Inside Higher Education reports on the debate about student privacy surrounding the College Transparency Act. This Act would allow the U.S. Department of Education to maintain a student-level record database, something it has been forbidden to do by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008.
From Inside Higher Education: "Lawmakers say the resulting database -- which would be publicly available online -- will help prospective students and their families better understand the return on investment for specific schools and programs... But other organizations representing higher education institutions haven’t endorsed the College Transparency Act, citing concerns about how the federal government would collect and access private student data."