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today’s news for Thursday, October 1, 2015

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NEWS FROM NASFAA

Last week a bipartisan group of lawmakers took to the Senate floor to discuss adopting the House-passed Higher Education Extension Act of 2015, a bill that would extend the Federal Perkins Loan Program for an additional year. Though there was significant bipartisan support for the program in the Senate, led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), it failed to pass when Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, objected under a “unanimous consent” procedure, which requires unanimity to move issues forward. With his objection, the program expired at midnight.

Yesterday evening the House of Representatives passed, by a 277-151 vote, a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through December 11. The House passage comes on the same day as the Senate’s approval of the resolution, by a vote of 78-20.

For the second year in a row, the national three-year student loan cohort default rate – as well as the default rates for public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit sectors – ticked down, according to new data from the Department of Education (ED).

In a hearing yesterday titled “Financing Higher Education: Exploring Current Challenges and Potential Alternatives,” higher education experts and members of Congress engaged in a productive conversation about paying for college while ensuring certain consumer protections. The hearing was called by the Joint Economic Committee, a committee made up of members from both the House of Representatives and the Senate that examines economic policy.

On October 2 and 3, a team of 12 NASFAA members and staff set off on the 2015 Washington D.C. Ragnar Relay Race, a 36-hour, 200-plus mile run from Cumberland, MD to Washington, D.C. Thanks to your generous donations, we raised $10,855 for the Dallas Martin Endowment for Public Policy and Student Aid (DME). Check out our two "Run Like Pell" Facebook albums for pictures of our team in action and visit NASFAA's DME page to learn more about the endowment's projects or to make a donation at any point throughout the year.

NASFAA UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Participating in the NASFAA election process is an important way to contribute to your association. Start by nominating a colleague today. NASFAA holds elections each year to select members to serve on its Board of Directors, which provides oversight and guidance for the direction of the Association. The nomination deadline is Wednesday, September 25, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

On September 28, 2015, the Department of Education (the Department) distributed the FY 2012 3-Year official cohort default rate (CDR) notification packages to all eligible domestic and foreign schools only. The rates will be publicly released on September 30, 2015. In this announcement, we provide information about our distribution of the official rates and the begin dates for appealing the official rates.

On October 3 and 4, 2015, the Department plans to execute extended Web site maintenance and operating system upgrades to several Federal Student Aid Web sites and systems. This work is in addition to the regular weekly maintenance that occurs each weekend.

Attached in Portable Document Format (PDF) format is the "Cohort Default Rate Guide for Guaranty Agencies and Lenders". PDF requires 4.0 or greater of the free Adobe Acrobat software.

Attached is the National Default Rate Briefings for FY 2012 3-Year Official cohort default rates.

x - HEADLINES

National News

"[On Wednesday,] the U.S. Department of Education revealed that the number of students defaulting on their student loans has continued to decline, to 11.8% this year from 13.7% last year, and 14.7% the year before that. That’s 11.8% of students whose loans entered repayment in 2012," Forbes reports. NASFAA's Megan McClean is quoted.

"Paying agents a per-student commission is illegal under U.S. law when recruiting students eligible for federal aid—that is, most domestic applicants. But paying commissioned agents isn’t illegal when recruiting foreigners who can’t get federal aid," The Wall Street Journal reports.

"For a second consecutive year, the number of students receiving their first college credential fell, even as the number of students earning a second or third undergraduate credential continued to increase," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"With the federal government's updated College Scorecard, the public now has access to information on the earnings, debt load, and graduation rates of former students at more than 7,000 individual public and private colleges," Education Week reports.

State News

"In the last year the University of Iowa has received a clear mandate from its Board of Regents: enroll more Iowans or risk losing money," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"California has a long record of injecting large sums of cash into its higher education system, and of the aid required to ensure that the system is available to more than just its most privileged residents," Mic reports.

"The days of toting heavy textbooks are gone for some Indiana University students, who have opted into the school’s digital learning program," The Indianapolis Star reports.

Opinions

"Growing concerns about student loan debt and college costs in recent years have generated no shortage of federal reform proposals to improve the status quo in American higher education," Kevin James of the American Enterprise Institute writes for U.S. News & World Report

"Earlier this month, California became the latest – and largest – state to release the results of new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards. As expected, California’s results mirrored those of other states: A more rigorous and honest look at student performance produced scores that were lower than those under the old tests across the board. But the Golden State’s tests are notable for a different reason – they just might be the solution to a $3 billion problem plaguing our nation’s educational system," Scott Sargrad writes for U.S. News & World Report

Blogs & Think Tanks

"The federal government now hands out more than $150 billion a year in grants, loans, and tax credits—up from $93 billion just ten years earlier. ... Yet net prices—what students pay after grants and scholarships—and out-of-pocket costs are at all-time highs," Andrew Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute said in a testimony to the Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday.

"As the presidential campaigning continues, an issue that is fast-becoming a central component of the election has been the question of how to curb ballooning student loan debt which reached a staggering $1.3 trillion earlier this year," Aryea Aranoff writes for The Huffington Post.

"Roughly seven million borrowers are in default on their federal student loans, and a record amount of outstanding student loan debt is delinquent. There is a well-publicized concern that student loan default will hinder economic growth and harm students for years to come," according to The Brookings Institution.

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