After a brief hiatus, here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.
More Ways to Pay – A trove of data released by the Education Department on Monday shows a continuing trend of people enrolling in the government’s generous student loan repayment plans as well as people struggling to pay their debt. Americans have a wealth of options for repaying their student loans, because of the Obama administration’s expansion of programs that cap monthly payments to a percentage of earnings, known as income-based repayment plans. Few people initially knew of the plans, but direct outreach and marketing campaigns have quadrupled enrollment in the past four years. Read more at The Washington Post.
Not That Important – A college’s ranking is the least important of 16 factors for evaluating the success of a college president, according to presidents themselves. Just 3% of U.S. college presidents say university ranking scores are an “extremely important” factor. Read what is important at Gallup.
Power to the People – The National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that graduate students at private universities have the right to form unions and bargain collectively. The decision doesn’t affect grad students at public universities. Those grad students are public employees of their states (and therefore governed by state laws about public sector unions). This is the third time in 16 years the NLRB has ruled on this question: It ruled in favor of graduate students in 2000 (with board members appointed by Bill Clinton), then against them in 2004 (after board appointments from George W. Bush). Read more at The Wall Street Journal and NPR.
Judicial Activism – Disagreement over the legality of the 2011 guidance that spurred the U.S. Education Department’s toughened enforcement of campus sexual assault has been building in recent months, with many college officials, Republican members of Congress and others questioning the legitimacy of the federal guidelines and dozens of legal and advocacy groups defending the guidance. Now a federal judge has weighed in — sort of — with a ruling that several legal experts say could have significant implications for the Obama administration’s attempts to regulate education issues, including sexual violence. Read more in Inside Higher Education.
MINE, Not Yours – As a new school year gets underway, the Common Core remains a partisan flashpoint, while Americans overall have serious concerns about the direction of our public education system, but Americans seem to like their schools…just not your schools. Read more at NPR.
Flip the Script – Odds are that very soon, the Supreme Court will become something it hasn’t been in nearly 50 years: made up of a majority of Democratic-appointed justices. Ever since Abe Fortas’s resignation in 1969, the Court has either been split down the middle or, more often, made up primarily of Republican appointees. Some of those Republican appointees nonetheless turned out to be liberals, but even taking that into account, the Court hasn’t been majority liberal since 1971, when William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell joined. Now, with the empty seat left by Judge Scalia and the high likelihood of Clinton winning, that could very well change. Read more in Vox.
1,000 Year Flood – Louisiana is entering recovery mode after devastating flooding killed 13 people and damaged at least 60,000 homes across 20 parishes and disaster recovery is expected to cost over $30 million. Read more in NPR.
Retake the Citadel – Democrats are currently on track to retake the Senate, according to the latest polls —though they don’t have much room for error. If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, her party would need a net gain of four seats to take over control of the chamber. And just a few months ago, the party had a clear advantage in polls of just two contests. But the combination of Donald Trump’s nomination and a strong recruitment effort has bolstered Democrats’ chances. Read more in Vox.
Nah, Man – The Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience published a study from the University of British Columbia (of course) on the effects of marijuana on a rat’s willingness to exert cognitive effort. Rats that only ingested CBD, the non-psychoactive compound of marijuana known for its medicinal benefits, were just as alert and functioning as ever. But those lab rats that took bong rips of THC, marijuana’s main active ingredient, had no interest in doing their tasks and just wanted to watch cartoons all day. Read more in The Guardian.
Debbie Downers – Those dang millennials. They’re having less sex, saving more money, not buying homes and now they’re refusing to take vacation. Increased work pressures and a 24/7 always-on attitude have caused many Americans to increasingly abandon their vacation days. It’s estimated that 55% of working Americans didn’t use all of their vacation days in 2015, leaving behind 658 million days of unused PTO. Read more in Travel + Leisure.
Post Olympic Slump – Despite widespread fears that the Rio would be unprepared, or that crime and disorganization might turn the Olympics into a national embarrassment, many Brazilians came to view the Games as a triumph and a much-needed distraction from the country’s economic malaise and political upheaval. Read more in The New York Times.
100th Anniversary – The National Park Service is celebrating its centennial this week. On August 26, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act putting 35 parks and monuments nationwide —including Yellowstone and Yosemite — under the new federal agency. According to the Park Service, it faces a maintenance backlog of $12 billion and half of that is to repair and upgrade park roads. Read more in Marketplace.
2020 – The Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals will be made from old mobile phones. Read more in Quartz.
Gimme A Reason – Five types of web searches where you should use a search engine other than Google (aka, math). Read more in Gizmodo.