The Chronicle of Higher Education

... to administer bank-based student loans have evolved into inefficient middlemen that waste taxpayer money, the New America Foundation said today. ...

"The Bush administration basically stopped paying attention," said Stephen Burd, editor of the Higher Ed Watch blog at New America Foundation, a public-policy institute. "They gave them the green light to do whatever they wanted." Original article

MaryEllen McGuire, who directs the education-policy program at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based, nonprofit public-policy group, said lawmakers are under pressure from the White House as well as constituents to quickly fill budget gaps and save education jobs. "Governors want to be able to respond now," she said. Original article

The most recent such report was issued today by the New America Foundation, which labels itself ideologically centrist. Titled “Bridging the Gap: How to ...

Federal student loans issued since 2000 would be eligible for subsidies based on the new calculation. The New America Foundation, which drew attention to the proposed change on its Higher Ed Watch blog, estimated that the change would increase the subsidy rate by 0.5 percentage points...

read more

That policy change has made it less appealing for Congress to postpone paying for the Pell Grant program, says Jason Delisle, a former senior analyst on the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee who now works for the New America Foundation, a public-policy institute. LINK (subscription required)

This month, as parents of college-age students sign promissory notes for student loans and watch tuition checks diminish their bank accounts, Congress is encouraging all parents to wake up and start planning. While National College Savings Month -- meant to spread awareness about the need to save for higher education -- has a laudable goal, promoting the importance of saving won't do much to help struggling families afford the cost of higher education.

(Chronicle U.)-Sen. John McCain’s chief education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, found herself in a tough spot Thursday when asked by the moderator of a New America Foundation forum to lay out the Republican presidential nominee’s agenda for higher education.

“I can’t do that because the Senator hasn’t done that yet,” Ms. Keegan said. “I apologize for the timing.”

In his new book, The Healthcare Fix: Universal Insurance for All Americans (MIT Press, 2007), Laurence J. Kotlikoff demonstrates that at some point between 2035 and 2050, the costs of Medicare and Medicaid (two health-care programs that serve only a minority of the population), combined with the costs of Social Security, will approximate the total current cost of the entire federal government as a percentage of GDP. Medicare and Medicaid, without Social Security, will surpass the current cost of government by 2082.

President Bush: A Friend of Higher Education After All? (The Chronicle of Higher Education, subcription only)