HB 224 — An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in higher education accountability and transparency, further providing for comparison tool.

PRINTER'S NO.   177

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                         HOUSE BILL
                         No. 224
                                                Session of
                                                  2025

     INTRODUCED BY KUTZ, FLEMING, PICKETT, VENKAT, KENYATTA, HOWARD,
        ROWE, M. JONES, BOROWSKI, SANCHEZ, ECKER AND GREEN,
        JANUARY 22, 2025

     REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, JANUARY 22, 2025


                                     AN ACT
 1   Amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), entitled "An
 2      act relating to the public school system, including certain
 3      provisions applicable as well to private and parochial
 4      schools; amending, revising, consolidating and changing the
 5      laws relating thereto," in higher education accountability
 6      and transparency, further providing for comparison tool.
 7      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 8   hereby enacts as follows:
 9      Section 1.     Section 2003-H(a) and (d) of the act of March 10,
10   1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949,
11   are amended and subsection (b) is amended by adding a paragraph
12   to read:
13   Section 2003-H.    Comparison tool.
14      (a)     Duty of department.--[If the United States Department of
15   Education discontinues the publication of the College Navigator
16   website, the] The department shall make available on the
17   department's publicly accessible Internet website a search tool
18   that allows an individual to compare institutions of higher
19   education that meet certain criteria selected by the individual,
 1   including the offering of a particular major or program of
 2   study.
 3      (b)   Requirements.--The comparison tool required under this
 4   section must:
 5            * * *
 6            (4.1)   Allow a user to identify and compare high priority
 7      occupations in this Commonwealth. The information under this
 8      paragraph shall be searchable by county and include
 9      information on educational attainment, wages and employment
10      demand.
11            * * *
12      (d)   Duty of institutions.--[If the department is required to
13   develop the comparison tool under subsection (a), each] Each
14   institution of higher education shall provide the information
15   listed in this section, as available, to the department not
16   later than January 1 of each year. If the information required
17   under this subsection is available in an institution of higher
18   education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
19   report, the institution of higher education may comply with the
20   reporting requirements of this subsection by sending an
21   electronic copy of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data
22   System report to the department. The department shall update the
23   comparison tool as soon as practicable after receiving
24   information from each institution of higher education.
25      * * *
26      Section 2.    This act shall take effect in 60 days.




20250HB0224PN0177                    - 2 -