They believe it means authorities will cast too wide a net, including accusations based merely on hearsay. The American Association of University Women, on the other hand, believes the standard would be an equalizer, helping women who once felt the system was turning a deaf ear to them. New sexual assault mandate causes national controversy by Ashley Withers, Daily Campus.
The ED adopted a new policy in that required colleges and universities to reduce student due-process rights, according to critics. Controversial Head of Dept. High school recruiting bills a controversial issue by Kyle Hightower, Associated Press. Students continued to default on their college loans at an ever-growing rate, according to the ED. The percentage of borrowers who defaulted on their federal student loans two years after having made their first payment increased to 9.
For-profit schools had the worst three-year default rates, Private, non-profit institutions saw a 7. For-profit colleges were also the subject of bad news in terms of student dropouts.
In some cases, the dropout rate may be linked to the cost of schooling. Feds: For-profits could lose federal student aid Associated Press.
Parent Revolution, a pro-charter school organization, led a signature drive to turn McKinley Elementary School over to Celerity Educational Group, which operated four charter schools in Los Angeles. As the number of charter schools continued to increase in many states, some critics, including charter school advocates, called for states to do a better job of enacting, overseeing and enforcing quality and operational standards for the schools.
Meanwhile, many state governments considered legislation to improve taxpayer-funded charter school performance. Cyber charter schools have become very popular in Pennsylvania, where supporters and their detractors have sparred over the merits of the specialized schools. Executives with the schools say they provide students a good education with more flexibility, allowing them to learn at their own pace while offering courses not available in their home districts.
Critics, including school superintendents and officials with traditional public schools, have complained about the cost of the schools and a lack of oversight and accountability. They also say school districts, which must fund cyber charter schools, are not allowed to know how many hours an individual student spends in cyber class, what their grades are or how they perform on statewide academic tests.
In addition, many of the cyber schools are low performing, with 18 under federal investigation over the past five years for such things as overcompensation to executives, corruption, and questionable financial practices.
Report: 44 Pa. Education Management Corp. Department of Justice in for violating FSA rules. The federal government and five states joined two former EDMC employees who claimed the company gave incentives to recruiters for bringing more students into EDMC programs, which was a violation of federal law.
Banned from use for domestic recruitment in the United States, the use of college recruiters has continued by American universities seeking foreign students. Economics and international competition have driven many U.
While the U. The more individuals an agent recruits, the more money they earn. The practice can lead to recruiters signing up any and all, regardless of their potential. In fact, nearly two-thirds of students who use agents are ill prepared for college.
Illegal in U. Many of the changes had what was described as a conservative spin on American history, which prompted many historians and educators to ask the board to reconsider its plans. In California, a state senator introduced legislation that would ensure that texts adopted there would not contain Texas-inspired changes. Cynthia Dunbar, a Republican board member, set the tone for the meeting when she opened it with an invocation. Texas school board approves controversial textbook changes PBS.
For-profit schools have been criticized for targeting veterans with misleading offers of higher education, only to leave them disappointed and in some cases feeling ripped off. Frontline dedicated one show to how for-profits were aggressively going after GIs, including those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD.
All of the veterans interviewed by Frontline expressed displeasure with their for-profit education. Such schools specifically went after PTSD veterans, claiming their distance-learning programs were ideal for those unable to endure in-class education. Pursuing veterans had become a profitable enterprise for these institutions. Educating Sergeant Pantzke Frontline. For-Profit Colleges, Vulnerable G.
American year-olds were found to be merely average in terms of reading, math, and science when compared to students in other countries, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment PISA. The test, which measured how well students from more than 70 economies were prepared to meet future challenges, revealed the U.
In mathematics, American year-olds were below-average performers, ranking 25th. In science, they came in 17th. Some analysts later contended that the results were skewed and that adjusting for oversampling of low-income students, which are disproportionately high in the U.
Schools by Alfie Kohn, Huffington Post. Conservatives in went after an openly gay official in the Obama administration, objecting to his past work and remarks on homosexuality. Jennings weathered the attacks, but resigned from the ED in to become president and CEO of the nonprofit national service organization Be the Change. Kevin Jennings Takes on Critics Advocate. With the push by President Barack Obama to increase federal student aid came arguments and studies that claimed such spending helped cause increases in college tuitions.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the relationship between increasing aid and soaring prices at nonprofit four-year colleges was not a sure thing, saying studies showed everything from there being no link to a strong causal connection.
Simply put, much of federal student aid is corporate welfare for colleges. Conservative critics like William Bennett, former secretary of education in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, insisted the cost of college tuition would continue to rise as long as FSA programs continued to increase with little or no accountability. How Can It Be? Bennett, CNN. A Democratic lawmaker tried in to revoke a provision in federal law that prohibits students convicted of drug possession from receiving federal student loans.
Representative George Miller D-California introduced the provision into the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of that would reverse a amendment making students convicted of drug possession ineligible to collect federal funding unless they completed a rehab program and passed two unannounced drug tests.
Students convicted of selling drugs would continue to be prohibited from receiving financial aid under the amendment. That opens opportunities for economic advancement later on in life. Some law enforcement groups opposed the change, saying the current policy deterred students from using drugs. Opposition to the amendment prevented it from remaining in the final bill when the House adopted it. The George W. Shaw was appointed in by Education Secretary Rod Paige after 22 years in industry, mostly at Sallie Mae, the largest student lender.
Audit Report U. Student loan officials working in universities and the federal government were caught owning stocks or receiving perks from lenders in a violation of conflict of interest rules. Matteo Fontana, a federal worker who oversaw a student financial aid database, was suspended from his job in the U.
Department of Education in after it was learned he owned 10, shares of stock in the Education Lending Group, parent company of Student Loan Xpress, which was the eighth-largest provider of student loans. Fontana was the first government official caught up in a probe led by then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo focusing on conflicts of interest between lending companies and universities.
The Cuomo inquiry discovered revenue-sharing agreements in which lenders paid back schools a fixed percentage of the net value loans steered their way. It was also reported that three major universities—Columbia, University of Texas-Austin, and University of Southern California—suspended their financial aid directors for also owning stock in Education Lending Group during their university tenures. Under the English Language Development ELD program, students were forced to study English four hours a day, usually in separate classes from English-proficient students.
The program was developed in in response to federal court orders stemming from a case, Flores v. Horne , which eventually landed in the Supreme Court requiring that the state offer an appropriate education to English-language learners ELLs. It gets people elected and it gives the politician brownie points, but it is not rooted in science.
In March , a district court found that the four-hour daily immersion program did not violate civil-rights laws. A report from the U. Department of Education released in revealed that most states were still struggling to meet federal goals for ELLs regarding mathematics and reading. Seventeen states in the school year reported meeting all three academic goals for ELLs, which included progress in learning English, attainment of fluency, and demonstration of proficiency on state content tests in reading and math.
But that progress stalled by the school year when just 11 states reported that they met all three targets. In the following year, , the number dropped again—to 10 states. Maxwell, Education Week. Bush administration. Andell was charged with billing the government for personal expenses related to 14 trips he took.
He also did not disclose to the federal government that he received salary and paid sick leave from the state of Texas as a visiting retired judge. In , Andell pleaded guilty to unlawful conflict of interest. Bush administration hired a conservative black commentator, Armstrong Williams, to promote the controversial plan on television and radio.
Williams contended that he did nothing illegal. Administration Paid Commentator: Education Dept. In the Government Accountability Office warned Education officials that legal loopholes could result in the government paying billions of dollars in unnecessary subsidies to banks that provided loans to college students.
The department chose to do nothing about the problem, and even as of , after the inspector general found serious financial mistakes committed by the department, then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings gave no indication that she would order banks to repay the government. Nor did the department plan to seek reimbursement. Paley, Washington Post. Then it was revealed that Tucker had ties to Nelnet through her years at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund HSF —which went from a philanthropic organization to a major fund-raising operation under her leadership.
They also indicated they were unwilling to recover the funds from Nelnet for fear it would force the department to pursue other lenders, which could potentially eliminate some student borrowing options. Begun in , the study was designed to measure whether narrowing the focus to students considered less likely to pursue higher education would make the program more effective.
Critics called the study—which required grantees to enroll twice as many students as normal and assign one half to a control group—unethical, even immoral, for recruiting disadvantaged students and then denying them entry for the purpose of determining numbers.
Education Dept. Such requests from direct-to-consumer private student loan companies are raising alarms among college financial aid administrators, who worry that the companies are trying to lure their students to take on unnecessarily high levels of debt.
In the wake of the George W. But by the end of the Bush era, officials in education found themselves confronted with a mixed bag of methods and research that often was labeled inconclusive, politically charged or less than useful for classroom teachers.
Another point of contention revolved around randomized trials and their use in evaluating educational methods. Critics labeled the trials as unethical, saying students in the experimental group were subjected to methods that were not only ineffective but also harmful, while students in the control group were denied the benefits of new and useful methods.
Still others criticized the emphasis on randomized trials in the absence of additional funding for schools that agreed to implement them. What can educators learn from the Red Sox? Debate over funding for higher education has historically fallen along partisan lines, with Democrats advocating more liberal spending and Republicans looking to dismantle federal assistance infrastructure.
In recent years, many Department of Education ED programs have been cut and lawmakers from both sides have called for increased oversight of spending at the postsecondary level. In February , the House of Representatives passed legislation to renew the Higher Education Act with bipartisan support. With all parties increasingly concerned about the inhibitive costs of higher education, Democrats joined Republicans in supporting a measure House Bill H.
Citing racial bias and disapproval with a diminished secretarial accreditation authority, the George W. Bush administration expressed initial opposition to provisions in the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of H. President Bush eventually relented and signed it into law. In early , Senate Democrats and House Republicans offered up competing budget plans that would impact funding for education.
The Senate proposal did nothing to alter cuts imposed under the sequestration, meaning they would remain in place for at least the rest of the fiscal year if the House agreed on the spending package. It also did not give agencies greater discretion in applying the cuts, denying the Education Department the ability to designate one program to suffer the brunt of the reductions and instead have to spread them out among various initiatives.
Nelson, Inside Higher Ed. Senate debates higher education provisions to improve federal programs and expand access to college by Mike Enzi, U. Critics of federal spending on higher education, largely Republicans and conservatives, have lamented the rising expenditure of funds for Pell Grants and other assistance coming out of Washington. They argue that the more money ED spends to help college students, the more tuition goes up at many universities.
Other critics say public colleges and universities must reign in their spending, especially when it comes to employee benefits particularly retirement and health care , because those increases are the driving force behind tuition increases at many institutions. Officials in higher education have lamented any talk of Washington reducing support for universities and colleges. They point to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, saying more students are going to college, but fewer resources are available to help them afford their education, especially for low-income students.
At the same time, states have made deep cuts in higher education budgets, making it difficult for colleges to hire full-time staff and faculty—and that can lead to lowering academic quality and graduation rates. Many schools are turning to hiring more adjunct instructors, which are less expensive and now make up the majority of the faculty workforce. The problem with that is adjuncts often have multiple jobs, leaving them with less time to assist students.
Three days into the George W. The intent of the law was for all students, regardless of economic status, race, ethnicity, or disability, to attain proficiency in reading, math, and science by The focus of NCLB is standards, testing, accountability measures, and teacher quality. It requires states to set standards and develop assessments and annual measurable benchmarks, and for districts and schools to implement them.
Ten years after its implementation, the law has received mixed reviews, with critics decrying an overemphasis on testing that they claim has often proven ineffective and subject to manipulation. By , the Obama administration had waived 32 states and Washington D. States, Some With Strings Attached. Supporters point out that student test scores have increased since NCLB took effect in Furthermore, test scores of minority students have gone up the most during this time.
Additionally, the overall achievement gap between minority and white students has decreased between and Summer Correspondence Education Next. McElroy, American Federation of Teachers. Stockman, Yahoo! Contributor Network. Schwartz, Columbia University. Common Core, which promotes voluntary national standards in math and reading, came into being in , when the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers announced plans to establish such standards.
All but four states—Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia—signed on to the standards and agreed to help implement them by The movement was aided by President Barack Obama, who decided to link Common Core standards to billions of dollars in federal grants. This decision enraged conservatives, who object to the federal government meddling in state education policy.
State and local control over elementary and secondary education limits the role of the Secretary of Education. However, the secretary has more power in higher education. For example, the ED's Office of Postsecondary Education oversees grants designed to increase graduation rates and improve academic quality in higher education.
In fact, the Pell Grant and direct student loan programs account for more than half of the ED's budget every year. Even more critically for many college students, the Secretary of Education oversees the federal student aid program.
As a result, the ED plays a major role in higher education funding — and in student loan forgiveness. Miguel Cardona took over the ED during a period of intense focus on the department. What will the top priorities be for Secretary Cardona, and what will ED policy look like under the Biden administration?
Cardona faces significant challenges related to the pandemic, the federal student aid program, and the ED's enforcement role.
President Biden has already signaled Cardona's central role in administration decisions about student loan debt and the freeze on student loan payments. As Secretary Cardona continues to influence ED policy, his choices will play a major role in higher education and the federal student loan program. As a result, it's a good idea for college students to pay attention to the process.
Genevieve Carlton holds a Ph. After earning her doctorate in early modern European history, Carlton worked as an assistant professor of history at the University of Louisville, where she developed new courses on the history of science, Renaissance Italy, and the witch trials. Carlton has published five peer-reviewed articles in top presses and a monograph with the University of Chicago Press. She also earned tenure with a unanimous vote before relocating to Seattle.
Learn more about Carlton's work at genevievecarlton. Fun Fact The Secretary of Education is 15th in the line of succession for the presidency. What Does the Secretary of Education Do? Fun Fact Passed in , Title IX prohibits gender-based discrimination in all educational programs that receive federal funding.
The Secretary of Education and Higher Education State and local control over elementary and secondary education limits the role of the Secretary of Education. In April , President Biden asked Cardona to research whether the president can legally cancel student loan debt. Biden asked the ED to extend the student loan pause through Sept. He will also define the ED's enforcement responsibilities under Title IX —— particularly in the wake of DeVos's new policies on investigating sexual assault in schools.
Cardona may reinstate restrictions on for-profit schools, since DeVos repealed Obama-era policies that protected students from diploma mills. Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May Search for:.
Toggle navigation U. Student Loans Grants Laws Data. Section , Public Law The Department's History Although the Department is a relative newcomer among Cabinet-level agencies, its origins goes back to , when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education.
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