What Would Repealing the Federal 'State Authorization' Regulation Accomplish

June 20, 2011

Last week, Cyd Grua, from the Utah System of Higher Education asked me:

OK, Russ, I am going to ask what is probably a really dumb question:  with or without Department of Education involvement, we all now know the states and territories have 50+ sets of criteria for doing business in a state.  And the state regulators, often an agency other than education, knows we know.  Even if DOE backs off further, do we not have an obligation to contact states and territories if we serve students within their borders?  Cyd

Cyd was responding to an announcement that I had sent to WCET members about federal legislation to repeal the ‘state authorization’ and ‘credit hour’ regulations.  Before I answer her question, here’s some quick background on the legislation and what might happen to the legislation as it moves forward. […]