Daniel Luzer

According to an article recently posted on the conservative Heritage Foundation Web site, online colleges are a way to make higher education more affordable. This argument, though questionable, has been made by proprietary school advocates for years. Online schools are cheaper. People who go there same money by eschewing pricey, traditional schools. Heritage takes this […]

According to President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, the president plans to change the American student loan system so that debt will be forgiven after 20 years (or 10 years for students who spend a decade in public service) and student loan payments cannot constitute more than 10 percent of a graduate’s […]

From Ohio comes news that there’s a bill in the state house to essentially eliminate the tax currently associated with Pell Grants. From the Daily Reporter: Specifically, House Bill 419 would authorize an income tax deduction for the otherwise taxable portion of a federal Pell Grant used to pay room and board for a post-secondary […]

From the Chronicle of Higher Education comes news that college endowments are at their worst level in almost 40 years. According to the article: The value of college endowments declined by an average of 23 percent from 2008 to 2009, socked by the one-two punch of record investment losses and a precipitous drop in giving, […]

In 2004 some colleges are tried, again, to crack down on grade inflation, the increase in the GPA of students at American over time, without any change in standards. But the effort only really took at Princeton University, which dramatically decreased the amount of A’s it awarded. Now it’s starting to hurt. According to an […]

Diploma mills, like gangs and credit card scams, are troublesome precisely because they’re hard to define. According to an an article at Inside Higher Ed, legislators are trying to shut down the fake schools: The bill, sponsored by Reps. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Michael Castle (R-Del.), would (1) cement in federal law definitions of “diploma […]

The battle over same sex marriage extends in an odd way to Syracuse University. According to an article in the Post-Standard: A report from Chancellor Nancy Cantor recommends the university extend the benefits to “opposite-sex domestic partners of employees” as part of a broader change in employee benefits. The benefits would cost SU about $600,000 […]

This surprised me. Apparently about 1 in 5, or 20 percent, of Americans who earned PhDs in 2008 also attended a community college at some point in their education. Chart, which also breaks down the numbers by ethnicity, at at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

College Guide earlier reported on Obama’s plan to move all federal student loans to a direct distribution system. Many colleges, and many banks, were opposed to the direct lending proposal. Well they’re coming around. According to an article in Inside Higher Ed: The Education Department reported this week that 96 percent of colleges had taken […]

At least in part because of Obama’s American Graduation Initiative, the higher education community now understands that community colleges are important. It’s a little unclear what community colleges should actually do to be a force for good in the economy and in education, however. Well, from Diverse Issues in Higher Education comes news that experts […]