Higher Ed Policy
February 15, 2012
More Information Available Comparing Student Achievement Council Bills
House Higher Education committee staff published a table today comparing Senate and House bills, which would create the Council office, define its responsibilities, and set membership for its board. While Senate Bill 6232 passed unanimously on February 10, House Ways & Means is set to introduce a substitute on the House bill. Legislative staff published…
February 9, 2012
Plans for Student Achievement Council (HECB Successor) Are Shaping Up
Last year, Senate Bill 5182 (introduced and signed in 2011) significantly changed the landscape of higher education policy coordination when it eliminated the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and created the Office of Student Financial Aid. This bill created a steering committee, led by the Governor, to reconsider higher education governance. After meeting through last…
January 30, 2012
Obama’s Blueprint for Higher Education Affordablity
As reported on the UW Office of Federal Relations blog, President Obama made a splash in the higher education community last week when he outlined new proposals for higher education reform in his State of The Union Address and in a speech at the University of Michigan. Many are praising the President’s focus on the…
January 13, 2012
Online Learning Still Plagued by Uncertainty
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute published an interesting paper recently called Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning. While primarily focused on the role of technology in K-12 education, the paper provides perspective for higher education as well. This topic is especially important as the economic crisis continues to push universities to produce more with less…
December 28, 2011
Tax Benefits Increasingly Key to College Affordability
Note that the report summarized in this post reflects data through 2007-08. We know from more recent data that 2009’s expansion of the American Opportunity Tax Credit (formerly the Hope tax credit) has more than doubled both benefit and participation rates, so we anticipate future reports to reflect similar but magnified findings. In its latest…
December 16, 2011
Higher Ed News Roundup
With the special legislative session wrapped up here in Washington, and regular session not set to begin until January 9th, here is some of what has been happening in higher education elsewhere. Federal Budget Agreement Preserves but Alters Pell Grants: It appears that a last minute FY2012 budget agreement in Washington DC will avert a…
November 2, 2011
Is Higher Education the Next Bubble?
As we continue to experience a very slow recovery from a deep recession, the ideas of long-time critics of modern, inclusive American higher education who question the value of college for many have gained traction and blossomed into widespread public speculation about whether undergraduate education might be the next economic bubble to threaten the US…
October 26, 2011
New from OPB
Make sure to check out the following recent additions to the website: Updated printable UW Fact Cards for your wallets and pockets and new UW Fast Facts! Please let us know if you have any questions. Updated brief on Institutional autonomy among UW peer institutions across the US. Final Decision Summary and Overview report on…
August 29, 2011
Texas Adopts Controversial Higher Ed Reforms
We’ve blogged previously about the controversial reforms being aggressively pursued by Governor Perry and various of the appointees he has placed on Texas higher education governing boards and in university administrations. The reforms were initially developed by the conservative think tank the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), and are centered around placing the student in…
August 4, 2011
A New Measure for College Success?
Education Sector, an education policy think tank, recently released a report entitled “Debt to Degree,” which measures the ratio of student and parent, government-backed loans taken by students to the number of credentials awarded by an institution per year. Based on this, the report concludes that: Across all institutions and sectors, for each degree awarded…
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