Results for America Praises Introduction of Bipartisan FINISH Act

WASHINGTON, DC – Results for America (RFA) issued the following statement on the introduction of the Fund for Innovation and Success in Higher Education (FINISH) Act (S. 1059), bipartisan legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-IN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Tim Scott (R-SC), which includes several provisions aimed at using evidence and innovation to improve student access to higher education and better outcomes once they arrive:

“We commend Senators Young, Bennet, and Scott for introducing bipartisan legislation that would leverage the power of evidence and data to improve outcomes in higher education,” CEO and Co-Founder Michele Jolin said. “The FINISH Act would jumpstart innovation in higher education, provide much-needed resources to evaluate what works, and support efforts to test and scale solutions that help more students succeed.”

Results for America also released a letter today signed by more than 120 universities, higher education leaders, former government officials, and leading education nonprofits endorsing the bill.

More specifically, the legislation would:

• create a tiered-evidence innovation fund that would test, replicate, and scale up successful approaches to improving access to and completion in higher education, including partnerships among states, nonprofits, K-12 institutions, and institutions of higher education;

• authorize five Pay for Success pilot initiatives that would invest federal funds in proven solutions once they demonstrate results;

• encourage institutions of higher education to create open educational resources – materials for teaching or learning that are in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others; and

• authorize the U.S. Department of Education and Institute of Education Sciences to invest up to 1 percent of federal higher education funds in evaluations to continuously improve their impact and results.

Results for America was proud to work with Senators Young, Bennet, and Scott on their bill, along with Knowledge Alliance, New America and America Forward. Several of the provisions in the Fund for Innovation and Success in Higher Education (FINISH) Act were recommended in RFA’s Moneyball for Higher Education released in January 2018.  

About Results for America

Results for America is helping decision-makers at all levels of government harness the power of evidence and data to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Our mission is to make investing in what works the “new normal,” so that when policymakers make decisions, they start by seeking the best evidence and data available, then use what they find to get better results.

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