One of President Obama’s leading domestic policy advisers admits the president has yet to figure out a way to afford the $6 billion price tag on a one-year Stafford Loan interest rate freeze, stating, “That really isn’t the issue.” On NPR’s Diane Rehm Show yesterday, host Susan Page pressed Domestic Policy Council Deputy Director Mark Zuckerman for answers on the president’s claim a temporary exte... Read more »
Student loan borrowers continue to come forward with troubling stories of the problems plaguing the Department of Education’s management of the Direct Loan Program and, worse, the Obama administration’s seeming inability to address widespread complaints. An article in today’s edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education describes the myriad challenges borrowers confront with the Direct Loan Progra... Read more »
In recent months, a growing number of student loan borrowers and institution leaders have stepped forward to voice complaints about the federal government’s implementation of the Direct Loan Program, which oversees and originates every new federal higher education loan in the country. According to an article in Wednesday’s Inside Higher Ed, “Persistent problems have plagued the Education Departmen... Read more »
This week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce examined the Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 (H.R. 4297), important job training reform legislation introduced by Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Buck McKeon (R-CA), and Joe Heck (R-NV). As Chairman John Kline (R-MN) noted, the bill will create a “more dynamic, effective, and accountable workforce development system.” In the vi... Read more »
President Obama is in Ohio today to “highlight his Administration’s job training initiatives.” No doubt the people of the Buckeye State will be asking: Just what is the president promoting this time? There are a number of “initiatives” to choose from: Initiative A: The 2011 so-called American Jobs Act plan, which demands two more programs and $9 billion in new spending be added to the more than 47... Read more »
Since Democrats put the Department of Education in charge of originating and overseeing every new higher education loan in the country, a growing number of borrowers have expressed frustration with a range of problems plaguing the Direct Loan Program, from poor customer service and breaches in personal security to an ineffective loan rehabilitation process that puts borrowers’ credit in jeopardy. ... Read more »
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) provides disadvantaged students in the nation’s capital the financial support and opportunity to access a better education. Since its inception in 2004, the program has rescued thousands of students from one of the most troubled public school systems in the nation. Despite signing into law last spring bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the D.C. OS... Read more »
Just moments before President Obama signed into law his government takeover of health care, he promised: “This legislation will also lower costs… for the federal government, reducing our deficit by over $1 trillion in the next two decades. It is paid for. It is fiscally responsible.” Not so says a new report released this morning by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. According to an analys... Read more »
Yesterday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the president’s budget and policy proposals for Fiscal Year 2013. Since assuming his position in the president’s cabinet in January 2009, Secretary Duncan has proven to be an active and visible member of the administration. However, a look at some of the numbers defining his tenure in ... Read more »
On Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the president’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request for the Department of Education. If the secretary’s recent appearance in front of the House Appropriations Committee is any indication, we can expect to hear a lot of rhetoric on the administration’s preferred education policie... Read more »
