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With only days before the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30, Republicans have released a continuing resolution (CR) to extend funding for the federal government. A CR continues current federal funding levels until a specified date. Without congressional action by the end of the month, the government will shut down on October 1. 

If the U.S. is going to be economically competitive with the rest of the world, overall education reform will need to be made a priority and businesses will need a seat at the table, particularly when it comes to higher education, according to panelists at an event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

The 2015 Graduate/Professional Issues Task Force Report identified several issues of importance to the G/P community and corresponding recommendations to mitigate those issues. One of the issues identified included the lack of graduate-specific student aid data. To address this problem, the task force recommended the creation of a new task force to tackle this issue and identify data needs specific to graduate student financial aid. Review the complete task force charter for more details and, if interested, complete the volunteer form by 5:00 pm on October 7.

President Obama last week announced that prior-prior year (PPY) tax information will be used on the 2017-18 FAFSA. NASFAA has created a PPY commitment form to allow institutions to demonstrate support for PPY and pledge to move toward the use of PPY data on their institutional aid applications. In addition, NASFAA will convene a PPY Implementation Task Force to proactively work with the Department of Education to identify and address implementation issues. Learn more at our PPY resources center.

This is a request for an emergency clearance approval for the Data Challenges and Appeals Solution (DCAS), a new system that will allow institutions to challenge their self-reported data as well as Department calculated metrics.

"Students around the country will soon benefit from what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called an earlier and easier Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a Sept. 13 White House announcement on the change," The Daily Princetonian reports. "Stephen Payne, the federal relations associate for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said the NASFAA has studied what moving to prior-prior year for the FAFSA could mean in the USA for over two years, even publishing a report in 2013 with support from the Gates Foundation. Reforms, he said, could have enormous implications for students nationwide."

"For decades, the federal government’s main yardstick for judging how colleges perform with federal aid dollars has been the default rate on student loans. Each year the U.S. Department of Education tallies up how many borrowers from a given college fell so far behind on their federal loan payments that they defaulted within several years of starting to repay," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"A group of Democratic senators is calling on the Defense and Education departments to make sure U.S. troops get protections related to student loans, mortgage payments and credit card debt," The Hill reports.

"PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will help its employees pay their college loans, an issue that has ballooned along with school tuitions," The Wall Street Journal reports.

"As the average student loan debt continues to climb, a new survey shows that the majority of young people entering the workforce want employers to help pay off their college loans," according to Business Administration Information.

"Student loan debt may be one of the only topics on which Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren agree. During a Twitter chat Monday, the real estate mogul and Republican candidate for president accused the government of profiting off student loans, in response to a question about how he would solve the student debt crisis," according to MarketWatch.

"The impending student-loan crisis proves Edmund Burke had a point: 'Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.' Though the economy has not yet recovered from the 2008-2009 mortgage crisis, the federal government has kick-started its next experiment in making something more affordable," Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, writes in an opinion piece for CNBC.

"Jeb Bush responded to hecklers chanting 'no hope without our vote' on Monday by reiterating his support for granting a pathway to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants," according to The Hill's Ballot Box.

"Over the past decade, a plethora of programs have been created to prepare students for careers in technical fields. These schemes often allow high school students to earn college credits, develop relationships with possible employers, and/or receive career guidance and mentoring," according to The Brookings Institute's Social Mobility Memos.

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