Continuing Confusion on State Authorization - Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed

The Education Department announced Friday that it would push back by a year the deadline for complying with a rule requiring states to authorize colleges within their borders, but did little to clarify a regulation that colleges and their representatives say is confusing and difficult to navigate. The new deadline is July 1, 2014. The department’s state authorization rule, first released in 2010 as part of the package of "program integrity" regulations, is best-known for a provision that would have required distance education programs to get permission to operate from every state in which they enroll students. That provision was overturned in court and is not being enforced. But the rule also had two other sections, which detail the processes each state must follow to authorize its colleges to operate. “We are pleased that the Education Department has delayed the regulation,” Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, wrote in an e-mail to Inside Higher Ed on Friday. “We understand their desire to have states play a more meaningful role but the reality is that not all states are anxious to do that.” http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/20/education-department-will-delay-enforcing-part-state-authorization-rule