By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed
Education Department finally issues rule on state approval of online programs, but with opposition in Congress, it may never go into effect. The U.S. Department of Education, with a month to go until the transition of power, has finalized a rule that clarifies how colleges become authorized to offer online programs to students in other states — an effort in the works since the first years of the Obama administration. But the rule is by all indications dead on arrival. President-elect Trump has support for undoing Obama’s regulatory legacy in Congress. Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said in an interview with Inside Higher Ed last month that her party is looking to “deal with” certain “onerous rules and regulations” as part of how it approaches higher education. Foxx, the incoming chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, specifically mentioned the state authorization rule as one example. She has over the last several years introduced bills that would block or repeal that and other rules issued by the Education Department.
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