President Barack Obama last month signed an executive order promising to "improve outcomes and advance educational opportunities for African Americans." The order instructs federal agencies to "promote, encourage, and undertake efforts" to increase "college access, college persistence and college attainment for African American students." Unfortunately, his administration remains opposed to the O... Read more »
How did you come up with that one? House Republicans want to know how and why President Obama's Labor Department decided that businesses do not need to give federal contractors 60 days' notice of the mass layoffs that are set to happen on Jan. 2 -- unless Congress does something to stop the automatic budget cuts (sequestration) that will take effect on that date. On Thursday, Rep. John Kline (R-M... Read more »
What if we knew how to reduce by half the number of Americans dependent on welfare? What if we could — at the same time — significantly reduce poverty among children and single mothers? If we had such an effective poverty-fighting formula in place, surely we’d try to expand it, not toss it aside. Yet that’s what the administration has just done with the successful welfare reform of 1996. On July ... Read more »
On Thursday, President Obama, through the Department of Health and Human Services, quietly released an official policy directive. Utilizing an obscure legal device from the original Social Security Act, the administration claimed the right to waive the work requirements for able-bodied people that formed the backbone of a generation of welfare reform. This directive could very well allow the welf... Read more »
A federal judge has vacated several provisions of the controversial “gainful employment” rule, which the Department of Education issued last year in an effort to ensure that federal student-aid dollars flowing to vocational programs were good investments and helping prepare students for jobs that pay well. The decision, by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Col... Read more »
President Obama likes to say that everyone in America should "play by the same rules." Okay, so then why does the Administration's new student-loan rule apply to for-profit colleges, but not nonprofits? The regulations that go into effect in July cut off federal student aid to career and technical colleges whose former students don't meet the Education Department's definition of "gainful employme... Read more »
By Rep. John Kline (R-MN) Unless Congress takes action, student loan interest rates for millions of borrowers will double in just a few short weeks. The House has already done its part by approving the Interest Rate Reduction Act, bipartisan legislation that will prevent a scheduled interest rate increase on subsidized Stafford Loans without piling additional costs on taxpayers. In an effort to f... Read more »
The Department of Labor reports 3.7 million jobs remain unfilled, despite the fact that nearly 13 million unemployed Americans are searching for work. Employers largely attribute this discrepancy to a lack of skilled workers, and many workers report the nation’s federal workforce development system is failing to provide the training and education they need to succeed. On Thursday, the House Commit... Read more »
By Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), and Joe Heck (R-NV) In January, President Obama told the story of Jackie Bray, who found employment after participating in a job training program at a local community college. The president urged Congress to "cut through the maze of confusing training programs" so workers have "one program" for all the help they need and help provide two... Read more »
This week, the administration announced another version of the stimulus-era Race to the Top program, this time geared toward individual school districts. The new program is expected to cost taxpayers $400 million, and requires local school districts to adopt sweeping Department of Education mandates in order to be eligible for federal grants. Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secon... Read more »
