The first section of this report provides information on hurricane-recovery efforts. The second section of this report provides a summary of the work concluded in the area of elementary and secondary education, special education, and post-secondary education programs over the last six months. For 26 years, helping the Department identify and…

Creative ideas recently emerging to help families cope with rising educational costs are reviewed, including state and federal level savings plans, alternative loan programs, guaranteed access plans, and public service proposals. (Author/MSE)

This paper analyzes the merits of proposals to encourage saving for college by permitting families to use funds accumulated in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's) to pay postsecondary education expenses. The paper argues that tax treatment of such expenditures might parallel that for expenditures of IRA's for retirement purposes--deferring tax…