SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Developing a More Strategic Approach to Federal Student Financial Aid for Higher Education (OUS Federal Student Financial Aid Study, Phase 1)
- Notice Date
- 1/5/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541618
— Other Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Education, Contracts & Acquisitions Management, Contracts (All ED Components), 550 12th Street, SW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC, 20202, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 01122007LSD
- Response Due
- 1/12/2007
- Archive Date
- 1/27/2007
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation is issued as a Request for Quote. This is a total small business set aside. The NAICS code is 541618. Small business size: 6.5 million. All responsive offerors must be registered in CCR. Please include confirmation of your registration with your quote. INTERESTED OFFERORS MAY CONTACT LAKAIHA DAVIS TO RECEIVE A HARD COPY OF THE STATEMENT OF WORK AND THE INSTRUCTIONS & EVALUATION CRITERIA. The Department of Education (ED) seeks an independent, expert, and expedited process for developing a vision for an entirely new federal student financial aid system. ED seeks a contractor that can provide two expert management consultants to serve as facilitators of this expedited process. A new federal student aid system should achieve the policy objectives described in the Statement of Work and address at a minimum the following key issues: 1) Complexity and confusion among users, leading to underutilization and yielding little data to understand their impact on access and retention; 2) Countervailing incentives and disincentives for buyers of higher education, and 3) Overlapping and redundant programs. The contractor shall deliver this vision through facilitation of two simultaneous workshops comprised of no more than 15 experts per workshop. These workshops shall be held over a two-day period on or before February 16, 2007 in Washington, D.C. Experts will be identified and invited by ED. ED will manage all logistical aspects of the workshops, including site identification and material preparation. The contractor shall facilitate the experts' review of existing student aid programs, eligibility criteria, benefits incentives, and application and verification processes. The U.S. Department of Education anticipates the award of a firm fixed price purchase order. The U.S. Department of Education hereby solicits responses from eligible offerors (maximum length of 10 double-spaced pages total, excluding resumes, font size no smaller than 12-point). Resumes of key personnel should be attached. Resumes shall be limited to five pages each. Interested offerors must submit a quote electronically. The quote should address the following: The qualifications, knowledge, and experience of the two management consultants, and the company as a whole with specific reference to: 1) Designing and implementing large-scale corporate and public sector business process solutions; 2) Knowledge and experience in planning and facilitating small workshops of experts for the purpose of redesigning a business process to align with policy objectives and customer needs; 3) Adhering to project schedules; and 4) Dealing effectively with agencies and offices on sensitive policy issues. The U.S. Department of Education will base the source selection decision for this procurement, on qualifications, knowledge, and expertise demonstrated in the areas identified above. A purchase order will be issued to the offeror that best demonstrates the capabilities in the areas identified above. ED will make an award to the offeror whose offer conforms to the RFQ, has no deficiencies (as defined in FAR 15.301) and is most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors considered. For this RFQ, price will be a substantial factor in source selection, however quality factors (including technical merit) are significantly more important than cost or price. The Contracting Officer will determine whether the difference in quality is worth the difference in cost or price. The due date for quotes is Friday, January 12, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. local time. Quotes shall be submitted electronically to lakaiha.davis@ed.gov. The following FAR provisions apply to this solicitation: FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial Items FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders The following FAR provisions do not apply to this solicitation: FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation - Commercial Items This RFQ is being issued subject to the availability of funds see FAR 52.232-18. All responsible sources may submit a quote that, if timely received, shall be considered by the agency. Contact person: Lakaiha Davis at 202-245-6171; email: lakaiha.davis@ed.gov. Quotes shall be emailed to Lakaiha Davis. Proposals must be received by January 12, 2007 at 2:00 pm local time. Length of contract: The anticipated period of performance is 45 days. STATEMENT OF WORK Developing a More Strategic Approach to Federal Student Financial Aid for Higher Education Background: Federal student financial aid falls generally into three categories: grants, loans, and tax benefits. Statutes and regulations have created more than twenty federal student aid programs that do not harmonize to meet a comprehensive national policy goal. The Spellings Commission on the Future of Education describes the current system in its final report, "A Test of Leadership": "We found that that our financial aid system is confusing, complex, inefficient, duplicative, and frequently does not direct aid to students who truly need it. We propose replacing the current maze of financial aid programs, rules, and regulations with a system more in line with student needs and national priorities. That effort would require a significant increase in need-based financial aid and a complete restructuring of the current federal financial aid system. Our recommendations call for consolidating programs, streamlining processes, and replacing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) with a much shorter and simpler application." For reference, please see the attached Issue Paper written for the Commission on the Future of Higher Education at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports/burgdorf-kostka.pdf. Goal and Scope of the Effort: 1. Overall goal - Create a vision for federal student financial aid that is aligned with strategic access and retention goals, develop the associated design, and perform a cost/benefit analysis for the implementation plan. 2. Scope of effort - A two-stage review of the federal student aid system with recommendations for the optimal design and implementation of a system that achieves the following policy objectives: 1) increased enrollment in college by those students who would not have been able to attend; 2) increased retention and graduation by students who might not have been to complete college due to cost, and 3) decreased debt burden. Outcomes Desired from a Two-Stage Approach: 1. Phase 1: Vision Facilitation & Creation -The Department of Education (ED) seeks an independent, expert, and expedited process for developing a vision for an entirely new federal student financial aid system. ED seeks a contractor that can provide two expert management consultants to serve as facilitators of this expedited process. A new federal student aid system should achieve the policy objectives described above and address (at least) the following key issues: A) Complexity and confusion among users, leading to underutilization and yielding little data to understand their impact on access and retention; B) Countervailing incentives and disincentives for buyers of higher education, and C) Overlapping and redundant programs. The contractor shall deliver this vision through facilitation of two simultaneous workshops comprised of no more than 15 experts per workshop. These workshops shall be held over a two-day period on or before February 16, 2007 in Washington, D.C. Experts will be identified and invited by ED. ED will manage all logistical aspects of the workshops, including site identification and material preparation. The contractor shall facilitate the experts' review of existing student aid programs, eligibility criteria, benefits incentives, and application and verification processes. The contractor shall plan workshops that will yield options for federal student financial aid that will more effectively: * Focus Federal resources to students with greatest need; * Make the student aid programs more understandable and predictable for students and families; * Address real and perceived concerns about the financial burden on students and families of college; *Refocus Federal, state, and institutional partnerships in support of the policy objectives; * Minimize or eliminate the relationship between Federal subsidies, tuition and institutional cost increases; * Minimize the extent to which Federal laws and rules encourage a substitution of state and institutional expenditures for higher education; * Reduce the expensive, burdensome and intrusive role of higher education institutions in validating family income data for aid eligibility; * Reduce the potential for identity theft among aid applicants; and * Make the programs easier to administer and more accountable to the taxpayer. The contractor shall submit a workshop-planning memo to the Department of Education within 10 business days after purchase order is issued for this phase. The contractor shall participate in a debriefing with ED leadership and staff by February 28, 2007. During this debriefing, the contractor shall provide expert opinion on: * Comprehensive policy goals toward which current and future programs could be aligned to increase access and retention * Guiding principles for current and future programs that can serve to both guide changes to existing programs and to assess whether proposals for new programs or changes to existing programs or policies would be effective. * A high-level assessment of how the current 17 programs align to the policy goals and guiding principles to both validate the goals and guiding principles, and to identify specific improvement items for more focused attention. * Critical design elements for a comprehensive solution to federal student financial aid programs that add sufficient clarity to the guiding principles that will accelerate the overall solution design. The contractor is only expected to plan and facilitate the workshops, and participate in a debriefing with ED leadership and staff. ED will be responsible for transcribing the workshops and preparing written documentation of recommendations. Existing data, research and program assessments will be used rather than the collection or analysis of new data, research or assessments. 2. Phase 2: Solution Design and Implementation Planning - Using the Vision created by Phase 1, the second phase will focus on solution design feasibility testing along with the development of implementation plans, the cost/benefit analysis and the required detail to make specific changes to existing policies, programs, technology and any other requirements to implement the vision. A) Solution Feasibility Testing - Identify, assess and recommend the specific changes to the existing 17 programs required to achieve the overall comprehensive policy goals, in line with the guiding principles and addressing the key design elements set forth in the first phase of this effort. B) Implementation Planning - Identify, assess and recommend the activities, work efforts and projects required to implement the solutions developed above. C) Cost/Benefit Analysis For Phase 2, the Department of Education will issue a separate Request for Proposals no later than March 2007. INSTRUCTION TO OFFERORS & EVALUATION CRITERIA OUS Federal Student Financial Aid Study, Phase 1 The U.S. Department of Education anticipates the award of a firm fixed price purchase order. The anticipated period of performance is 45 days. In response to this Request for Quote, the U.S. Department of Education hereby solicits responses from eligible offerors (maximum length of 10 double-spaced pages total, excluding resumes, font size no smaller than 12-point). Resumes of key personnel should be attached. Resumes shall be limited to five pages each. Interested offerors must submit a quote electronically. The quote should address the following: The qualifications, knowledge, and experience of the two (2) management consultants, and the company as a whole with specific reference to: 1. Designing and implementing large-scale corporate and public sector business process solutions; 2. Knowledge and experience in planning and facilitating small workshops of experts for the purpose of redesigning a business process to align with policy objectives and customer needs; 3. Adhering to project schedules; and 4. Dealing effectively with agencies and offices on sensitive policy issues. The quote shall be evaluated on the basis of the qualifications, knowledge, and expertise demonstrated in the areas identified above. A purchase order will be issued to the offeror that best demonstrates the capabilities in the areas identified above. ED will make an award to the offeror whose offer conforms to the RFQ, has no deficiencies (as defined in FAR 15.301) and is most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors considered. For this RFQ, price will be a substantial factor in source selection, however quality factors (including technical merit) are significantly more important than cost or price. The Contracting Officer will determine whether the difference in quality is worth the difference in cost or price. This RFQ is hereby set aside exclusively for small businesses. This RFQ is being issued subject to the availability of funds see FAR 52.232-18.
- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202, USA
- Zip Code: 20202
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Record
- SN01205803-W 20070107/070105220431 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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