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College Affordability Plan Introduced in U.S. Senate. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced her College Affordability Plan, which comprises of four bills affecting Pell Grants. The first would restore the year-round Pell Grant, allowing students to use Pell funding for three academic semesters per year instead of the current two. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) are co...
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ESEA Reauthorization Passes Senate Committee. Legislation to replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB) passed unanimously out of committee with a vote of 22-0. About a week before the committee considered it, Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee had released their long-anticipated bipartis...
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Higher Education Act Reauthorization. The House Education and Workforce Committee's Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training held a hearing entitled, "Strengthening America's Higher Education System." Lawmakers held the hearing to gain more input from education experts as they move closer to a reauthorization attempt for the Higher Education Act (HEA). The Republica...
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President Obama Announces Student Aid Bill of Rights. President Barack Obama announced the "Student Aid Bill of Rights," a series of proposals which the administration says will help simplify and improve the college loan system. In a speech at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the president remarked that higher education is not only a good investment for students but also for th...
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Ed Department Budget Weighed. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan testified on the Department of Education's fiscal year 2016 budget request at a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee. The administration has requested $70.7 billion in discretionary appropriations this fiscal year, up 5.4% from the previous ye...
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House Begins Work on Student Data Privacy Legislation. The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education of the House Committee on Education and Workforce held a hearing entitled "How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy." During the hearing, the subcommittee discussed possible revisions to the Family Educational Right and Privacy Act (FERPA). Rep. Tod...
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Education Priorities in President Obama's Budget. President Obama released his fiscal year 2016 budget request. Among his requests were many provisions for education.
For higher education, the budget proposals include:
Proposals to change some benefits in the income-based repayment program (IBR) for student loans
Tuition free community college for responsible students whose fam...
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White House Drops Plan to Tax 529 College Savings Accounts. White House officials announced that President Obama would drop his proposal to tax 529 college savings accounts, just a week after the proposal was first made in the president's State of the Union. Revenues from the 529 taxes would have been used to offset the cost of the president's American Opportunity Tax Credit. The a...
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Education priorities outlined in State of the Union. President Obama addressed several education initiatives in his State of the Union address, stating, "In a 21st century economy that rewards knowledge like never before, we need to up our game." He touted positive education statistics, including higher graduation rates and test scores, but emphasized that there is still room to ...
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NCLB reauthorization debate heats up. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave remarks regarding the reauthorization of the now-expired No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. He said that the administration would not back away from annual testing as it works to reform K-12 education, according to a report in the New York Times. Annual testing was enshrined in NCLB to provide benchmark mea...
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College Affordability Plan Introduced in U.S. Senate. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced her College Affordability Plan, which comprises of four bills affecting Pell Grants. The first would restore the year-round Pell Grant, allowing students to use Pell funding for three academic semesters per year instead of the current two. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) are co...