The president’s policies are hurting working families, and a leading culprit is the fatally flawed health care law. In September, Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Phil Roe (R-TN) will hold a field hearing in Indiana to examine ObamaCare's impact on schools and workplaces across the Hoosier state. Members at the hearing will have a lot to discuss. The Wall Street Journ... Read more »
On Wednesday House and Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal to reform the nation’s workforce development system. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) will streamline a maze of duplicative programs and help hardworking Americans prepare for in-demand careers. Read highlights from press reports on the compromise: The compromise measure would eliminate 15 of 47 existing federal w... Read more »
The House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing on Thursday to examine a recent National Labor Relations Board decision to define certain student athletes “employees.” As various news reports show, members discussed the challenges facing student athletes and expressed concerns that unionization would hurt students’ athletic and academic careers: The debate over whether college athle... Read more »
Proponents created public charter schools, in part, to use them to incubate new educational approaches, then replicate the successes. Charters started in Minnesota about 20 years ago, and today there are thousands of them with nearly a million students nationwide. But not nearly enough of the highest-quality programs have been emulated. For a variety of reasons, few schools have used the best cha... Read more »
Despite facing broad opposition from the education stakeholders, elected officials, and the federal court system, the Obama administration is moving forward with a so-called gainful employment regulation that will harm low-income students and threaten the strength of our higher education system. In their zeal to gin up public support for its misguided regulatory proposal, the administration is ci... Read more »
By Representatives Todd Rokita (R-IN) and Jared Polis (D-CO) As strong advocates for parental school choice, we were pleased that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was open to learning about the tremendous opportunities that charter schools can offer students and families. His decision to allow continued access to high-quality charter school options will ensure that the best curriculum, programs... Read more »
By Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Representatives John Kline (R-MN) and Phil Roe (R-TN) The president is waging a public-relations campaign about income inequality in this country, but rather than focus on growing the economy and encouraging businesses to hire, this administration has fallen back on stale, bankrupt ideas that don’t help workers achieve more. The latest is a rule proposed by t... Read more »
President Obama last week asked Joe Biden to lead "an across-the-board reform" of federal job training that roots out ineffective and redundant programs. It's nice to hear the President admit that some government programs are wasteful, and if he's serious the spadework has already been done. Job-training programs originated during the New Deal, expanded under the Great Society and have continued ... Read more »
President Obama treats limits on executive power like college students treat the 21-year drinking age, and judging from oral arguments Monday the Supreme Court may respond by limiting his driving privileges. The vote may even be 9-0 that a President can't tell Congress when it is in recess so he can shred the Senate's power to offer "advice and consent" on his nominees. That's our reading of Mond... Read more »
By Bob Kerrey and Jeffrey T. Leeds Virtually all middle-class jobs now require postsecondary skills and credentials. Yet as many middle- and lower-income families and students adjust to the reality that college has become a necessity rather than a luxury, the luxury price tag that college commands is less and less affordable. Many students need to take on large amounts of debt, and these loans of... Read more »
