Academic leaders have serious problems with the Obama Administration’s new college rating system, mostly about the level of regulation.

One Republican is proposing new legislation, with an eye to “deregulation.”

The response to his proposal by the academics should be….fascinating.

Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday committed to finishing a rewrite of the Higher Education Act by the end of this year as he backed a plan written by colleges and universities to roll back federal requirements on higher education.

“We’ll get it done this year,” Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, told reporters.

He said he planned to hold a round of hearings in April, draft a version of the bill by summer, and then have a vote on the Senate floor after the August recess.

A key priority for Alexander in renewing the massive law that governs colleges and universities is reducing federal red tape in higher education that “should be an embarrassment to all of us in the federal government.”

Alexander said that he would use as a guide for cutting down on regulations a report prepared by 12 higher education leaders and the American Council on Education, an umbrella organization that represents colleges and universities in Washington.

The report, which was published last week, was commissioned by Alexander and Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, both Republicans, as well as Democratic Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

Mikulski said at a hearing Tuesday that the report’s recommendations were a “road map” for improving quality and innovation in higher education.

She said she wanted to make sure the federal student aid system “does lead to jobs — but not necessarily more jobs at the Department of Education” for people who write regulations.