Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Higher Education

GI Benefits Returned Because of Bad Actors?

Posted on

Last week, The Defense Department’s chief of voluntary education, Dawn Bilodeau, recently placed the chain of for-profit colleges on probation and said no new active duty service members can enroll under its tuition assistance program. The University of Phoenix is the most popular destination for Post-9/11 GI Bill college goers. This prohibition could be a hot topic today as an education advisory committee to the Veterans Affairs Department Secretary gathers for a two-day meeting starting today. Bilodeau sits on the advisory committee and the University of Phoenix has RSVP’d for the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Education Department has been working with the Defense and Justice departments on an ongoing investigation. University of Phoenix President Timothy Slottow recently wrote to hundreds of thousands of alumni and students to defend the schools’ track record.

The Defense Department’s action does not affect veterans using the GI Bill. And yet, some veterans advocacy groups say the VA should be more aggressive about cutting off GI Bill dollars when schools have deceived students.

It is possible that the meeting will address whether GI Bill recipients, who attended the now-defunct chain of Corinthian schools, should have their benefits reset, which would require congressional action.

Read more at Politico. 

University of Phoenix Being Investigated

Posted on

The Departments of Justice and Education announced they are are coordinating on on-going investigations of the University of Phoenix a day after the Pentagon barred the for-profit school giant from recruiting on military bases and placed it on probation for alleged recruiting violations.

The Department of Defense took the action after the University of Phoenix, among other things, used military “challenge coins” when recruiting troops. The commonly used and given coins—which are bigger than a silver dollar and often have unit insignia—are often given by those in the military to one another for a job well done or to commemorate an event. The University of Phoenix used trademarked seals and insignia on their coins without the consent of the military,  which appears to the crux of the issue. Phoenix has said it has since stopped using such coins.

In June, the Department of Education said it had established an interagency task force, led by Under Secretary Ted Mitchell, to help ensure proper accountability for and oversight of career colleges and for-profit institutions.

 

 

Arne Duncan to Step Down in December

Posted on

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will step down at the end of December. He was one the last remaining original cabinet appointees and will have served six years.

His family recently returned to Chicago, where Duncan ran public schools for several years before his appointment as Secretary of Education. During his tenure, Duncan repeatedly clashed with teachers unions, parents, and Congress through initiatives like Common Core and support of charter schools.

Former New York state commissioner John King, a deputy secretary at the agency for the last few months, will take his place.

NEH Turns 50

Posted on

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) turns fifty today and is kicking off a year long celebration. Fifty years ago, on September 29, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 at a White House Rose Garden ceremony.

The law created the National Endowment for the Humanities as an independent federal agency, the first grand public investment in American culture. It identified the need for a national cultural agency that would preserve America’s rich history and cultural heritage, and encourage and support scholarship and innovation in history, archeology, philosophy, literature, and other humanities disciplines.

In the five decades since, NEH has made more than 63,000 grants totaling $5.3 billion, including leveraging an additional $2.5 billion in matching grants to bring the best humanities research, public programs, education, and preservation projects to the American people. Examples of NEH impact include funding that has led to the discovery of a lost Jamestown settlement fort, brought the scholarship of famed linguist Deborah Tannen to a broader audience, created the first museum exhibit of the now cultural icon King Tut, preserved the papers of ten presidents including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, invested in the career of then relatively unknown documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and thousands of other examples.

Go to 50.neh.gov to see highlights the top grant projects from NEH’s history.  Learn about the role NEH grants have played in:

 

Perkins Deal Reached

Posted on

The House and Senate have introduced bipartisan legislation to extend the Perkins program, which is set to expire in less than one week.

On the House side, Reps. Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced bi-partisan legislation extending the authorization of the Perkins Loan Program, which is similar to a measure the duo introduced in June t. The measure,  HR 3594, Higher Education Extension Act of 2015, is expected to be considered and passed by the House next week.

 

Additionally, four Senate HELP Committee members introduced a bipartisan resolution today “expressing support for the continuation of the Federal Perkins Loan Program.” Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a measure to express support to extend the Perkins program for this year. The introduction of the resolution signals broad support by the Senate to reauthorize the Perkins program for a year.

Perkins, the $1 billion campus-based loan program for exceptionally needy students, is just six days from expiring . While it has many backers in both chambers of Congress, most Republicans – including the House and Senate education committee chairmen – have shown no inclination to extend the program beyond Sept. 30.

The cost of the extension (approximately $250 million) will be paid for by limiting the grandfather clause, in that “grandfathered students” will only be able to take out Perkins loans through March 31, 2018 instead of throughout their entire academic career.

With the introduction of the pay-for and the bipartisan Senate resolution, the extending the program may move forward.

To read the House bill, click here.

To read the summary of the House bill, click here.

To read the bipartisan Senate resolution here.