Inside Higher Ed

Financial Aid in Flux | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:06:00 -0400

The New America Foundation released its own report today that questions the need for student loan guarantee agencies but offers Congress, should it decide to sustain a role for them, ideas for how to adapt their role.

Lenders' Last-Ditch Gambit | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:05:00 -0400

Analysts at the New America Foundation, which takes a generally skeptical view of the student loan industry and has editorialized in favor of the Obama plan, questioned some of the principles underlying the lenders' alternative proposal.

New Effort to Promote '529' Plans for College Savings | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:09:00 -0400

The New America Foundation and the Center for Social Development, a unit of Washington University in St. Louis, on Thursday announced a joint effort to study "529" plans, with a specific goal of making them more attractive to low-income families. ...

Early Indications on State Use of Education Stimulus Funds | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:16:00 -0400

... already decided how to allocate the education funds they're receiving from the federal stimulus package are directing the bulk of the money to elementary and secondary education, according to an analysis of 13 states by the New America Foundation. ...

College Board Puts Off Plan for New Test for 8th Graders | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:13:00 -0400

During the Bush Administration, the Education Department signaled approval for some lender policies that then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings halted in 2007, according to an investigation by the New America Foundation's Higher Ed Watch blog. ...

A 'Third Way' on Student Loans? | Inside Higher Ed

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:06:00 -0400

The latest installment of the debate unfolded Tuesday during a forum here at the New America Foundation, a think tank whose higher education analysts are strongly allied with and generally supportive of the new administration's policies, including its plans to restructure the loan programs.

Michael Dannenberg in Inside Higher Ed | 'Helping Out With the Short List'

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:19:00 -0500

Michael Dannenberg, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, also focused on governors. He suggested Roy Romer, who in addition to being the former governor of Colorado was also superintendent of the Los Angeles public school district. Dannenberg called him “smart, political, well-versed, intellectually curious.” LINK

Higher Ed Watch blog post in Inside Higher Ed | Quick Takes: Where Is Matteo Fontana?

Communications — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:21:00 -0400

(Quick Takes) - “Where in the World is Matteo Fontana?” That’s the question posed by Higher Ed Watch, a blog of the New American Foundation, about the former general manager of the Financial Partners Division of the U.S. Department of Education student aid department, who was placed on leave last year after the blog revealed that he held stock in a loan company at the center of last year’s loan scandals — at a time he would have played a role in regulating the company. The blog noted that it had been 459 days since Fontana was placed on leave (a few more days have since passed), and asked why there had been no resolution to the investigation, after so much time, and said that the Education Department appeared to be working at a slower pace even than vacation-generous European governments. Inside Higher Ed asked the Education Department if it had an answer for the long time in analyzing the situation. Samara Yudof, a spokeswoman, answered: “Matteo Fontana is on administrative leave. As you may be aware, the U.S. Department of Justice is handling this matter. As soon as Justice’s investigation is completed, we will take appropriate action.”… more

Michael Dannenberg in Inside Higher Ed | 'Hedging Bets on Student Loan Availability'

Communications — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:02:00 -0400

Hedging Bets on Student Loan Availability (Inside Higher Ed)

. . . “I think he’s doing the right thing in seeking to calm fears of parents or financial aid officers scared by newspaper headlines, and by demonstrating that Congress is ready to act should there be widespread problems for students themselves, as opposed to some lenders,” said Michael Dannenberg, director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation. Dannenberg said that Kennedy’s plan should be viewed not as opening the door to students’ borrowing more but as allowing them to shift their borrowing to less-costly federal loans rather than more expensive private ones. . .

New America Foundation in Inside Higher Ed | 'A Student Loan Credit Crunch — But for Whom?'

Communications — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:34:00 -0400

A Student Loan Credit Crunch — But for Whom? (Inside Higher Ed)

. . . “Students with poor credit ratings, particularly those at trade schools whose graduates have poor repayment track records, might be unable to find a willing private student loan provider,” the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program wrote on its blog this month. “All students, however, who apply for a private student loan with a creditworthy co-signer should be able to obtain a loan and obtain it at a lower interest rate than they otherwise would receive. Private student loan borrowers who don’t have a creditworthy co-signer and who are pursuing academic programs at schools with dubious job placement and loan repayment track records should consider lower cost education options.”

The idea suggested in the New America post — that the credit crunch isn’t a major problem because it is affecting mostly students at for-profit colleges, and should actually prod students who take out costly private loans at for-profit schools to enroll instead in community colleges or other lower-cost institutions — has been a subtext of some of the discussion surrounding the credit crunch, and reveal just how differently the crisis is perceived in various quarters. . . .