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In a special episode of "Off The Cuff," Justin, Megan, Stephen, and Karen answer member questions on the House Republicans' Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, the PROSPER Act. Following up on a mid-December webinar focused on the basics of the new bill, members of the policy team dig into more specific questions on some of the bill's provisions. The team explains the philosophy behind some of the lawmakers' proposals, and explains how certain aspects of the bill — such as a revised R2T4 calculation and "aid like a paycheck" — might work together. The team also answers questions related to the Pell Grant program, student loans and repayment, counseling, and the Federal Work-Study program.

This week on "Off The Cuff," Director of Policy Analysis Karen McCarthy joins the team to give an update on the latest discussions from the second session of borrower defense negotiated rulemaking. Karen and Allie highlight the most contentious issues that came up in the second session, and where there might be areas for tentative agreement. Justin, Megan, and Stephen discuss how the outlook for legislative progress in 2018 might change after the Republicans' retreat. Plus, Stephen gives an update on federal budget negotiations and how disagreement over DACA is complicating the process.

On the final day of the second rulemaking session convened to rewrite a federal borrower defense to repayment, higher education stakeholders tackled the remaining issue papers, which addressed closed school discharge, false certification discharge, guaranty agency collection fees, and subsidized usage period recalculation. Members also revisited the first few issue papers in an attempt to resolve disagreements over new language around instituting a higher standard of evidence for students to prove they were misled by their institutions, as well as settle a debate over whether students should have to prove a school’s malicious intent to qualify for loan discharge.

A group of Democratic senators this week sent a letter to Federal Student Aid (FSA) Chief Operating Officer A. Wayne Johnson, urging him to give more detailed information on how the agency would structure a proposed prepaid financial aid card, expressing concern that students and parents could be taken advantage of through “inappropriate fees and practices.”

An updated version of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS^®) Guaranty Agency (GA) DataPrep software is now available on the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) website. The GA DataPrep software is designed to assist GAs in reporting Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans to NSLDS.

The COD Processing Update provides information related to COD System processing and includes the following sections: COD News and Updates, Current Issues (with a subsection for All Programs, Direct Loans, and Grants), and Reminders.

Closeout of all 2016–17 Campus-Based program awards has been completed based on the official reporting in the Fiscal Operations Report for 2016–17 and Application to Participate for 2018–19 (FISAP).

"Joshua Ibarra is a fourth-year journalism and Japanese language student at East Los Angeles College. He takes four courses and walks to and from class across the 82-acre campus in Monterey Park, California. He lugs his backpack, filled with $200 textbooks, his pockets as empty as his growling stomach. Ibarra is forced daily to decide between transportation to get to school or food to feed himself through the day — his budget does not allow him to have both," The 74 reports.

 "As students and faculty return to college campuses this spring, they face a higher education landscape that is uncertain and volatile — and one that will be forced to grapple with opportunities and obstacles when it comes to meeting the needs of low-income and minority students in 2018," INSIGHT Into Diversity reports.

"The U.S. Justice Department has filed papers arguing Massachusetts' attorney general cannot pursue claims under state law that one of the nation's largest student loan servicers undermined a federal debt forgiveness program," Reuters reports.

"California should create a public college entirely online to help millions of working adults gain the skills they need to work in the new economy and raise their pay, Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday as part of the $132 billion state budget he proposed for 2018-19," SFGate reports.

"In a competition to woo students, public universities are increasingly offering lavish amenities that have nothing to do with education," James V. Koch writes in an opinion article for The New York Times. "...At a time when college has never been more expensive, this is the last thing students should be paying for."

"The Brookings Institution’s Richard V. Reeves, writing in the Chronicle Review, says that colleges and universities, partly because of the complexity of the admission process, are 'perpetuating class divisions across generations' as America develops what the Economist calls a 'hereditary meritocracy.' It is, however, difficult to see how something like this can be avoided. Or why it should be," George F. Will writes in an opinion article for The Washington Post. 

"Mounting student debt is a nagging problem for most families these days. As the cost of higher education rises, borrowing to cover those costs often becomes a family concern across multiple generations including the student, parents, and even grandparents or other relatives," Charlene Crowell writes in an opinion article for The Seattle Medium.

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