Education
As furloughed federal workers scramble to cover their bills, members of Congress are imploring the Education Department to help those workers manage their student loans during the partial government shutdown.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) kicked off the effort this week with a letter asking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to direct student loan servicing companies to contact federal employees with information about their repayment options.
As furloughed federal workers scramble to cover their bills, members of Congress are imploring the Education Department to help those workers manage their student loans during the partial government shutdown.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., kicked off the effort this week with a letter asking Education Secretary Betsty DeVos to direct student loan servicing companies to contact federal employees with information about their repayment options.
The Trump administration is threatening to punish California regulators over their decision to turn away a large for-profit college seeking state approval for funding under the GI Bill. At issue is California's decision to avoid taking action on Ashford University's application for approval while the state's attorney general has accused the school of defrauding students.\
Freshman U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin is asking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to "proactively" reach out to student loan providers to encourage special dispensation for federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown.
In a Tuesday letter, Slotkin, a Holly Democrat, urged the U.S. Department of Education to do "everything in its power to ease the burden of student loan payments on all federal employees," including urging loan providers to tell borrowers about refinancing options.
If the state's newly released high school graduation rate report serves just one purpose, it should be as impetus for a crackdown on virtual charter schools, including one which more than doubled in size after graduating only 22 of its 1,009 seniors last spring.
Welcome to 2019. As Democrats assume control of the House this week, all eyes in the education world will be on what the new dynamic in Washington will mean for congressional oversight of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration Education Department.
And there's much more on the horizon for education issues this year — from a sweeping overhaul of federal higher education policy to legal fights over affirmative action to continued teacher protests.