Posts Categorized: Schools

DC Shuttle: Congress Looks to Redraw PK-12, Higher Ed Laws

Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is due for reauthorization and proposals have been introduced in the House and Senate. (The last reauthorization of ESEA was the No Child Left Behind under President George W. Bush.) On July 19, the House passed the Student Success Act (H.R. 5). The bill would reduce the federal role in public education and c...

Obama’s Higher Ed Proposals

When President Obama outlined his higher education agenda in Buffalo last week, commentators tuned out the beat of war drums (this time against Syria) and began dissecting the president's plan on the college front. The overriding question: Can the new models conceived of by consultants and think tanks over the past decade—and now advanced by the president—work to lower cost without sac...

DC Shuttle: Loan Rate Bill on to WH; Workforce Reauthorization Trudges Ahead; Info From For-Profits Deemed Inconsistent

Student loan interest rate bill sent to president. On Wednesday, the House approved the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act (H.R. 1911) by a vote of 392 to 31. The Senate passed the legislation the previous week and the bill is headed to the president, who has endorsed the legislation, for approval. The bill would modify how interest rates on federal student loans are set, tying interest rates t...

DC Shuttle: Teacher Quality Under Scrutiny on Capitol Hill

House committee OKs ESEA reauthorization. On Wednesday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved a proposed reauthorization to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by a vote of 23 to 16. The bill, the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), introduced by Committee Chair John Kline (R-MN), would consolidate most federal funding into one block grant. The proposal would eliminate t...

DC Shuttle: Harkin Proposes Student Accountability Systems

ESEA reauthorization approved by committee. At a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) markup on Tuesday, lawmakers considered the Senate Democrats' proposal, the Strengthening America's Schools Act, to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). A bill (S. 1094) introduced by Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) advanced by a party-line vote of 12-10 des...

DC Shuttle: Still Wrestling with Student Loan Interest; No Child Left Behind

Student loan rates. The Senate rejected two proposals to extend low interest rates on student loans after they expire on July 1. Without legislation, interest rates will double from 3.4% to 6.8% with the expiration of the one-year fix put in place last summer. Movement to proceed with a Senate Democratic bill (S. 953) to extend the current 3.4% fixed interest rate for two additional years was reje...

Learning Channels: WGBH Creates a Higher Ed Desk

WGBH Boston is creating a Higher Ed Desk to help enrich its award-winning radio, television and online stories with angles from Boston and New England's famed postsecondary education. America’s largest producer of PBS content for TV and the web, WGBH hired Vermont Public Radio's Kirk Carapezza as managing editor and lead correspondent of the Higher Ed Desk. The desk is supported through m...

DC Shuttle: Congress Hears Ed Regs Are “Costly, Vague, Complicated or Unnecessary” … Proposes More

Student loan interest rates. On Thursday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved legislation (H.R. 1911) by a vote of 24-13 that would tie the interest rate on federal student loans to market rates. The interest rates on Stafford Loans are set to double on July 1 to 6.8%. The bill, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, would set the interest rate at the 10-year Treasury note ra...

Challenged to a Dual (Enrollment, That Is)

In a first-ever convening of New England dual-credit programs, UConn Early College Experience and National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) will host a one-day conference on Wednesday, May 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Storrs, Conn.  For more information, please click here. Eight in 10 U.S. high schools reported that students were enrolled in “dual-credit&rdqu...

NEBHE to Present on PBL at Annual Career and Technical Ed Conference in Indiana

The Problem Based Learning (PBL) Projects team of the New England Board of Higher Education will present "Problem Based Learning (PBL) Implementation Strategies for STEM Courses" at the National Association for Workforce Improvement (NAWI) conference this May.NAWI will hold its 48th annual conference in partnership with the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana Universit...