Education Funding

Five hundred million dollars is a lot of money -- especially for a public university. When the giant oil company BP announced Feb. 1 that it had chosen the University of California, Berkeley, to lead the largest academic-industry research consortium in U.S. history, University of California officials appeared giddy.

If the deal is approved, BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, will give $500 million over 10 years to create a multidisciplinary Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley. Berkeley would partner with… more

The alliance between the oil giant BP and the University of California, Berkeley, stands out because of its $500 million price tag, its commercial scope and the potential for BP to exert excessive influence over the academic research. But it isn’t an isolated case.

The second largest such partnership is a 10-year, $225-million deal Stanford University signed with Exxon Mobil and other energy firms in 2002 to fund a Global Climate and Energy Project.

The Stanford deal was controversial from the… more

America’s financial-aid system provides too much taxpayer support to banks that make college loans, asks too little of students who assume them, and burdens families with too much debt. We need to rethink the system in order to improve college access and affordability. Federal higher-education policy largely fails to reward rigorous college-preparatory work in high school. It penalizes students who hold jobs while in college. Lenders make extraordinary profits, while young people leave college burdened with debt and, more often… more

President Bush's Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has endorsed the principle underlying a national education standards incentive plan developed with the support of the New… more

Westchester - WABC, October 26, 2006) -- A new trend in being seen in higher education: Big business spending big bucks to influence what's taught in college classes. Eyewitness News education reporter Art McFarland has the story.

Matt Ganis is teaching computer programming at Pace University in Pleasantville. But he's not paid by the university. He's an IBM employee, brought in to give this lecture as part of a worldwide, $100 million IBM program to shape college curricula in information technology...

IBM… more

On Monday, Higher Ed Watch broke the story that a private student loan company, Loan to Learn, was offering financial aid officers an all-expense-paid, four day trip to the Caribbean this coming February.  Yesterday, the company canceled the more than $3,000 per participant trip after a flurry of criticism here, here, and here.

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Six weeks ago, Loan to Learn, a private student loan company, rose to defend the "integrity and intentions of financial aid professionals" accused of receiving cash and in-kind payments for driving students to particular college loan providers.

The company wrote an open letter saying, "It is Loan to… more

Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has good news.  The federal budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2006 was $48 billion less than the Department of Treasury previously predicted.  The bad news is that's no thanks to federal student loan spending, which was higher than initial projections because of increased use of the Federal… more

A new Education Department report could have dramatic implications for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority (PHEAA).

The report, from the department’s inspector general’s office, calls on the National Education Loan Network, known as Nelnet, to give up $278 million in improperly claimed taxpayer subsidies. An additional $882 million could still be counted as overpayment, according to the report. Nelnet disagrees with the findings, and it’s now up to the Department of Education secretary to accept or reject the report.

About two-thirds… more

The state's student financial aid agency is under federal investigation to determine if it collected too much money from the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Education's inspector general yesterday said it is investigating whether the government overpaid the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency....

Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan public policy group, criticized PHEAA, citing the agency's payment of six-figure bonuses to executives.

He said PHEAA's ability to pay those bonuses… more