University Business - February 2007 - (Page 25)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 ON THE HILL Shaping the Issues Political changes impact higher ed agendas. By Alan Dessoff I T H THE 110TH CON gress in business under new, if narrow, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Washi n g t o n higher ed leaders are looking hopefully but cautiously at what the shift might mean for their priority issues. “The change in leadership, particularly in the House, may pave the way for action on key community college priorities that have been held up by stark differences in legislation produced by the Republicancontrolled House and the more bipartisan Senate,” declared a post-election statement from the American Association of Community Colleges AACC . Other organizations have voiced similar outlooks. Higher ed “will be an important topic in public policy discussions at the federal and state levels,” said a statement from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities AASCU . What direction those discussions will take in Washington is up in the air until the House and Senate begin to address specific issues with specific proposals. But there are some signs of what some of that legislation might be. AGENDA EXPECTATIONS Although budget issues, along with the Iraq war, are expected to dominate the first session of the new Congress, Democrats are expected to follow up on 2006 campaign pledges to make college more affordable and accessible for the middle class. Steps they have proposed include increasing funding for Pell Grants, cutting the interest rate on student loans, and developing a way to expand the use of tax W The College Student Relief Act, approved in the House, is now awaiting Senate approval. credits to offset education expenses. On the campaign trails, House Democrats aggressively called for a substantial increase in Pell Grants, which the government awards to low-income college students. The grants have not been increased for six years, and Democrats want to boost the maximum amount from $4,050 to at least $5,100 to keep pace with the jump in college costs. Democrats say that would help 5.72 million students a year. It would cost the government $17.3 billion. AACC is among the higher ed groups cheering that potential move and promising to pressure Democrats to make good on the promise. Rep. David Obey DWis. , chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is a long-time supporter of Pell Grants, the organization points out. House Democratic leaders also indicated that they’d seek to cut in half the interest rate on federal Stafford student loans, from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. They also want to drop the rate from 8.5 percent to 4.25 percent for the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students PLUS program, which offers loans for up to the full cost of a child’s college attendance. The resulting College Student Relief Act was approved in the House during the Democrat’s ambitious “first 100 hours” by a vote of 356 to 71. While the bill is still pending in the Senate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy DMass. , the new leader of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has been a powerful liberal advocate on education issues. Also in the loan area, AACC notes that Democrats have supported giving institutions additional student grant funds if they switch to the Direct Loan DL program rather than the bank-based Federal Family Education Loan FFEL program. Their rationale: The DL program costs the federal government less than the private sector–financed FFEL, so students attending schools participating in the DL program should benefit. But the banking lobby, representing an industry that profits from student loans, will aggressively oppose moves like that. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon RCalif. , who chaired the House Education Committee in the last session and now is its ranking minority member, told the Consumer Bankers Association at a Washington-area meeting that he would fight to ensure bankers’ input on decisionAlan Dessoff, a former reporter for The Washington Post, is a Bethesda, Md.-based freelance writer. universitybusiness.com February 2007 | 25 OTH_207.indd 25 1/22/07 11:03:18 AM Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - February 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Admissions
On The Hill
Future Shock
Facilities Focus
Independent Outlook
Flu Pandemic Prep
Advancing the Brand
The Picture’s Getting Clearer
Groundbreaking Ideas
Gotta Get a Message to You
Internet Technology
What's New
calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - February 2007