The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, specifies a loan origination fee of 1 percent for all Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and a fee of 4 percent for all Direct PLUS Loans for both parent borrowers and graduate and professional student borrowers. Student loan origination fees, the hidden student loan tax, generated…

It has become increasingly difficult for the two major parties in Congress to reach agreement on major higher education legislation. As a result, the Higher Education Act is long overdue for reauthorization. Congressional stalemates on higher education legislation are not conducive to effective and productive governance in this important area of…

Background: Nearly two decades have passed since the last successful reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Since then, student loan debt and the accumulation patterns based on race have become a pressing issue to address in U.S. society. Purpose: Student debt is one of the key issues on the federal higher education policy agenda. The…

There was a lot of talk about both the fate of American democracy and American higher education in 2021, but not much consideration about how the two were deeply intertwined. The 1947 report "Higher Education for American Democracy" showed awareness of how race, sex, class, and religious discrimination thwarted the talents and ambitions…

The proposed College Affordability Act calls for a massive uptick in federal spending on higher education and increased access to federal student aid (which has been shown to inflate tuition), while easing the criteria for federal loan forgiveness, leaving the bill to American taxpayers. Americans need solutions that will drive down the price of…

This report identifies and describes federal student loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs that are currently authorized by federal law. It provides brief, summary descriptions of identified programs. These program descriptions are intended to provide policymakers with general information about the purpose of existing programs and how they…

Congress's role in defining and promoting equality of educational opportunity has evolved over the past 55 years since "Brown v. Board of Education." Most recently, all three branches of the federal government have focused more on equality of educational opportunity for "individual" students rather than for protected classes.…

This book tracks the dramatic outcomes of the federal government's growing involvement in higher education between World War I and the 1970s, and the conservative backlash against that involvement from the 1980s onward. Using cutting-edge analysis, Christopher Loss recovers higher education's central importance to the larger social and political…

Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed the College Opportunity and Affordability Act in a vote of 354-58. This legislation, H.R. 4137, moves Congress one step closer to the long-awaited reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which governs federal student financial aid and other programs that promote access for low-income…

The introduction to this historical survey notes that the Federal educational legislation of 1965--the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act--did not in fact represent the kind of "breakthrough" claimed for these two measures. The Federal government had been involved in educational legislation even before…

International education is seen as standing on the verge of a major breakthrough in Congress. Several events have triggered interest: the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, the new Department of Education, Middle East crises, and reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act and the National Defense Education Act.…

A report from the Committee R on Government Relations of the American Association of University Professors is presented. The Department of Education, federal budgets, reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, intelligence legislation, truth-in-testing legislation, amending the National Labor Relations Act, and the presidential election of 1980…

This article presents arguments in favor of the federal government providing loans directly to higher education students (without intermediate lenders and secondary markets). It explains loan funding, processing, fund dispersal, college responsibilities, and remaining legislative hurdles. It attempts to dispel myths, such as that direct loans…

Evidence indicates that a higher education system operates among the federal government, state and local governments, and institutions. The three components share common goals and program interdependencies, especially in student and institutional aid. Recognizing a system exists and strengthening it through reauthorization of the Higher Education…

At this hearing, part of a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Secretary of the Department of Education, Lamar Alexander, gave testimony designed to present the Bush administration's recommendations on reauthorization of the Act to the Congress. Before the Secretary's testimony the following…