U.S. to fall short of 2025 college grads goal—by 24 million degrees
Despite persistent appeals from policymakers and politicians to increase the number of college graduates in the United States, a new report projects a shortfall of nearly 24 million degree-holders by 2025. The cost to the U.S. economy in lost wages and income taxes? About $600 billion a year. They’re the most dramatic figures yet in [...]
Report: California sees large returns on higher-ed investments
Is it worth it for California to invest in higher education? That’s the central question posed by a new report examining the state’s spending on its university system and how much graduates end up contributing back to the state budget. The answer? “A resounding yes,” said Michele Siqueiros, executive director of The Campaign for College [...]
New report says tuition tax breaks helping wealthier families
Education Sector reports today that federal higher-education tuition-tax breaks are increasingly benefiting wealthier families. The tax breaks, and other aid that goes to students who do not meet the federal definition of financial need, were the subject of this story by The Hechinger Report, which appeared on the front page of USA Today last November. [...]
Affirmative action on the docket again: Justice Kennedy’s past opinions hint at outcome
Affirmative action in college admissions is on the Supreme Court docket again this year after a white student named Abigail Fisher challenged a University of Texas program meant to promote diversity on UT campuses. Affirmative-action proponents, including many university leaders, are concerned that if the University of Texas loses, efforts to increase diversity in U.S. [...]
Bankruptcy attorneys warn that student loans could be the next crisis
A group of bankruptcy attorneys who predicted the mortgage fiasco that helped cause the current economic downturn said today that rising student debt could fuel another crisis just as big. Nearly half the members of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) said in a survey conducted last month that the number of their [...]
Jon Marcus talks about Arne Duncan and higher-ed costs, accountability
Jon Marcus, who writes about higher education for The Hechinger Report, attended an event yesterday at Emerson College in Boston at which U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) spoke about higher-education costs and accountability. Marcus appeared on the public-television program Greater Boston on WGBH-TV, Boston, to discuss the issues.
Obama is “incentivizing”—not regulating—universities, ed secretary says
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that the Obama administration isn’t trying to regulate university tuition by linking federal funding to the rate at which college costs increase. In his state-of-the-union address on January 24th, President Barack Obama proposed that federal financial aid be tied to the pace of tuition increases. Institutions whose tuition [...]
Interview: Jon Marcus talks about free universities and their impact
Jon Marcus, a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report, recently had an article in The Washington Post about how a wave of free online universities could change the traditional U.S. higher education system. From his story: Several new companies and organizations with impressive pedigrees are harnessing the Internet to provide college courses for free, or [...]
Oklahoma considers dropping high-school exit exams
Oklahoma’s landmark 2005 legislation, which mandated that all high-school students pass exams to be eligible for graduation, may be killed off before it even takes effect. The law, Achieving Classroom Excellence, requires seniors to pass sophomore-level tests in English, algebra and two other subjects—biology, algebra II, geometry, U.S. history or junior-level English—starting with the Class [...]
The new G.I. Bill: Big money, big challenges [podcast]
In September, Hechinger Report writer Jon Marcus reported for The Washington Post that universities were heavily recruiting veterans to get a piece of the $11 billion made available through the new post-9/11 G.I. Bill, but providing little of the additional support that many veterans say they need. Marcus was a guest on the public-radio program [...]
