Posts Tagged: federal education policy

A Supreme Hearing for Loan Forgiveness

DC Shuttle ... U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Student Debt Forgiveness Case in February. The Biden administration's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for millions of federal student loan borrowers has sparked legal battles across the country. This week, the Supreme Court agreed “to decide whether the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its plan to wipe out billions of doll...

Federal Student Aid Policies Benefit Upper-Middle-Class White Families, Says National Report

DC Shuttle ... Generating an Unnecessary Inequity. “The federal student aid formula disproportionately benefits upper-middle-class white families,” according to a new paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The authors of the paper found that “racial disparities creep into the [federal student aid] system because the federal formula for estimating how much a family can affo...

Proposed LOAN Act Would Double Pell and Improve Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Plus New Report Shows Gaps for Black Community College Students

DC Shuttle ... Lowering Obstacles to Achievement Now (LOAN) Act. U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL) introduced the Lowering Obstacles to Achievement Now (LOAN) Act “to lower the cost of college for current and future student borrowers and their families.” This proposed legislation would double the Pell Grant, improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and mak...

There’s No Great Future in Microplastics, Plus Dems Look to Strengthen Title IX Rules

DC Shuttle ... URI Lands $1 Million in Federal Funding for Plastics Pollution Research. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) announced a $1 million federal earmark, secured through fiscal 2022 appropriations legislation, to support University of Rhode Island (URI) research on the polluting effects of microplastics in land and sea. “In the grand scheme of things, mi...

Biden Considers More Student Debt Relief

DC Shuttle ... Biden Considers New Pause on Paying Back Student Loans, $10,000 Relief. Ahead of the November midterm elections, and in an attempt to engage voters under age 30, President Joe Biden may be considering extending the pause on student loan repayments for several more months. Biden may also be considering forgiving $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower, with the caveat that borro...

Dems Push to Make Public Service Loan Forgiveness Stick

DC Shuttle ... Democrats Want Public Service Loan Waiver Made Permanent. The “Simplifying and Strengthening PSLF Act” would make permanent some of the changes made through the temporary Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver announced by the Biden administration last year. These changes both simplified the application process for borrowers while also shortening the length of time a borrower...

U.S. Ed Dept Awards Final Tranche of American Rescue Funds for Higher Ed

DC Shuttle ... Hearings & Markups of Interest The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hybrid hearing on Second Class Workers: Assessing H2 Visa Programs Impact on Workers on Wednesday, July 20 at 10:15 a.m. in 2175 Rayburn and via Zoom. U.S. Dept of Ed Awards Final $198 Million of American Rescue Plan Higher Education Funds to Support Students at Community Colleges, ...

House Appropriators Would Boost Pell Grants

DC Shuttle ... House Appropriators Draft $28.5 Billion Boost for Labor-HHS-Education. U.S. House appropriators released a draft fiscal year 2023 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that would allocate $242.1 billion in discretionary funding. Specifically, the draft House bill text would allot for: $86.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, which would be a $1...

Teaching Civics from Early Childhood to Higher Ed

DC Shuttle ... King Cosponsors the Civics Democracy Act. U.S.  Sen. Angus King (I-ME) announced that he is cosponsoring the Civics Democracy Act which was introduced by Sens Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX) earlier this year. This bill would authorize federal grants for educators, nonprofits and others to “improve [and] strengthen civics education from early childhood to higher educ...

U.S. Cancels Remaining Student Loans for 560,000 Borrowers who Attended Corinthian

DC Shuttle ... Ed Dept Cancels Remaining Loans for Over Half Million Borrowers who Attended Corinthian. The U.S. Department of Education “announced it will discharge all remaining federal student loans borrowed to attend any campus owned or operated by Corinthian Colleges Inc. ... from its founding in 1995 through its closure in April 2015,” impacting 560,000 borrowers. This $5.8 billion lo...