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March 5, 2014
President Obama Releases His FY2015 Budget
Yesterday, March 4th, President Obama submitted his fiscal year 2015 budget request to Congress. The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) has published their analysis of the budget as has the Education Policy Program at New America. TICAS states that the President’s proposal “takes important steps towards making college affordable for Americans by reducing the need to…
March 3, 2014
“Pay It Forward” Is really “Pay It Yourself and Pay More Than Ever”
On Thursday, The Equity Line, a blog by The Education Trust, posted a critique of Pay It Forward (PIF) that discusses some of PIF’s major flaws. As a reminder, under PIF, instead of paying tuition and fees upfront, students would pay back a certain percent of their adjusted gross income for 25 years. For more…
January 21, 2014
News Roundup on “Increasing College Opportunity” Initiative
As you may have heard, President Obama recently announced his “Increasing College Opportunity for Low-Income Students” initiative, which aims to help more low-income and underrepresented minority students attend and complete college. On January 16th, the White House hosted a summit of the more than 100 colleges, universities, nonprofits, and foundations that made commitments to increase…
December 10, 2013
Research Suggests MOOCs Primarily Serve the Well-Educated
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently surveyed students who had taken at least one of Penn’s twenty-four MOOCs and viewed at least one online video lecture. Findings from the responses of 34,779 students revealed that 80 percent of the MOOC-takers already had a 2- or 4-year degree and that 44 percent already had some graduate…
October 28, 2013
College Board Releases 2013 Edition of “Trends in College Pricing”
The College Board released its 2013 edition of “Trends in College Pricing” on Tuesday. The report provides information on what colleges and universities are charging in 2013-14; how prices vary by state, region, and institution type; pricing trends over time; and net tuition and fees—what students and families actually pay after accounting for financial aid….
October 17, 2013
Supreme Court Hears Michigan Affirmative Action Case
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be in favor of upholding a Michigan referendum, known as Proposition 2, which banned the use of affirmative action in the state’s public colleges and universities. The case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, is not about whether it is permissible for public colleges to consider…
October 1, 2013
Education and Justice Departments Clarify Fisher v. UT Ruling
On Friday, the Obama administration gave some clarity to the Supreme Court ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas, as the decision had not provided a direct answer about the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions policies in higher education. Instead, the ruling had underscored the necessity of “strict scrutiny”—a term that sparked concern and confusion among…
September 9, 2013
Oregon Passes Bill to Implement “Pay Forward, Pay Back” Pilot Program
(This piece was originally posted on 07/11/2013, however it was lost due to technical issues and is therefore re-posted here.) Last week, the Oregon legislature passed a bill that, if signed by the governor, will implement a pilot program to study the effects and feasibility of substituting upfront tuition payments with income-based, post-graduation payments. For 24 years after…
August 9, 2013
Critique of “For Public College, the Best Tuition Is No Tuition”
In “For Public College, the Best Tuition Is No Tuition,” a recent opinion piece published by The Chronicle, the author describes the merits of Finland’s no-tuition education system. In Finland, “all education became public and free” during the 1960s as part of a multipronged strategy to reform and improve education. The other prongs of the…
July 18, 2013
States Shift Financial Aid Money toward Need-Based Aid and Grant Aid
According to an annual survey released on Monday by the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP), the amount of state dollars going toward financial aid remained relatively stable between 2010-11 and 2011-12. In 2011-12, states awarded about $11.1 billion in state-based financial aid, a slight increase (0.7 percent) over the $11.0…
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