| 来源类型 | Article |
| 规范类型 | 评论 |
| Four More Years | |
| Frederick M. Hess; J. Noah Brown; Mark G. Yudof; David L. Warren | |
| 发表日期 | 2004-11-03 |
| 出版年 | 2004 |
| 语种 | 英语 |
| 摘要 | As the Bush administration enters its second term, will the higher-education-policy issues that received the most attention in the first term remain front and center? Or will the issues be significantly different? The Chronicle Review asked four experts for their views. Frederick M. Hess It’s hard to see any radical changes looming in the higher-education agenda during the second term. First, the administration has made clear that it is more deeply invested in the reform of elementary and secondary schools than of higher education. That was obviously true in the first term, and the president strongly suggested in the course of his campaign that the most likely change in focus would be from early education to high schools–not to postsecondary education. Second, there just isn’t much money in the coffers. Even if the fiscal goal is to cut the deficit in half by 2009, little new money will be available for domestic discretionary spending. That will limit support for the Pell-grant program, student loans, the National Science Foundation, and other programs of consequence to higher education. As a result, any new efforts will probably focus on low-cost initiatives that fit into the administration’s larger priorities, like its pilot effort to provide additional student aid for students who take rigorous high-school courses. I also expect that the administration will continue to promote competition and innovation by supporting efforts to reduce the statutory and regulatory challenges that for-profit institutions face. It seems likely that the administration will also try to find ways to pressure traditional colleges to control costs, pursue accountability measures, and respond to conservative concerns of political bias–although limited budgetary resources will restrict its leverage to push for substantial changes. Finally, given the administration’s sense that its stance in the war on terror has received a popular mandate–and with the Senate more firmly in GOP hands–it seems unlikely that university concerns about student visas, Department of Defense recruiting, or similar issues are going to receive much substantive consideration. J. Noah Brown Now that they hold more seats in Congress, I expect Republicans to push even harder for relaxing the federal student-aid rules that for-profit colleges must follow. Those include eliminating the requirement that such institutions match federal student-aid funds with at least 10 percent in nonfederal funds (the so-called 90-10 Rule) and simplifying the federal definition of a higher-education institution. That would give such institutions access for the first time to federal institutional-aid programs. Legislators will also probably reform student-loan programs, increasing their profitability for private lenders while raising payment costs to student borrowers through higher interest rates. On the tax side, the Republican majority will most likely seek to make permanent a number of 2001 tax cuts, including deductions for prepaid college-tuition plans and student-loan interest. Expect Congress also to raise the limits for how much families can contribute to federal college-savings plans and to retain the $4,000 tax deduction for tuition slated to expire at the end of 2005. Such proposals favor middle- and upper-middle-income students and families, and do very little to help low-income and disadvantaged students whose families can’t afford to save for college and already pay little or no tax. On the plus side, for those students, the Association of Community College Trustees plans to press Congress to enact the president’s proposals to create a $250-million community-based jobs initiative for community colleges that would encourage them to collaborate with local companies to train workers in emerging industries. The Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved such spending as part of its spending package for fiscal year 2005. The association also supports and expects approval of Bush’s proposal for a new $125-million Community College Access Grants Fund to improve the services that community colleges provide and to encourage high-school students–especially low-income and minority students–to continue on to college. Such measures would do much to strengthen communities and spur economic development and job growth. Mark G. Yudof I expect that we will see renewed emphasis on accountability in higher education. Margaret Spellings, the assistant to the president for domestic policy who has just been nominated to be U.S. secretary of education, recently participated in the University of Texas System’s first annual accountability symposium. In her remarks, she suggested that the administration would be looking for ways to have a constructive dialogue with the higher-education community. It seems apparent that, without being intrusive, the White House will be looking for ways to ensure that American families and students are getting real value for the dollars they spend on education. We in higher education should be prepared to participate in the dialogue with the administration and Congress and be ready to bring a workable and meaningful accountability plan to the table. I think we can expect to see an effort to simplify the process of applying for financial aid, making it less complex and perhaps more timely in terms of students’ ability to make decisions and assess the affordability of their options. Also, we hope that the dialogue will include how the federal government might tie financial aid to desired strategic outcomes–for instance, encouraging students to take full course loads, attend summer school, and graduate within four or five years. David L. Warren There is no indication that significant changes will be made in higher-education-policy issues during President Bush’s second term. Higher education received relatively little attention in the campaign. However, when the issue did emerge in the final debate, it was gratifying that the president emphasized the importance of Pell grants. I would certainly hope he keeps that thought. Even in relatively tight budget times, it remains essential to maintain investments in federal student aid, including the grant, work-study, and loan programs. But budget challenges make that less likely. I look forward to seeing movement on several important tax-related issues of interest to higher education, which were stalled during the 108th Congress, particularly on charitable IRA-rollover legislation. Improving the tax treatment of rollovers would allow people with excess money in their retirement accounts to make charitable donations without incurring any of the current tax penalties. Proposals like the effort to make the higher-education tax provisions of 2001 permanent will also be center stage. Those include favorable treatment for Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, 529 plans, employer-provided education benefits, and the improvements made in the student-loan interest deduction. One sleeper issue: the emerging scandals in the for-profit sector, particularly among publicly traded companies, some of which are being investigated by federal authorities on charges of fraud and other legal violations. Such investigations, along with lawsuits by students and shareholders, could cast a dark cloud over both the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and student-aid appropriation. Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar at AEI. J. Noah Brown is vice president for public policy and strategic planning at the Association of Community College Trustees. Mark G. Yudof is chancellor of the University of Texas System. David L. Warren is president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. |
| 主题 | Education |
| 标签 | education ; Higher education ; school ; second term ; teachers |
| URL | https://www.aei.org/articles/four-more-years/ |
| 来源智库 | American Enterprise Institute (United States) |
| 资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/240244 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Frederick M. Hess,J. Noah Brown,Mark G. Yudof,et al. Four More Years. 2004. |
| 条目包含的文件 | 条目无相关文件。 | |||||
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