June 3, 2015
The Honorable Ron Wyden
United States Senate
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Wyden,
Thank you for introducing the Students Right To Know Before You Go Act of 2015. This bill recognizes the
changing landscape of higher education, particularly the non-traditional path working adult students take in
pursuit of a postsecondary degree or other credential. Our strong hope is that your leadership will result in the
enactment of bipartisan legislation that makes publicly available necessary and complete facts for each college
and university, including graduation rates for non-traditional students, transfer rates, frequency of graduates
pursuing higher levels of education, debt levels and basic employment data.
Apollo Education Group and University of Phoenix are aligned with a broad, divergent group of stakeholders
that are calling on Congress to pass legislation to collect and use significantly better data to analyze the return
on investment of higher education for students and taxpayers.
As we wrote in a letter to all members of Congress on May 16, 2013, “Considering the significant federal
investment in programs and institutions, policymakers should demand better information about the
effectiveness of higher education.” This letter was signed by America's Promise Alliance, Business
Roundtable, CLASP, Complete College America, Data Quality Campaign, Institute for Higher Education Policy,
National College Access Network, National Skills Coalition, New America Foundation, U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, and Young Invincibles.
Efforts this year by Congress to reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965 present all stakeholders invested
in making college more affordable and accessible the opportunity to act on the fundamental issues addressed
in your legislation. Thank you for your leadership on this important issue.
Respectfully,
Greg Cappelli
Chief Executive Officer
Apollo Education Group
cc:
Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Senator Patty Murray, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions