Planning & Budgeting

federal government


January 21, 2011

Are the States Alright?

You may have read a widely circulated New York Times article today concerning the possibility of the federal government creating a pathway for states to seek protection in federal bankruptcy court if their debt burdens spiral out of control. Some policymakers think that the severe economic strain created by the Great Recession has revealed deep…


January 13, 2011

Supreme Court Decision on Medical Residents Upholds Status Quo

As reported by Inside Higher Ed and many others, the Supreme Court decided this week that medical residents do not qualify for student payroll tax exemptions and must pay into social security and medicare as other employees do. This ruling upholds U.S. Department of Treasury regulations issued in 2004, which the UW has been in…


December 9, 2010

Federal Scrutiny of For-Profit Colleges Turns to Recruitment of Veterans

Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the US Senate HELP Committee, has released another report on the practices of the for-profit higher education industry, this time focusing on whether or not such institutions are taking advantage of US veterans in an effort to capture newly increased GI Bill education benefits (read our earlier posts on this…


December 8, 2010

Federal Maintenance of Effort Requirement Makes State Financial Aid Programs Vulnerable

Both the American Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 and the 2010 Education Jobs Fund provided federal funding for education. In exchange for accepting federal funds, both fiscal relief vehicles came with Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provisions requiring states to continue financial support for higher education institutions at certain minimum levels. However, some forms of state…


November 10, 2010

Should Federal Government Support a Regional Approach to Public Higher Ed?

The Center for American Progress released a new report, Easy Come, EZ-GO: A Federal Role in Removing Jurisdictional Impediments to College Education, that presents a bold argument for the creation of Education Zone Governance Organizations (EZ-GO), which would provide federal resources to help ease barriers to higher education for citizens of metropolitan areas that cross…


November 2, 2010

APLU Releases Regional Meetings Report

In advance of the 123rd annual meeting in Dallas on November 14, The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) has released the final report resulting from five regional meetings to discuss key concerns about the future of public research universities, one of which took place at UW Seattle on April 26, 2010. The report,…


October 28, 2010

New Federal Higher Ed Regulations Published Today

Having weighed tens of thousands of public comments, the US Department of Education released today a final set of regulations governing various aspects of higher education. While primarily aimed at what are widely seen as abuses within the for-profit higher education system, the regulations apply to all institutions and are driven by the federal government’s…


October 27, 2010

Berkeley Report Provides Roadmap for ‘Smart Growth’ in Higher Ed

John Aubrey Douglass of UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education has issued a new report on the current status of higher education, and potential paths for growth and change into the future. In Re-Imagining California Higher Education, Douglass argues that the existing model for higher education in California (here representative of higher education…


October 15, 2010

Will Expanded Higher Ed Tax Credit be Made Permanent?

The federal Recovery Act of 2009 included a two year expanded higher education tax credit (based on the existing Hope Tax Credit). The new American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) maxes out at $2,500, can be redeemed for up to four years, is partially refundable (up to 40%), and eligibility does not start to phase out…


October 4, 2010

Under Federal Fire, For-Profit Colleges Point Finger at Publics

As a result of recent federal scrutiny, the for-profit higher education industry and its supporters have begun to turn their protests toward the unfairness of singling out the for-profit companies while ignoring traditional higher education’s non-profit institutions, particularly public community colleges and four year institutions. Congressional scrutiny of for-profit education companies comes at the same…



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