Posts Tagged: Arne Duncan

DC Shuttle: Tuition Rose in 2011 to Make Up for Cuts in State Support; New Tools for College Readiness, Aid

State and local spending on higher education fell to an average of $6,290 per full-time student in 2011—its lowest level in 25 years, according to a study released by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO). Total funding for higher education from state and local sources fell by $1.3 billion between FY2008 at the beginning of the recession and FY2011. During tha...

Grad Rates Don’t Tell Full Story of Community College Performance

Anyone who fixates on graduation rates has little understanding not only of the rich mission and value of our community colleges, but also how deeply flawed and inadequate those rates are as a principal assessment tool for the performance of community colleges.Graduation rate calculations apply to a small fraction of our entire student population (about 15%). That is because this national measure ...

DC Shuttle: Obama Moves to Ease Student Loan Debt

On Wednesday, President Obama announced a new proposal to ease the burden of student loan debt. The "Know Before You Owe" initiative will allow students with multiple government-backed loans to consolidate them into one loan under the federal Direct Loan program with an interest rate reduction of 0.25% to 0.5%. The administration estimated that about 5.8 million students could be eligible for loan...

DC Shuttle: Duncan Defends Ed Budget Request … and Other Higher Ed News from Washington

Editor's Note: A reminder that our DC Shuttle column has changed gates. Our news from Washington will now appear in Newslink, rather than the Journal section, of https://www.nebhe.org.On Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan defended the department's budget request for FY 2012, including a 10.7% increase over 2011 funding levels, to the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Labor, ...

DC Shuttle: White House Meeting with CEOs Spawns New Ed Grants … and Other Higher Ed News from Washington

Editor's Note: Our DC Shuttle column has changed gates, so to speak. With frequent arrivals of higher ed news from our partner The New England Council, DC Shuttle will now appear in Newslink, rather than the Journal section, of  https://www.nebhe.org. President Obama hosted an education roundtable on July 18 with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Domestic Policy Chair Melody Barnes and busines...

DC Shuttle: Debate Over NCLB Reform … and Other Higher Ed News from Washington

On Thursday, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair John Kline (R-MN) introduced No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reform legislation (H.R. 2445). The bill, which would give states and school districts almost complete control over how they spend federal education funding, is the third in a planned series of five education reform bills from House leadership. Supporters of the measure say that it w...

Ed Secy Duncan Urges States and Districts to Drive Achievement and Increase Grad Rates as they Trim

Citing the “new normal” and impending budget cuts, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged state leaders to boost student achievement despite dwindling resources."There is a right way and a wrong way to cut spending, and the most important guiding principle I can offer is to minimize the negative impact on students and seize this opportunity to redirect your spending priorities," Du...