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…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face significant challenges in FY 2017 that impact its…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face significant challenges in FY 2016 that impact its…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face significant challenges in FY 2015 that impact its…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face a significant number of challenges in FY 2014 that…

A growing body of empirical evidence shows that some financial aid programs increase college enrollment. Puzzlingly, there is little compelling evidence that Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, the primary federal student aid programs, are effective in achieving this goal. In this paper, we provide an in-depth review of this evidence, which taken as a…

Student loan programs have been racked by defaults, bankruptcies, and administrative trivia, causing Congress to search for another system. Under consideration is a loan that would be repaid to the Internal Revenue Service through a withholding tax. However, better collection efforts with the present system are producing encouraging results. (JMD)

The "Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005" created two new grant programs for undergraduates: the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) program and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (National SMART) Grant program. The ACG program is intended to encourage students to take challenging courses in high school and thus…

This report discusses the continuing concerns of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in regard to the Department of Education's management and oversight of postsecondary student financial aid programs, especially the Federal Family Education Loan, the Ford Direct Loan, and the Federal Pell Grant Programs. GAO commends the department for its…

This report presents an assessment of the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the new Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA), along with recommendations to help improve FFELP and FDLP. It found that congressional priorities and the…

This report describes the provisions of the Veterans' Education Amendments of 1986 (H.R. 3747), which would amend chapter 30 of title 38, United States Code, to provide for educational assistance for apprenticeship or other on-the-job training under the All-Volunteer Force Educational Assistance Program. The first part of the report contains the…

This report provides an overview of efforts undertaken by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990 to review and report on federal program areas its work identified as high risk because of vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. It reviews the current status of efforts to address these concerns. The six categories of…

This document reports on a bill (H.R. 4087) to amend Title 38 of the United States Code with respect to employment and training programs for veterans. By unanimous vote, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs recommended passage of the bill as amended by the committee. The report first lists the proposed changes in the bill and then explains its…

This document is a transcript of a Congressional hearing conducted for the purpose of discussing the workings of the new federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) as it applies to veterans. Witnesses included various officials of veterans groups, especially Vietnam veterans from Massachusetts, state officials of Massachusetts, a representative…

Nationally obtained public testimony, evaluations of previous studies, discussions of prior recommendations, examinations of federal reports, and review of federal investigations have identified serious problems that threaten to undermine the integrity of federal student financial assistance programs, as well as public confidence in their…