On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden's higher education agenda featured prominent promises to forgive student loan debt and make community college debt free. But as Congress continues to debate these high-profile proposals, Biden's Department of Education has signaled its intent to use a little known yet powerful regulatory process to take…

Rising college prices and student debt, the growth and collapse of online for-profit colleges, and expansions of federal grant, loan, and loan forgiveness policies have increased calls for more accountability in our higher education system. And there is significant consensus among lawmakers that the existing set of quality assurance policies for…

Education tax credits provide federal financial aid to a wide expanse of American taxpayers; however, little research or analysis has been done on these costly programs. There has been little evidence of its link to college enrollment growth. This descriptive paper outlines the establishment of education tax credits, their original intent, and the…

In the United States, adult and workforce education (AE) seems to be located, simultaneously, both everywhere and nowhere in particular. Ongoing shifts in national economic demands and changes in requirements for training and education have brought learning in the adult years into the federal public policy arena. Sometimes referred to as lifelong…

The federal role in higher education has grown over the past two decades, and now a new administration has the opportunity to strengthen policies that support students and their colleges and universities. To help inform these decisions, the Urban Institute convened a bipartisan group of scholars and policy advisers to write a series of memos…

In the United States, as public demands for quality teachers have escalated, there has been a corresponding increase in national policy efforts to tie the standards of student success to teacher preparation, licensing, and evaluation. This conceptual paper examines how national authorities used specific policy tools to usurp the state's…

It may be a mistake to speak of the "higher education community" as a synonym for the Washington-based higher education organizations associated with advocating public policy for American higher education. These organizations represent different views and constituencies including students, states, and institutions such as liberal arts…

Enumerates different ways federal regulatory and legislative actions affect higher education as a business, social, and educational enterprise. Challenges the postsecondary community, particularly its associations, to carefully monitor legislation, alert institutions, share information, and take a united stand on important issues. (JT)

One of the most influential factors leading to the strengthening of the states' role in higher education is the coordinating agency which acts in liaison between both the state and national capitols and the universities. The states continue to experiment with 3 types of coordinating systems: the voluntary council consisting of public college and…

Policy analysis issues in a recent study of quality control in the basic grant delivery system are reviewed, and the validity of the findings as reported is discussed. The study's design and implementation, derivation and presentation of findings, and relevance of the findings to the study's policy recommendations are examined. (MSE)

After discussing the operations of both federally and nonfederally funded teacher centers, the authors raise some policy issues about the role of teacher education institutions and faculty in center development, operation, and governance. (SJL)

A study explored the changes in the federal role in education prior to and after the May 1980 Implementation Plan for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The documents related to the creation of ED determine if any change in the federal role in education was expressed through program components included in the new ED, and those programs not…

Based on a case study of the formulation and enactment of the Education Amendments of 1972, an analysis of the federal policy-making process for higher education is presented to provide the academic community a realistic perspective on federal action. Includes discussion of the policy arena, sources of policy options, and pluralistic…

A congressional staff member explains why Congress has difficulty controlling the federal role in higher education and suggests ways the higher education community can help make the federal government a more effective and responsive partner, e.g. assessment of the impact of federal programs by a coalition of nongovernment organizations. (JT)