Should religious schools be an option? Should they receive public funding? Are they bad for community cohesion? What should we make of the charge that they indoctrinate? How should they be regulated? People disagree on the answers to these questions. Some maintain that religious schools should not be permitted. If parents want to raise their…

This non-regulatory guidance discusses provisions that govern within-district allocations under Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and accompanying regulations in 34 C.F.R. §§ 200.64, 200.77, and 200.78. It first addresses required and…

Part B, Section 619 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorizes additional preschool formula grants to states that are eligible for grants under Section 611 of Part B. States are eligible if they make Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) available to all children ages 3-5 with disabilities. While not mandatory, all…

Although law and regulation governing the distribution of intellectual property rights has significant implications for the cost, quality, and adaptability of educational products and services, PreK-12 education researchers have largely overlooked this issue. Recent changes to federal regulations in the U.S. require some federally funded…

Of the many factors that affect what school districts buy and do for their students, an often-overlooked issue is the influence of federal education grant programs. Nearly every school district in the country receives funding from the US Department of Education (ED) through grant programs that support elementary and secondary education. While this…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides services to students who have disabilities. These IDEA-funded services are afforded to students between the ages of 3 and 21 who attend not only public schools (including charter schools), but also private schools. IDEA contains comprehensive guidelines on 3 processes which, by…

For decades, the federal government has expected vocationally focused programs in higher education, especially among for-profit colleges, to lead to gainful employment in a profession. In the mid-2010s, the U.S. Department of Education developed gainful employment (GE) regulations that sought to tie a program's federal financial aid eligibility to…

With the cost of college soaring and the national six-year completion rate below 60 percent, the federal government's support for higher education is facing heightened scrutiny. What kind of regulation and accountability should Congress impose on what might be termed the world's largest voucher program--Washington's hefty funding of Pell grants…

In recent years, there has been strong bipartisan interest at the congressional level to require annual federal student loan counseling. Given this interest, and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAAs') commitment to being an active, helpful partner in reauthorization discussions, NASFAA convened a task force…

In March 2019, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a proposal to establish a new, nationwide federal tax-credit scholarship program. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-AL) introduced a companion proposal in the House. Although Congress' support of school choice is praiseworthy, a federal tax-credit scholarship program poses a threat to education…

Kevin Carey, vice president for education policy and knowledge management at New America, notes that lawmakers charged with writing a new Higher Education Act (HEA) face a dilemma. Innovation in the higher-ed marketplace is badly needed to improve student learning and break the relentless cycle of increasing cost that puts college out of reach for…

Can an academic institution be truly free if it relies on government funding? Federal dollars mean federal mandates, and those mandates grow increasingly draconian. More and more, they stifle debate on open questions, demand denial of verifiable scientific truths, eliminate due process for students accused of misdeeds by other students, or insist…

The Australian Government provides basic operating grants to universities, which are used to teach domestic undergraduate students. It imposes a productivity offset on the grants to encourage improvements in university productivity. But it is not transparent and does not vary across universities. Thus, universities have little incentive to improve…

The Trump administration has no significant plan or strategy related to higher education. The only major policy declarations--to eliminate federal regulations on for-profit colleges and revisit federal guidelines on sexual assault on college campuses--both unravel policies developed under the Obama administration. Where the fate of higher…

The 90/10 rule dictates that no more than 90 percent of institutional revenue at a for-profit college or university (FPCU) can come from Title IV funds. The rule, originally an 85/15 ratio, was introduced in the 1992 amendments to the Higher Education Act and has been debated for 25 years. Proponents argue the rule raises institutional quality by…