Civil Rights News: Judge Strikes Main Element of For-Profit College Rules; Congress approves student loan extension, highway funding bill; Stiglitz: “How policy has contributed to the great economic divide”
Judge Strikes Main Element of For-Profit College Rules
Tamar Lewin
New York Times
A federal judge struck down the centerpiece of the Department of Education’s “gainful employment rules”, a set of regulations targeting for-profit colleges and career training programs. Judge Rudolph Contreras declared that conditioning colleges’ federal-aid eligibility on a 35% repayment rate among graduates was arbitrary. Designed to help students in for-profit colleges, the guidelines were intended to limit federal support to colleges which adequately prepared students for the job market. A Department of Education spokesperson emphasized that the judge had not struck down the concept of regulation and that the ruling would only result in reexamining the benchmarks.
Student loan extension, highway funding approved by Congress
Ed O’Keefe and Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post
Congress approved a broad reauthorization bill on Friday, just days before key provisions were set to expire. The bipartisan legislation included: extending the current 3.4% interest rate on federally subsidized student loans, reauthorization of federally subsidized flood insurance for 5.6 million people and the first comprehensive transportation bill since 2006. Provisions related to student loans, which affect more than 7 million students, were extended for one year and modified to cap eligibility at 150 percent of the length of a college program. Republicans and Democrats had clashed for months over the bill and the final compromise omitted controversial funding for both the Keystone pipeline and conservation efforts.
How policy has contributed to the great economic divide
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Washington Post
Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate and World Bank chief economist, urged policymakers to increase government stimulus for students and homeowners while decrying austerity measures proposed by conservatives. Warning of a double-dip recession, Stiglitz said investing in education, from early childhood programs like Head Start to Pell grants for college, would “stimulate the economy, improve opportunity and increase growth”. Recent data published by the Federal Reserve shows a 40% decline in the average median wealth over the last three years, wiping out two decades of growth. In the Washington Post opinion piece, Stiglitz stressed the link between societal inequality and economic strength while criticizing the Bush-era tax cuts as the type of irresponsible fiscal policy that would decrease both economic strength and democratic participation in the United States.