Education News

The Advantages of a Variable Rate Solution
May 23, 2013
| Chad Miller

Summary

Once again as college students celebrate graduation, Congress finds itself grappling with the now annual debate over student loan interest rates. Both the House and Senate introduced bills to address the pending interest rate change, but only the House bill provides a long-term budget conscious fix.  The House’s proposal, which looks similar to the president’s, sets borrower interest rates in line with market rates. This shift to market based rates would:

Read More »
A Demonstration Program: The Use of Private Capital in the Federal Direct Student Loan Program
May 16, 2013
| Chad Miller

The 2009 switch to direct student lending, billed as a means to bolster student financial aid spending by eliminating private sector ‘middlemen,’ has not only failed to produce the anticipated savings, it has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and shifted billions more onto the federal balance sheet, forcing the Department of Treasury to borrow money to keep the program afloat. 

Read More »
What Elizabeth Warren Isn’t Saying
May 10, 2013
| Scott Fleming

Senator Elizabeth Warren made waves in higher education circles recently by introducing legislation that would set federal student loan interest rates at the same rate available to financial institutions through the Federal Reserve.   Her populist invocation of the ‘big bank’ mantra to defend changes in student loan policy is reminiscent of the 2010 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – the same legislation passed by her colleagues that relied on students to help pay for the President’s health care proposals.

Read More »
The President’s Missed Opportunity
Apr 11, 2013
| Scott Fleming

After months of delay and blowing past the legal requirement that the President submit a budget request to Congress in February of each year, the White House has finally released a budget blueprint for fiscal year 2014 and beyond.

Read More »
The President’s Economic Report: Stale Solutions and Staggering Problems
Mar 28, 2013
| Scott Fleming

 On Friday of last week the President released his annual economic report, a 456-page report full of the same rhetoric that dominated the President’s reelection campaign.  According to the President’s report, the economy is on stable footing, federal budgets have been slashed, and millions of people are enjoying health care coverage for the first time.  Aside from making many of these same dubious statements the President has made previously, his report also simplifies higher education policy into o

Read More »