As widely reported over the Holidays, Congress and the President enacted a Consolidated Appropriations bill that includes fiscal year 2021 funding for the federal government, as well as additional Coronavirus relief funding. Several higher education association websites and trade journal articles provide excellent summaries of the major funding changes and COVID-related resources made available under the legislation. Rather than provide a duplicative summary here, this post briefly highlights just two of the provisions quietly tucked into this massive legislative package that are not receiving as much attention.
Read MoreI am so pleased and honored to be one of the U.S. House of Representatives’ appointments to fill their six seats on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which reviews and advises the U.S. Secretary of Education on the recognition of U.S. accrediting agencies.
Read MoreLast month the U.S. Department of Education (“the Department”) issued its final regulations on Distance Education and Innovation. 85 Fed. Reg. 54742 et seq. While these regulations are the result of a successful, consensus-driven negotiated-rulemaking process with a diverse group of education experts as negotiators that commenced in 2018, they are even more timely and necessary now in this pandemic year. Many institutions are having to educate remotely for the first time or for the first time at scale. Teaching with technologies like Zoom or Microsoft Teams has served as temporary remote learning model. However, those methods do not meet long-term expectations for quality distance education, which requires regulatory attention and oversight, just as on-ground educational settings do.
Read MoreUnintended consequences due to stimulus distribution requirements must be corrected as future aid for higher education is considered.
Read MoreToday, Congress passed the Coronavirus (CV) Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This is the third piece of legislation to provide relief to large and small business, educational institutions (K-12 and higher education alike), as well as to individuals, as a result of the Coronavirus crisis. Congress provided for significant funding and relief to students, schools, and institutions of higher education (IHEs). The following is a brief summary of both.
Read MoreFor almost twenty years, I have advocated for the value of distance education, often defending it before the many skeptics of this innovative modality. So, during this time in the uncharted waters of Coronavirus, it is quite gratifying to see distance education coming to the potential rescue of hundreds of U.S. campus-based institutions and their students, even if hopefully temporary. And yet, even as I am comforted to see distance education’s sudden coming of age to serve such an essential role across the country, I have this gnawing fear.
Read MoreInside Higher Education posted an interesting piece this week on the recent research and data made public by the Texas Public Policy Foundation regarding the potential impact of a gainful employment/debt-to-income regulation. As a higher education policy lawyer who has spent a significant part of my career involved in some capacity with the various iterations of gainful employment, this new data doesn’t surprise me. I’ve had many years now in the trenches to think about gainful employment and higher education policy more broadly. Here’s what I think.
Read MoreAs non-profit university enrollments online have grown, their advertisements seem largely indistinguishable from the for-profits’. Truth in advertising – with the most conservative definition of that concept – matters, as does marketing spend.
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