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today’s news for Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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NEWS FROM NASFAA

Each year, millions of low-income college students depend on funds from the Pell Grant program to help them pay for college. But inconsistent funding over time, coupled with threats in upcoming budget proposals are putting the future of the program on shaky ground, according to a new policy brief.

Jeff Baker, director of the policy, liaison, and implementation staff at the U.S. Department of Education will retire this month after working for more than 35 years in the student financial aid industry. He has been a critical resource to our states and regions, and has served NASFAA, the WASFAA region, and the California association. "... All I ever wanted to do was to help poor kids go to school," Baker told NASFAA members after receiving the Honorary Membership Award at the 2017 NASFAA National Conference. Watch the video now to hear his speech in its entirety.

NASFAA UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Take the Mic

Fall travel season is underway for NASFAA staff and elected officers! Next week, NASFAA President Justin Draeger and National Chair Lori Vedder will speak at MASFAA's 2018 Conference in Minneapolis, MN and Vice President Megan Coval is headed to New Orleans to speak at LASFAA's 50th Fall Conference. NASFAA staff and elected officers have many more upcoming speaking engagements at state and regional conferences. Head to the Events Calendar to see what's on tap for the rest of October and the coming few months.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

The eCampus-Based application for the Fiscal Operations Report for 2016-2017 and Application to Participate for 2018-2019 (FISAP) is now available on the eCampus-Based (eCB) website.

x - FEDERAL REGISTER

The Secretary announces the annual updates to the ICR plan formula for 2017, as required by 34 CFR 685.209(b)(1)(ii)(A), to give notice to Direct Loan borrowers and the public regarding how monthly ICR payment amounts will be calculated for the 2017-2018 year.

On May 9, 2017, the Department of Education (Department) published in the Federal Register a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit ideas and information related to the major features and types of commonly assessed fees that postsecondary institutions (institutions) must disclose under Department regulations with regard to each of the institution's Tier 1 (T1) or Tier 2 (T2) arrangements. The Department announces the final format for these disclosures. To allow institutions sufficient time to adopt the final format, if they elect to do so, the Department is allowing additional time––until January 1, 2018––for institutions to comply with the applicable disclosure requirements.

The request to conduct the "Connecting Students with Financial Aid (CSFA) 2017: Testing the Effectiveness of FAFSA Interventions on College Outcomes" study, funded by the NCER-NPSAS grant and designed to measure the effectiveness of an intervention that will provide financial aid information and reminders to college students who were initially interviewed as part of NPSAS:16 was approved in January 2017 (OMB #1850-0931 v.1).

x - HEADLINES

National News

"Testifying before the House of Representatives veterans' affairs committee Monday, Will Hubbard, the vice president of government affairs at Student Veterans of America, said if student veterans sat down to write an update to the GI Bill, it would look like the proposal before the committee," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"'I am overloaded and struggling. It's terrifying.' 'I feel like I'll be making the last payment from my grave.' ... Those were some of the comments we received from more than 2,000 respondents to NPR Ed's first Teacher Student Debt survey," NPR reports.

State News

"A proposal from an Ohio legislator aims to help make millennials homeowners at the same time as they pay off student loan debt," Nexstar Broadcasting reports. NASFAA President Justin Draeger is quoted.

"For the first time in more than two years, Illinois' public universities can start the school year with the promise of state money from Springfield," the Chicago Tribune reports.

"A growing number of Louisiana’s high school seniors are applying for federal aid to help cover college costs, a boom in applications pushed by state officials," according to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

"It’s been about a decade since the Long Beach College Promise was created as a partnership between the California city and a state university, community college and K-12 system, with a goal of increasing access to higher education," Inside Higher Ed reports.

Opinions

"A successful federal higher-education program enjoys bipartisan support, isn’t a government handout and requires recipients to work for the money they receive. What is there for a Republican president not to like?" the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says in an editorial.

Blogs & Think Tanks

"Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college but have not been able to keep up payments may get their debts wiped away because critical paperwork is missing," The New York Times' DealBook reports.

"I was neither the first nor best at noting that the election of Donald Trump signaled we now live in a post-institution age, or that Donald Trump seemed to have little interest in embodying the institutional aspects of the presidency," John Warner writes in Inside Higher Ed's Just Visiting blog.

x - INDUSTRY NEWS

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