December 30, 2015
Higher Ed News Roundup
United States continues slide in global education rankings: A recent report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals that the United States continues to fall behind in educating its populace. The study shows that the US has dropped to fifth in the percentage of young adults, defined as those between age…
December 21, 2015
Perkins Loan Program Temporarily Revived
Last week, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to extend the Federal Perkins Loan Program, which had expired in September. The bill authorizes new undergraduate applicants to join the program through September 2017, but only if they have exhausted all other federal borrowing options first. New graduate students will not be able to join the program,…
Governor Inslee’s 2016 Supplemental Operating and Capital Budgets
Governor Jay Inslee released his supplemental operating and capital budget proposals on Thursday, both of which include technical corrections and minor appropriation changes to the current 2015-17 biennial budgets (fiscal years 2016 and 2017). This budget release marks the first step of the 2016 legislative session – set to begin on Monday, January 11, 2016….
November 20, 2015
November Revenue Forecast Predicts Moderate Growth
On Wednesday, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released its November revenue forecast, which projected a slight increase to General Fund-State (GF-S) collections over the September revenue forecast. The GF-S revenue forecast increased by $113 million for the current 2015-17 biennium and $30 million for the 2017-19 biennium. Final GF-S revenue collections for the 2013-15…
November 19, 2015
DOJ reaches largest-ever settlement with for-profit higher education provider
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reached a settlement in its false claims case against the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), an operator of for-profit colleges and universities. The $95.5 million settlement is the largest ever in a higher education false claims case. EDMC will also forgive…
November 13, 2015
UC Plans to Expand Resident Undergraduate Enrollment
A recent story in the LA Times, “UC seeks to boost Californians’ enrollment by 10,000 by 2018,” outlined the University of California’s plan to expand resident undergraduate enrollment at their nine undergraduate campuses. Like many U.S. public universities that have faced significant state divestment during the recession, the UC system has enrolled more nonresident students…
November 10, 2015
New to the OPBlog
Greetings, my name is Jed Bradley and I recently joined the Office of Planning & Budgeting as a higher education policy analyst. I earned a BA in political science from the University of Washington and am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in higher education from the UW College of Education. I will be contributing to…
November 5, 2015
Average National Undergraduate Loan Debt Continues To Rise
Undergraduates who graduated with student loan debt from four-year colleges in 2014 owed an average of $28,950, according to a recently released report by The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).[1][2] 69 percent of graduates have loan debt, the same figure as last year and slightly higher than it was in 2004 (65 percent). The average amount of…
November 3, 2015
National 3-Year Cohort Default Rate Drops For Third Consecutive Year: UW Continues to Excel
The Department of Education recently released their annual report detailing the 3-year cohort default rate (CDR)—a metric that measures what percentage of postsecondary students default on their loan payments within the first three years of entering repayment—and the data are encouraging: the 3-year CDR for FY 2012 is 11.8 percent, almost two percent lower than…
Greetings!
My name is Andrew Orlebeke and I am the Legislative Analysis Intern for the Office of Planning and Budgeting and a Master in Public Administration student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. I’ll be updating this blog periodically with posts on all things higher education, from federal and state legislative issues to…