Posts Tagged: federal education policy

Pell Grant Experiment Has Offered “Second Chance” to 8,800 Incarcerated Students

DC Shuttle ... Ed Dept Meeting on Pell Grants for Prisoners. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave opening remarks at an Education Department roundtable where officials got an update on an ongoing experiment offering Pell Grants to prisoners. The roundtable addressed a GAO report detailing the experimental program, which was started under the Obama administration and has been extended by th...

Congressional Panels Grill DeVos on Ed Cuts, Threats to Special Olympics

DC Shuttle ... Senate Holds Hearing on Education Budget. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared before a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee to testify on the president's budget proposal for education. Senate Democrats used the hearing to criticize DeVos over a proposal to eliminate $18 million in funding for the Special Olympics. Just a few hours later, the administration r...

Washington Report: Cuts Proposed to U.S. Ed Dept Budget, College Transparency Act Reintroduced

DC Shuttle … Administration Releases 2020 Budget Proposal The Trump administration proposed a budget which would cut billions of dollars from the Education Department's budget. The request would cut discretionary funding for the department to $62 billion, an $8.5 billion or 12 percent decrease below enacted fiscal 2019 levels, including the cancellation of unobligated Pell grant funds. The dep...

Campus Leaders Share Key Recommendations to Consider in Higher Ed Act Reauthorization

A group of 50 national higher education experts, including three from New England higher education institutions, has published a set of 36 recommendations, which they hope will help guide relevant stakeholders and Congress as they consider reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Their report, Innovative, Forward-Thinking Recommendations to Congress on Higher Education Policy, and i...

House & Senate Address Oversight of Student Loan Servicing Companies

DC Shuttle … House Holds Hearing on Student Loan Servicing - On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee's Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee held a hearing on how The Education Department has to do a better job of holding accountable the companies that service students loans, lawmakers said. They heard from a panel including an official from the Education Department's internal watchdog, wh...

Murray’s HEA Would Dangle Federal Incentives to Boost State Spending

DC Shuttle ... Murray Speaks About Higher Education Act Reauthorization. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, spoke at the Center for American Progress on her vision for the Higher Education Act (HEA). Murray, who confirmed that she is beginning negotiations of the reauthorization with HELP Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander,...

A Pitch for Teacher Pay and School Infrastructure

DC Shuttle ... House Hearing on Education Infrastructure and Teacher Pay. The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing focused on teacher pay and school infrastructure. At the hearing, lawmakers highlighted teacher protests happening across the country. House Democrats also pushed for their school infrastructure bill. Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) called for increasing federal spendin...

Senate HELP Chair Aims to Reauthorize Higher Ed Act, Simplify FAFSA This Year

DC Shuttle ... Alexander Outlines HEA Plans. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute to discuss his outlook for the Higher Education Act (HEA). Alexander previewed his intentions for the work of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which he chairs, and said he intends to work on reauthorization of the HEA. He laid out goals for ...

Raising Minimum Wage, Investing in Public Schools Among Topics Unveiled by House Democrats

DC Shuttle ... House Ed Committee Meets to Organize Work Agenda. The U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor held an organizational markup to appoint Democratic and Republican members to Subcommittees for the 116th Congress. During the meeting, Committee Democrats announced the first four hearing topics planned for the 116th Congress: protecting workers with pre-existing conditions; gra...

New Republicans Join U.S. House Ed Panel

DC Shuttle ... New Republican Members Named to U.S. House Education Committee. Ranking Member Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced the lineup of Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee for the 116th Congress. The list includes 10 new Republicans: Mark Walker (NC), James Comer (KY), Russ Fulcher (ID), Van Taylor (TX), Steve Watkins (KS), Ron Wright (TX), Dan Meuser (PA), William Timmons...