U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chairperson of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Committee, on March 2, 2023 sent a letter to health care providers and other interested parties requesting information on the root causes of the current health care workforce shortage and potential ways to address it. The plan is to use what is derived from this invitational effort to identify bipartisan solutions that can be included in future legislation. Under new leadership in the 1st Session of the 118th Congress, the HELP Committee on February 16, 2023 conducted a hearing entitled, “Examining Health Care Workforce Shortages: Where Do We Go From Here?
Detailed workforce data can be derived for health professions, such as medicine, but that capability does not exist across the health professions. Although it is possible to generate information from professional organizations that collect membership data and political agencies that compile licensing data, uniformity often is lacking, which means that many gaps remain to be filled in constructing a comprehensive profile of health workforce shortages in the U.S. Written responses to the letter from the two senators should be sent to HealthWorkforceComments@help.senate.gov by March 20, 2023.
American College President Study
The American Council on Education’s (ACE’s) American College President Study (ACPS) has long served the higher education community as the most comprehensive, in-depth, and frequently cited source of information about the college presidency and pathways to higher education leadership. The last ACPS report was released in 2017. The recent survey of more than 1,000 presidents captures demographics; search and selection processes; career trajectories; and duties and responsibilities—with profiles of women presidents and presidents of color. New data this year will be revealed on the average age of aspiration, application, and appointment for college presidents by race, ethnicity, and gender, among other data points. Programming at the ACE annual meeting will include the unveiling of the report at a session called, “The American College President in 2023 and Beyond.”
The Supreme Court And The Administration’s Student Debt Relief Plan
The fate of President Biden’s proposed student debt relief program is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. An amicus brief signed by 128 House Republicans requests the Court to invalidate the program. Their argument is based on opposing an assertion of power to forgive every federal student loan in the country, potentially even a decade after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, which raises significant separation of powers concerns. House members contend that the power of the purse is one of Congress’s most potent checks against the executive branch, yet Petitioners’ overly broad reading of the HEROES Act risks encroaching on that power, as well as on Congress’s Article I legislative authority, by arrogating to the Secretary of Education the authority to forgive a trillion dollars in federal debt that otherwise would be owed to the Treasury. The brief states that the Court should require clear statutory authority before adopting an interpretation that risks significant conflict between the legislative and executive branches.
Resources On Equal Athletic Opportunities Under Title IX
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on February 17, 2023 released three new resources to support equal opportunity in athletic programs consistent with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The documents are designed to help students, parents, coaches, athletic directors, and school officials evaluate whether a school is meeting its legal duty to provide equal athletic opportunity regardless of sex. The overview resource provides examples of the kinds of situations that could, depending upon facts and circumstances, raise Title IX concerns at any education level. The two specialized resources – one for K-12 schools and one for colleges and universities – offer information specific to these school communities. The resource for colleges and universities can be obtained here.