Student Loan Blog : House of Representatives

2009 Budget Resolution with More Money for Education Approved by Senate

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:48:00 GMT

The U.S. Senate approved an $84.3-billion discretionary spending blueprint for the 2009 fiscal year that greatly increases federal funds for education as well as scientific research, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Senate Approves Budget Blueprint With More Money for Education and Science,” June 4, 2008).

The $84.3-billion figure represents an increase of 5.6 percent, or $8.2 billion, more than the current 2008 budget, and $8.4 billion, or 6 percent, more than the budget President Bush proposed for 2009. Since the House of Representatives is expected to pass the resolution this week, legislators may begin debating specific spending bills, such as increases to the federal Pell Grant program, as early as next week.

However, these measures probably will not make it through Congress before the new president is elected in November. Bush has threatened to veto any bills that exceed his spending limit, so lawmakers anticipate the possibility of financing education and other programs through a series of ongoing resolutions until a new president takes office.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

New Senator at the Helm of Higher Education Act Negotiations

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:13:00 GMT

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will “pinch hit” for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions who is recovering from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor — in Senate and House negotiations to overhaul the Higher Education Act (HR 4137 and S 1642).

Mikulski, the third-most senior Democrat on the Senate committee, will handle the member-to-member negotiations between education leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to an article in CQ Politics (“Doctors Say Kennedy Brain Surgery Successful,” June 2, 2008).

Both sides are working to merge two Higher Education Act versions passed separately by the House and the Senate last year.

In mid-May the two houses had reached a compromise on college cost watch lists, college accreditation, and campus piracy, but that draft of the measure did not include provisions on graduate education, new programs, or private student loans.

It is unclear when Kennedy, who has worked to ensure undergraduates have access to student loans amid instability in the student loan credit market, will return to the Senate.

Kennedy underwent surgery June 2, for a malignant glioma, an aggressive tumor of the central nervous system, and will receive chemotherapy and radiation treatment over the next few weeks.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Proposed Bill Combines House, Senate Versions of the Higher Education Act

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:51:00 GMT

Congressional aides hope to finalize a renewal of the Higher Education Act by Memorial Day that merges different versions of the proposed bill passed separately by the House of Representatives and the Senate last year, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Compromise Higher-Education Bill Takes Shape in Congress,” May 14, 2008).

Although the draft of the measure that is circulating Washington does not include provisions on graduate education, new programs, or private student loans — three of the bill’s 11 sections — the measure is already nearly 700 pages.

The issues that the two houses appear to have reached a compromise on include college cost watch lists, accreditation, and campus piracy:

Negotiators hope to give consumers more accurate and useful information about higher education costs by bolstering current watch lists. These lists, established by the House bill, already identify the most and least expensive colleges and those with the highest percentage of tuition increases. But under the compromise bill, institutions with the highest and lowest “net price” would also be listed.

The current 15 members of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which advises the Department of Education on accreditation, would be replaced with 18 new members, six each appointed by the secretary of education, the Senate, and the House.

Colleges would be required to develop plans to detect and prevent illegal downloading of music and videos on college campuses and to offer alternatives to such illegal downloading.

Issues that are still being negotiated include whether states should be punished for cutting their higher education budgets, whether textbook publishers and colleges should be required to disclose more information about the costs of the books, and whether colleges should be required to notify students and employees within 30 minutes of a campus emergency.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Congress Joins States and Colleges in Efforts to Reduce Soaring Textbook Costs

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:09:00 GMT

With the average college student now shelling out between $900 and $1,000 each year for textbooks and supplies, according to the College Board’s latest Trends in College Pricing report, schools, states, and now Congress are getting involved in the crusade to control the spiraling costs of college textbooks.

Propelled by studies that show the prices of textbooks are rising faster than the rate of inflation, the House of Representatives included provisions in the recently approved College Opportunity and Affordability Act that are specifically targeted at making textbook costs more manageable, reports Elia Powers of Inside Higher Ed (“Different Tacks on Textbook Choice,” Feb. 19, 2008).

The House bill (H.R. 4137), which passed the House on February 7 and renews the Higher Education Act, would have colleges provide advance information in their course schedules about required books to give students time to plan for expenses and comparison-shop for the most cost-effective options.

Also approved by the House was an amendment (H.AMDT.951) proposed by Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio that would create a pilot competitive grant program to assist a select number of colleges in setting up textbook rental programs.

States Enacting Their Own Textbook Legislation

H.R. 4137 would also require textbook publishers to provide more information about pricing and changes from previous editions, which follows bills already passed by some state legislatures, writes Powers.

Last April, for example, Washington state House Bill 2300 was signed into law, requiring textbook publishers to disclose retail prices and a history of revisions from edition to edition when presenting any materials to faculty.

In June, Oregon passed its similar Senate Bill 365 into law. In addition to charging publishers with providing retail prices and a list of all previous versions of a text to potential adopters, the Oregon measure requires publishers of textbook “bundles” (textbooks packaged with an accompanying CD-ROM or study guide, for instance) to make each component of the bundle available to students separately and to disclose the retail price of each piece.

In California, Assembly Bill 1548, known as the College Textbook Transparency Act, likewise calls for publishers to provide a list of revisions made to new editions, as well as for college bookstores to release the wholesale prices of textbooks. The California bill was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October and goes into effect in 2010.

Changes at the College Level

In response to the increasingly vocal concerns of students, families, and legislators, not all schools are waiting on Congress or state officials to adopt changes to textbook pricing and marketing practices. Some schools, writes Powers, have already instituted book rental, buyback, or other programs in a move to extend textbook affordability.

At Rio Salado College in Arizona, for example, a partnership with Pearson Custom Publishing allows professors to “build” custom textbooks, drawing material from multiple sources. Administrators believe this program could save students up to 50 percent on reading materials.

The University of Virginia, in addition to expanding its textbook rental and guaranteed buyback programs, is increasing its selection of e-books, which can save students as much as 30 percent over print versions of new editions. And a growing number of U.Va. professors are choosing to purchase older editions of books in cases where the new material isn’t a necessity, a move the university says cuts an average of 75 percent off new book prices.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit