Stephen Burd of New America Foundation's Higher Ed Watch.Org Blog Receives National Education Reporting Award for Investigating
Higher Ed Watch.Org's staff writer and a lead investigator on the 2007 student loan scandals, Stephen Burd, is the winner of a 2007 National Award for Education Reporting, the Education Writers Association announced on Monday. Burd is a Senior Research Fellow with New America Foundation's Education Policy Program and a former Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Burd's two award winning articles from April 2007 appear here on the Higher Ed Watch.Org Blog.
"The student loan 'pay for play' scandal, which Higher Ed Watch.Org and Steve Burd broke, is a perfect example of the way in which new media expert blogs are becoming for newspapers what newspapers long have been for television news - content drivers," said Michael Dannenberg, Director of the Education Policy Program at New America Foundation.
Higher Ed Watch.Org provides news, analysis, commentary, and new ideas on issues of college access, affordability and quality. Burd's prize-winning blog articles from April lay out the findings of the blog's month-long investigation into improper payoffs made by a student loan company to college financial aid officers and a key U.S. Department of Education official.
These articles, which were widely picked up throughout the news media, prompted the firings and resignations of three financial aid directors and the three top executives at the loan company Student Loan Xpress, more than a dozen federal and state investigations, and a series of multi-million dollar settlements. They also played a significant role in galvanizing support for a sweeping reevaluation of the relationship between colleges and financial institutions, and of the implications these arrangements have for students.
In the story, "Inside the Cuomo Probe," published on July 31, 2007, Inside Higher Ed, an authoritative online source of news on higher education, credited the Higher Ed Watch Blog's reporting for having "turned the tide" in favor of efforts to reform the guaranteed loan program. "The findings of personal wrongdoing by some of the leading lights in the financial aid world added a sensational and tangible element to the student loan investigation," the publication noted. "While talking about 'preferred lender lists' can make some eyes glaze over, people understand 'cash and stock payments.'"
The New America Foundation's Higher Ed Watch blog's writers continue to post frequently on the topic of student loans. In addition to the Higher Ed Watch blog, the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program also runs an Early Ed Watch.Org blog and Ed Policy Watch.Org blog. For more information visit HigherEdWatch.Org.
Please direct media inquiries to Erin Drankoski, 202-997-8727, Drankoski@newamerica.net.
About New America's Education Policy Program
New America's Education Policy Program focuses on closing multiple educational achievement and opportunity gaps by highlighting ways to improve equity, access, and affordability in education from pre-kindergarten throughcollege. Experts in the program's Federal Education Budget Project include former employees with the Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Department of Education Budget Service, and Congress' education and budget committees, both Democratic and Republican staff.
New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, post-partisan public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation's public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in our nation's capital, New America also has offices in California and New York. More information is available at www.newamerica.net.
Related Programs: Education Policy Program, Higher Ed Watch, Student Loans
Topics: Education, Student Loans
