost for education compared to the current 2023 fiscal year).

— “The draconian cuts would take away the opportunity for 80,000 people to attend college and impact all 6.6 million students who rely on Pell Grants,” DeLauro said in a statement. “If implemented, 200,000 children will lose access to Head Start, and 100,000 children will lose access to child care, undermining early education and parents’ ability to go to work.”

Teachers

PUBLIC PENSION FUNDS FACE LOSSES FROM SVB FALLOUT: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank stands to bruise a seldom-noticed group of investors: Government workers.

—POLITICO’s Juan Perez Jr. and Sam Sutton report that pension funds for teachers, firefighters and other public employees across the country collectively stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of publicly traded shares in the Northern California institution after a fast-moving bank run culminated in a government rescue for depositors.

—“There’s a contagion effect here, in that pension funds are invested across a very wide range of assets, across very wide range of industries, and we’re going to be exposed to financial fallout wherever it happens,” said Anthony Randazzo, executive director of the Equable Institute, a bipartisan nonprofit focused on retirement sustainability. “But the sticking point that people need to have a better sense of is that pension funds were not always this exposed to high degrees of market volatility.”

Higher Education

THE NEW RED SCARE FOR RED STATES? DIVERSITY PROGRAMS: Republican state lawmakers and governors are targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, Bianca Quilantan reports. Conservatives are equating college DEI initiatives with “wokeness” and Cold War-era “loyalty oaths.”

— In Florida, lawmakers are advancing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to prohibit public universities from funding diversity, equity and inclusion programs and requiring commitments to diversity in statements during hiring. The wide-ranging legislation would also eliminate majors or minors that touch on critical race theory and “radical” feminist or gender theories.

—GOP-controlled statehouses in Iowa, Missouri and elsewhere are also scrutinizing higher education diversity initiatives, and legislation has been introduced in at least a dozen states aimed at cutting DEI spending and rewriting hiring guidelines at colleges and universities.

Syllabus

— SoFi’s campaign to stop the federal student loan payment pause that’s helping its own customers: MarketWatch.

— With gun control far from sight, schools redesign for student safety: NPR.

— Schools sue social media companies over youth mental health crisis: The Washington Post.