Seventeen states filed a complaint against the Department of Education, Secretary Linda McMahon, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and its director, Russ Vought, today over the rushed implementation of the Admission and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) survey component as part of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The lawsuit lays out in clear language the numerous ways the implementation of ACTS likely violated the law and has placed a large administrative burden on up to 2,000 colleges and universities. It calls on the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts to halt the ACTS survey (see below). Time is of the essence, since the survey deadline is March 18, although institutions can request an extention to April 8. The case has been assigned to a judge appointed by George W Bush. He recently popped up in the news in another suit against federal overreach.
For those of you who have been reading my posts about ACTS, this suit won’t come as a surprise. Or rather, it may come as a pleasant surprise but it won’t be a shock.
The size of the burden ACTS would put on colleges and universities was obvious from day one as were the serious technical issues that were produced by the Department of Education’s lethal lack of expertise and failure to consult stakeholders in the process of creating the survey. The legal problems were also clear. Many of the ones I cited–and more–show up in the states’ complaint.
I had hoped that some institutions would file a suit to block the survey from even being distributed. I wish that the states had filed this suit before ACTS consumed so much time at so many instituions, but better late than never.
I still hope we get an ACTS survey–and that it will include legacy admissions–that is trustworthy, so I would love the court stay the collection this year and take it up again in Spring 2027 with several improvements.
Leave a Reply