U.S. Senator Chris Murphy says the College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015 will provide more accountability for all colleges across the United States.
The proposal would monitor spending and federal aid in relation to the success of students once they graduate from an institution.
"If you have students that can’t pay back their loans at 30 to 40 percent of their graduates, then you should have some penalties applied," said Murphy.
Murphy said the measure would create a list of institutions that aren't living up to the promise of a degree that leads to a job and in turn the student being able to pay back loan debt.
"If they don’t get better then they’ll get a little bit of their federal aid docked. That will get their attention," he said.
Murphy said his bill is mainly targeted at "for-profit" colleges. Institutions like Corinthian and the University of Phoenix are governed by federal law that does require graduates to earn a certain salary in relation to their debt.
Murphy wants to see a more strict bill with more accountability.
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"A lot of these colleges that have popped up are really defrauding students and kids are graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans and degrees that are worthless," he said.
An issue that has hit Connecticut in recent weeks is the fact that UConn, the state's flagship institution, doesn't accept about 20 percent of all state community college credits.
In a statement, a UConn spokesman said the university goes to great lengths to tell students which classes will get credit and which don't. UConn says the responsibility is on community college advisers to explain to students which credits transfer.
Murphy and state senators in Connecticut said that has to change.
"It’s a real problem when the average transfer from a state community college to the University of Connecticut is losing one semester worth of work because their credits are being rejected and that shouldn’t happen and Connecticut should fix that," said Murphy.
Higher Education Committee Chair Sen. Dante Bartolomeo said she's working with the Board of Regents to streamline the process for credit transfers and even said the system will develop particular courseloads for students.
"We’re working on getting these pathways for these community college students if they select a pathway, 100 percent of those credits will transfer from their two years at the community college to their university," Bartolomeo said.
