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Welcome to The EDU Ledger! We’ve moved from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

Section: Blogs/Opinion

Crack Down on Debt

The cost of a college education is not only getting higher. It’s getting tougher, too. At least in Virginia. A Washington Post report indicates that an increasing number of students are being sent to collection agencies over delinquent tuition payments that would appear to be miniscule to the schools but much more substantial to the […]

August 11, 2017

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Building Competencies for the Future

To address the disconnect between higher education and the workforce, several colleges are experimenting with microcredentials, certificates, clusters of competencies, and even blockchain to communicate easily their students’ mastery of knowledge, skills, and abilities to employers. Some may scorn this trend as unnecessarily catering to a skills-obsessed world. Teaching up-to-the-minute skills appears to run counter […]

August 10, 2017

New GI Bill— We Can All Be Proud

Members of Congress might not see eye to eye on many issues, but at least they can agree on expansion of the GI Bill that boosts education aid to veterans and their dependents, Purple Heart recipients, and members of the National Guard and Reserves. The bipartisan legislation, dubbed the “Forever GI Bill,” passed the House […]

August 8, 2017

Cheating Poor Students

Six months ago, the colleges we lead joined 28 other universities and colleges with high graduation rates to launch the American Talent Initiative, an ambitious commitment, now involving 71 institutions, to enroll an additional 50,000 low- and moderate-income students by 2025. Now, however, the Trump Administration and some Congressional leaders are poised to make reaching […]

August 4, 2017

They Served Us

Given the 16 years of continuous military activity following 9/11, it is not surprising that a large number of returning veterans are looking forward to the next step in their lives. As a nation, we should always remember their individual and collective sacrifice and courage. Increasingly, higher education is taking a larger role in providing […]

August 3, 2017

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He Has No Idea

My name is Payton McGarry. If you recognize it, that’s because I’m a client in Lambda Legal and the ACLU’s lawsuit against North Carolina’s anti-trans “bathroom bill” HB 2, and now its fake repeal HB 142. What you may not know about me, though, is that I’ve wanted to be in the military ever since […]

August 1, 2017

Women, Peace & Security

The first US National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace & Security (WPS) was issued in 2011, as a call to action “to accelerate, institutionalize, and better coordinate efforts to advance women’s inclusion in peace negotiations, peacebuilding activities, and conflict prevention and response; to protect women and girls from gender-based violence; and to ensure safe, […]

July 28, 2017

Finally, a Break on Tuitions

Hearing your parents talk about how they paid for their college tuition with a part-time job can be frustrating. Though these stories are true, the tuition structure has completely changed over the past 30 years. The cost of going to school has skyrocketed, putting more of a burden on you as a student, causing you […]

July 27, 2017

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Preparing Service Members for Future

In Congress, my colleagues and I have not only been working around-the-clock to repeal and replace Obamacare, we have also been doing important work in our committees to cut red tape, advance pro-growth policies that will create jobs and provide essential oversight of government programs so we can improve them. This has been particularly true […]

July 25, 2017

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Don’t Put It Off

Now for some, the picture I just painted may look like a lazy, disgruntled college student finally starting his homework during the 11th hour, but I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. Before uploading my literature homework at 11:58 p.m., one minute before the deadline, I had spent the previous three hours […]

July 21, 2017

Closing the Gap

There’s precious little bipartisanship left in Washington. But in a nation that too often gives little more than lip service to those who have given us the full measure of service, a House bill unveiled Thursday is an across-the-aisle no-brainer. In the aftermath of 9/11, legislation was passed in 2008 that provided veterans full scholarships […]

July 20, 2017

What GI Bill Needs to Do

Swords to Plowshares recently conducted focus groups with 75 veterans at four San Francisco Bay Area universities to assess resource needs and supportive practices for veterans. Their experiences and insights inform our policy recommendations for the GI Bill. Many student veterans struggle financially despite the assistance of their educational benefits. Others are ineligible for the […]

July 18, 2017

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Restore Benefits

A recent government study concluded that about 12 percent of service members who left the military between 2011 and 2015 did so with a discharge type that will make them unable to access Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Within that group, more than 55,000 had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or related […]

July 14, 2017

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Rolling Back Protections

Step by step, the Trump administration is walking back policies and rules in higher education that its predecessor said were needed to protect students who rely on federal funding to pursue a degree. Supporters say the Education Department under President Trump is restoring balance after overreach during the Obama administration led to punitive regulations and […]

July 13, 2017

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DeVos, Stop Stalling

This week, the Department of Education is holding hearings (Monday in DC, Wednesday in Dallas) at which members of the public can comment on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s announcement that she will conduct a “Regulatory Reset“ – a new round of rule-making proceedings to reconsider two college accountability rules issued by the Department in […]

July 11, 2017

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Withholding Diplomas

Well, this seems problematic. Beginning with the class of 2020, seniors in Chicago’s public school system will not be given their high school diplomas unless they provide proof of a post-graduate plan, such as a college acceptance letter or enrollment in the military. But what is being pushed as a motivational initiative to get kids […]

July 7, 2017

Applying Military Training to Civilian Workplace

Human nature, motivation and avenues to fulfillment have not changed much since our prehistoric ancestors fashioned spear points in caves. Because the military is one of the oldest professions in the world, there is a vast body of literature dedicated to leadership and management in the military environment. Examples of great leadership can be found […]

July 6, 2017

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Education Worth Fighting For

On April 27, Purdue University’s president, Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, unveiled a dramatic new program that he and the board of trustees had been fashioning in secret for months. This self-proclaimed world-class university would be acquiring Kaplan University, one of several controversial for-profit, online education companies that have emerged over the last […]

July 3, 2017