\n<\/p>\n
The bill would not forgive any student debt held by the school.<\/p>\n
If it becomes law, Lim said it would impact Georgia\u2019s public colleges, including two- and four-year schools, and potentially some private colleges that could be subject to such regulation.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, schools could still charge students for providing a transcript, but they couldn\u2019t charge a higher fee because the requester owes money.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the University System of Georgia, which includes 26 public colleges, said it does not comment on pending legislation.<\/p>\n
Nationally, some college leaders and groups <\/a>have defended<\/a> transcript withholding as a way to keep students accountable for debt. The Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organizations<\/a> has called it \u201ca key tool in the process by which colleges and universities communicate with students about owed balances.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past few years, just over a half-dozen states have passed related laws targeting transcript withholding. The movement represents a paradigm shift as policymakers and colleges begin to rethink what has been a common but ineffective tool for debt collection, said Winston Berkman-Breen, deputy director of advocacy and policy counsel for the nonprofit Student Borrower Protection Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no intrinsic value to the transcript to the school. It\u2019s only a tactic to inflict pain,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s only a penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n The debt a student owes directly to their school is different than federal loans students<\/a> may take out. This so-called institutional debt can vary in amount from as little as $25 for a library fine or a surprise graduation fee to larger amounts due to withdrawing midsemester, he said.<\/p>\n Some of the recently passed state laws have a wider focus than the Georgia proposal. The most flexible, such as a California law signed in 2019, generally ban colleges from withholding transcripts for any reason. Other states require transcripts to be released for circumstances beyond employment purposes, such as when a student is trying to transfer to another college.<\/p>\n