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today’s news for Tuesday, December 19, 2017

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ELM Resources. From our family to yours, we send a warm Happy Holidays greeting your way! And, ELM's Season of Thanks continues this month with a celebration of our recent survey results. We are so honored and proud of the trust you place in us each day. Your needs are our focus. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you. Visit www.elmresources.com or contact us at [email protected].

NEWS FROM NASFAA

The national college completion rate increased for the second year in a row and surpassed the pre-recession high, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The world of financial aid regulation saw a busy 2017, with the Department of Education issuing numerous electronic announcements on everything from implementation of year-round Pell Grants to multiple status updates on the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Want to know what the most popular announcements were among NASFAA members? Curious about what you may have missed or need a refresher? Take a look back at the 10 most-read announcements from the Department and share your thoughts on the year's big issues.

The Department of Education's Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO), which oversees the administration and enforcement of federal laws that relate to the privacy of students’ education records, has resources and training materials to help the broader education community stay abreast of matters related to student privacy issues. The OCPO releases new material on a regular basis, including best practices material from the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and policy guidance and letters from the Family Policy Compliance Office. To be notified as new materials become available, consider signing up for the Student Privacy listserv.

NASFAA UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

NASFAA is looking for a student to fill a 12-week paid internship with NASFAA's Policy and Federal Relations staff. The intern will help develop advocacy materials; attend and report on hearings, events, and meetings; analyze and summarize legislation and regulations; and much more. Those students studying in fields related to higher education, public policy, political science, and history may benefit most from this internship. If you know graduate or undergraduate students who may be interested, please encourage them to apply. This internship is supported by the Dallas Martin Endowment for Public Policy and Student Aid. Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 1, 2019, to be considered.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

This newsletter describes a new National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) report to assist schools with understanding which students are included in their Enrollment Reporting Statistics. 

x - HEADLINES

National News

"The Republican-backed tax overhaul is headed for final floor votes in Congress without some of the measures that would directly target higher education. Notably, a proposed tax on tuition waivers for graduate students and other college employees is no longer in the compromise legislation. But a high-profile tax on the investment earnings of some of the largest college endowments stayed in the bill," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"A proposal to tax some large private college endowments made it into the final version of a tax reform bill agreed to by House and Senate negotiators last week. The provision matches the more modest proposal included in the Senate tax bill passed this month, rather than a House proposal that would have affected many more institutions. But many college leaders have said the tax is bad policy and sets a dangerous precedent," according to Inside Higher Ed.

"Ranferi Avilez is meeting friends for a late lunch. It's unseasonably hot in Houston for mid-October, but instead of spending his Saturday as usual pouring cold brews and squirting whipped cream on iced caramel macchiatos, the 18-year-old is doing something special for himself: He is taking a day off," according to The Hechinger Report. "Avilez is a high school senior at YES Prep Gulfton, part of a Houston college-preparatory charter school network. He received his work permit at age 16 via the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (known as DACA), after his parents illegally brought him into the country from Mexico as a baby. Since getting the permit, he has worked evenings, weekends, and school vacations."

"The Republican bid to overhaul higher education is likely to heat up competition in the fastest-growing segment of the college market: adults over the age of 24," The Wall Street Journal reports. "When Congress passed the Higher Education Act in 1965, about one in four students were adults. Today, nearly 40% of college students are 25 or older."

"As the GOP tax bills passed by the House and Senate coalesce into one, destined for President Trump's desk, the highest echelon of the academic community is prepared for a broadside on their endowments," Yahoo Finance reports.

State News

"On an afternoon in July, the West Windsor campus of Mercer County Community College bakes in the summer sun. On the quad, a few hardy students brave the heat, gathering at outdoor tables in the leafy shade. Nearby, a group of kids from Camp College—a summer enrichment program for ages 6-16—take an outdoor break, their enthusiasm muted by the rising mercury. Suddenly, the torpor is broken by a string of young adults in identical dark-blue T-shirts and trousers—recruits from the on-campus police academy—jogging single file toward the student center," New Jersey Monthly reports.

Opinions

"America's most famous college dropout thinks too many students are following his lead," Mark Hampton, vice president for planning, analytics, and decision support at New York Institute of Technology, writes for The Washington Post. "Bill Gates, who left Harvard to found Microsoft, says it's 'tragic' that only half of the 2 million students who started college this fall will graduate."

x - INDUSTRY NEWS

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