Posts Categorized: Students

In Massachusetts, Public Higher Education Is the Engine for Opportunity

NEJHE presents exclusive articles by New England's governors on higher education in their states ... Thanks to our dedicated teachers and committed students, Massachusetts leads the nation in student achievement and classroom innovation. We’ve made education our top priority because it’s the path to a more fulfilling life, a more rewarding career and a richer society. I have personally expe...

Unintended Consequences: An Uncertain Future for Distance Learning

While most in the academic community know about the attempt to rein in the for-profits, few are aware of its collateral damage. In October, the Department of Education issued its Program Integrity Rules, intended to protect federal funds especially from those for-profit institutions with high student loan default rates. Well-intentioned though this was, the DOE dropped an inadvertent bombshell: Al...

In Maine, Postsecondary Success Starts Before College

NEJHE presents exclusive articles by New England's governors on higher education in their states ... Last spring, 83% of Maine public high school students who began high school four years earlier received a diploma. About 65% of those graduates likely enrolled in some form of postsecondary education—at a public university, private institution, community college or elsewhere. A 2008 re...

DC Shuttle: Gainful Employment Rules, Reducing Loan Defaults and Other Higher Ed News from Washington

On Thursday, the Education Department released the final "gainful employment" rules for vocational schools. In order to qualify for federal financial aid, for-profit and certificate programs will be required to prepare students for gainful employment by meeting one of three requirements: the average annual student loan payment is not more than 30% of a graduate's discretionary income; the average ...

Walter Peterson, 1922-2011: New England Loses Another Giant

New Hampshire governor and longtime NEBHE delegate and chair, Walter Peterson died at age 88 on Wednesday, June 1. Walter attended William and Mary College and the University of New Hampshire before serving as a naval officer in the Pacific theater of World War II. After the war, he graduated from Dartmouth College. In 1948, with his father and brother, he founded The Petersons Inc. Real Estate...

DC Shuttle: Congress Working to Reauthorize K-12 Law, Reward Early Learning, Protect Internet Privacy

On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced the first bill (H.R. 1891) in a planned series of education reform legislation. Under the bill, which was approved along party lines (23-16), $400 million in funding for over 40 education programs created under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) would be repealed. Republican supporters of the bill, sponsored by Congr...

DC Shuttle: Bill to Boost STEM and other Higher Ed News from Washington

On Monday, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) announced that she and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced legislation (S. 969) aimed at encouraging and improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The bill would provide planning and implementation grants on a competitive basis to help states integrate engineering instruction into K-12 education. Sen. Snowe said in a press rel...

DC Shuttle: Dreaming and other Higher Ed News from Washington

On Friday, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) introduced the first (H.R. 1891) of a series of education reform bills planned by the House Education and Workforce Committee. Congressman Hunter chairs the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and his bill is aimed at reducing wasteful spending in K-12 education. The legislation would eliminate 43 education programs in o...

DC Shuttle: Gainful Employment and Other Higher Ed News from Washington

The U.S. Education Department is going ahead with its proposed "gainful employment" rules for for-profit colleges, despite industry advocates calling on Congress and the courts to intervene. Originally scheduled to be issued last September, Education Secretary Arne Duncan delayed the regulations after receiving about 90,000 letters on the issue, most of them in opposition. The most recent version ...

Saving Pell Grants in an Era of Cost-Cutting

In the context of the recent efforts to arrive at a federal budget, articles abound in the popular media and trade publications debating both the value of Pell Grants and their rising cost to the U.S. government. Both pros and cons of the debate hold value. Pell Grants are what enable many of our low-income families to send their children to college and, when more and more jobs require a minimum ...