Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.
Crumbles and Cracks, Cruz’s Demise – When Senator Ted Cruz emerged as Donald Trump’s sole serious challenger, Cruz needed to pivot and win over the same Republican Party insiders he had built his career running against; he needed them to rally around him. Their problem wasn’t with Cruz’s hard-line conservative principles. It was his hard-edged personality and political practices. Many of his congressional colleagues and mainstream Republicans stayed on the sidelines. Some embraced Trump. Others attacked Cruz, including former Speaker John Boehner, who called him “Lucifer in the flesh.” A few endorsed half-heartedly. They might have feared Trump. But they loathed Cruz. One of Cruz’s few endorsers, Lindsey Graham, compared the choice to poison or being shot. Read more in Politico.
Houses or Education – A few years ago, as the country grappled with the meteoric rise of student debt, economists warned that education loans were holding back college graduates from buying homes, putting a damper on the economic recovery. Yet a new look at popular data used to support that claim tells a very different story. Read more in The Washington Post.
Concealed Carry – Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s decision to reject House Bill 859, which would legalize firearms at all public colleges in Georgia, comes almost a month after the Governor infuriated many religious conservatives by vetoing “religious liberty” legislation that would have extended legal protections to opponents of same-sex marriages. It was a no win situation for the Governor. Read more in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Slight Adjustments – Dept of Ed officials adjusted the student-loan default rates of 21 colleges, helping them to avoid sanctions in the past two years that could have resulted in a loss of federal funding, according to a list released by the Education Department. The list, released to The Wall Street Journal this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, included one school whose chief executive was later imprisoned for defrauding the government of nearly $1 million in federal student aid. Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
Just Not There – On Wednesday morning, not even 24 hours after Donald Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination, Paul Ryan convened his top advisers for a call. With Congress out of session, Ryan was bouncing between multiple states, raising the piles of money needed to keep House Republicans in the majority. Ryan never expected Trump to lock up the nomination so quickly. Read more in Politico.
Foreign Students – Many people assume foreign students at U.S. colleges are rich, pampered youths out to have a good time before returning home to lives of privilege. Sometimes this is true. But as the number of foreign students surges on U.S. campuses—nearly a million were enrolled last year, up more than 40% from five years earlier—more are coming from middle-class backgrounds like Fan Yue’s. They’re eager to escape flawed education systems back home, where low standards are leaving many ill-prepared for a global economy. Read more in the Wall Street Journal.