Curtis Cosponsors Bill to Broaden Graduation Rate Reporting at Community Colleges
Why It Matters
Federal reporting rules currently leave millions of community college students out of official graduation statistics, skewing the data that families, policymakers, and institutions rely on to evaluate higher education quality. Utah Senator John Curtis has joined legislation aimed at closing that gap — a change with direct implications for workforce development funding, institutional accountability, and student decision-making across the country.
What Happened
Senator John Curtis (R-UT) has cosponsored the Time for Completion Act, a Senate bill that would require colleges and universities to include non-first-time and part-time students in their federally reported graduation and completion rates. The legislation was introduced by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and is also cosponsored by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Ted Budd (R-NC).
Under the current Higher Education Act, institutions receiving federal student aid must report graduation rates only for full-time, first-time undergraduates who both begin and complete their degrees at the same school. That standard effectively excludes transfer students, returning adults, and those enrolled part-time — a population that makes up a substantial share of community college enrollment nationwide.
The proposed legislation would amend the Higher Education Act to expand those disclosure requirements, directing institutions to track and report completion rates for half-time and non-first-time certificate- or degree-seeking undergraduates. The result, supporters say, would be a more accurate measure of how well community colleges are serving their actual student populations.
In Their Own Words
Curtis framed the bill as a matter of fairness to students who balance competing obligations. “Many of Utah’s community and technical college students’ success frequently isn’t counted in current graduation metrics,” he said, adding that the bill would give students and families “the tools they need to make good decisions.”
Barrasso, the bill’s lead sponsor, pointed to the disconnect between current metrics and the reality of community college enrollment. “Current reporting requirements do not reflect the unique background of community college students,” he said.
Senator Lummis called the existing exclusion a disservice to both institutions and working students. “Far too often the workers earning degrees and certificates while holding down jobs or raising families go uncounted,” she said, describing the legislation as “a long overdue fix in federal reporting.”
By the Numbers
- 4 senators are backing the bill at introduction: Barrasso, Curtis, Lummis, and Budd.
- Current law ties graduation rate reporting requirements to full-time, first-time students only — a standard that excludes millions of nontraditional learners.
- Reported graduation rates inform state performance-based funding and are mandatory disclosures for institutions that receive federal student aid.
- Wyoming alone has eight community colleges whose student outcomes Barrasso says are being undercounted under the current framework.
Zoom Out
The push for more comprehensive higher education metrics reflects a broader national conversation about how federal accountability systems measure nontraditional learners. Community colleges have increasingly become the entry point for workforce training, particularly as states invest in credentialing programs tied to in-demand industries. Utah’s Board of Higher Education has already launched an AI workforce credentialing initiative, signaling the state’s emphasis on practical, outcomes-based education — the kind of programming often obscured by conventional graduation rate metrics.
Nationally, community colleges enroll a disproportionate share of adult learners, veterans, and students from lower-income backgrounds, many of whom attend part-time while working. If the Time for Completion Act advances, it could reshape how institutions benchmark their performance and how prospective students compare schools when searching for value.
What’s Next
The bill has been introduced in the Senate and would need to advance through the relevant committee before reaching a floor vote. Any changes to Higher Education Act reporting requirements would ultimately affect institutions receiving federal student aid across all 50 states. No companion House legislation was announced alongside the Senate introduction.