In this edition of the Biweekly Digest, we revisit tuition tax breaks, discuss President Obama’s campaign to lower student loan interest rates, and explore governance challenges around online learning. Also, we’re hosting an author talk with University of Virginia’s David W. Breneman to discuss his new book on the future of higher education finance. Join us!
This Week:
On ESTV: Eliminating Tuition Tax Breaks
Tax breaks have been portrayed as a way to help middle-class families afford college. But, as we revealed in Moving On Up: How Tuition Tax Breaks Increasingly Favor the Upper-Middle Class, the data show that, increasingly, it is families with the highest incomes that benefit the most from recent changes to the federal tax code.
In the last three tax years alone, families making between $100,000 and $180,000 received nearly a quarter of the benefits, while the share going to middle-income families sharply declined. In a new ESTV video, Senior Policy Analyst Steve Burd explains the reasons for this dramatic shift in federal higher education spending, and how it’s become less targeted on helping the middle class.
Burd urges policymakers to eliminate tuition tax breaks and redirect the savings to sustain the Pell Grant program, which, unlike tax credits, is “extremely well-targeted” on helping lower-income students. | Watch This Video
Also From Education Sector:
Don't Ignore This Student Debt Problem
Last week, Congress voted to maintain a low interest rate for student loans, keeping it at 3.4 percent. Education Sector’s Amy Laitinen agrees this will bring relief to students about to take on new loans for college, but it does nothing to help thousands who are already drowning in student loan debt, she says, especially private student loan debt. And that’s a problem. In U.S. News & World Report, Laitinen argues that policymakers should make it possible for financially distressed borrowers to discharge private student loan debt like other types of debt.
“Private student loans are an oft-ignored part of the student debt problem, and they are almost always more expensive than and lack the protections of federal loans,” explains Laitinen. Unlike other forms of personal debt, if a borrower with private student loans finds herself in trouble, she can’t just declare bankruptcy and start over—she’s on the hook for a lifetime.
“Allowing private student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy could help the most desperate of borrowers. It wouldn’t be a fast, easy, or painless way out. But it would be a way out—something today’s borrowers just don’t have,” says Laitinen. | Read Laitinen's Commentary
Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning
Education Sector’s Interim CEO John Chubb contributes to the Fordham Institute’s new book Education Reform for the Digital Era, which explores implementation challenges for the digital learning movement. Chubb takes on the issue of governance in online learning. He argues that schools have come slowly to innovation and technology in the classroom, partly because current governing structures haven’t made growth attainable. He questions the role of local control over online learning and outlines an alternative through governance at the state level. A solution, he says, that’s intended to “encourage America’s venerable local public schools to adopt technology at a pace governed more by what works for students and less by what is comfortable politically.” | Read Chubb's Book Chapter
Upcoming Events:
You're Invited! Author Talk With David Breneman
Join us May 15, 2012, for a special evening reception and discussion with Education Sector Board Member and University of Virginia Professor David W. Breneman, co-author of Financing American Higher Education in the Era of Globalization (Harvard Education Press).
“This ambitious book grows out of the realization that a convergence of economic, demographic, and political forces in the early twenty-first century requires a fundamental reexamination of the financing of American higher education. The authors identify and address basic issues and trends that cut across the sectors of higher education, focusing on such questions as how much higher education the country needs for individual opportunity and economic viability in the future; how responsibility for paying for it is currently allocated; and how higher education finance should be addressed in the future.”
Space for this event is limited. Register to attend by contacting Sharon Cannon.
Announcements:
A Bittersweet Goodbye to Bill Tucker
Next week, our colleague, Bill Tucker, begins a new post at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as deputy director of policy development. Tucker has been an integral part of Education Sector since our start seven years ago, helping to build and shape our organization from the ground up. He’s been a terrific leader, colleague, and friend to all of us here at Education Sector. We wish him all the best in his new endeavor. Tucker reflects in a farewell blog post here:
“I'm extraordinarily proud of Education Sector's work and most of all, extremely fortunate to have worked with and learned from such an incredible team of thinkers, analysts, and writers. All of this work is stronger when thoughtful persons, from multiple perspectives and backgrounds, engage openly and forthrightly to work through our nation's most challenging educational issues. And I'm especially thankful for all of the researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advocates who have shared their ideas, challenges, and concerns with me over the last seven years. I've learned much from all of you and look forward to continuing to learn and engage in my new role.”
Trending on the Quick and the Ed:
A sampling of our most popular blog posts from the last two weeks…
The X-Factor
“[Yesterday], Harvard University jumped on the accelerating online education train. The creation of edX in partnership with MIT marks the latest development in what’s shaping up to be a fascinating contest between the nation’s leading research universities and its most ambitious private-sector entrepreneurs for domination of virtual higher education….” | Read More
Why Democrats Love Tuition Tax Breaks
“In the years since the Clinton administration first championed the Hope and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits, every successive Democratic presidential nominee has pushed his own tuition tax cut plan on the campaign – each more generous than the last. What accounts for the Democrats’ love affair with tuition tax breaks? Is it because they believe that this is best possible public policy? …” | Read More
Let’s Solve This: Building Public Awareness of Common Core
“Confession: I’m a sucker for a good infographic. And the Strategic Data Project at Harvard (part of the Center for Education Policy Research) released three(!). The project has developed a set of performance indicators for school districts and high schools – indicators that provide insight into how well they do in preparing and sending their graduates to college. …This is not the first time I’ve cheered (or lamented) the lack of information-sharing between K-12 and postsecondary education…” | Read More
