Greensburg, PA – Seton Hill University will host a roundtable discussion between Congressman Tim Murphy (R-PA, 18th District), Congressman John Boehner (R-OH), Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and The Workforce, and several local college and university representatives on the Higher Education Act Re-Authorization Bill. The roundtable will take place on Friday, August 1 and will conclude with a 3 p.m. press conference. The press conference will take place outside the 2nd Floor Parlors in Seton Hill’s Administration Building and is open to the public.

Background: The funding authorizations for programs in the Higher Education Act (HEA) will expire during the 108th Congress (current authorizations are provided through FY03 with an automatic 1-year extension for FY04 under the General Education Provisions Act). This legislation, whose programs are administered by the U. S. Department of Education (USED), authorizes the federal government's major student aid programs, as well as other significant programs such as those providing aid to special groups of higher education institutions and support services to enable disadvantaged students to complete secondary school and enter and complete college. Although important support from outside of the HEA flows to post-secondary education institutions through multiple federal agencies for activities such as research and development, the federal presence in post-secondary education is shaped to a significant degree by the HEA. The HEA was last re-authorized by the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (P.L.105-244).

Re-authorization: Congress will need to consider a wide variety of issues in the HEA. Among these are the following: effectiveness of the HEA programs in increasing post-secondary access; factors influencing college prices and the appropriate federal role, if any, in addressing price increases; impact of the growth in federal tax benefits for post-secondary expenses on HEA student aid programs; measures that might be used to hold participating institutions accountable for educational outcomes and impact of the growth in post-secondary distance education.

The public and all members of the media are encouraged to attend the press conference. For more information, please contact Molly Robb Shimko, Director of Development and Media Relations, at 724-830-4620. For more information on Seton Hill (including a campus map) please visit www.setonhill.edu.