Statement on Bloomberg Higher Ed Plan

Michael Dannenberg, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Policy at Education Reform Now and a longtime senior Democratic advisor and national expert on higher education policy, released the following statement on Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s higher education plan:   “Mike Bloomberg’s higher education plan combines both resources and rigor to promote racial justice and economic mobility for historically underserved students,

The Truth Behind the Trump Education Agenda and How It’s Hurting Students

By Charles Barone For the past three years, those opposed to public school choice in general, and public charter schools in particular, have tried to tie Democrats who support public school options to President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The theory goes that public charter schools are part of a far-right agenda to

On HEA, Congress Needs a More Ambitious Agenda to Transform and Diversify the Teaching Force

By Charles Barone and Dana Laurens It’s an open inside-the-Beltway secret that the Committees of jurisdiction in both the House and Senate want to pass a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act before the end of the year. The House passed a bill out of Committee in 2019 that most expect to come to the

Financial Planners Won’t Fix the Cost of College

By: James Murphy Financial planners who equate the cost of college with published prices at highly selective private universities and believe that any student debt is bad or argue that college is a bad investment are wrong. Dangerously wrong.     This opinion can be particularly harmful to first-generation and low-income students who, already facing steep challenges

Innovative Assessment Pilot: New Hampshire’s Performance Assessment for Competency Education

Read the full report here. In 2014, New Hampshire was the first state to be granted an innovative assessment waiver from the U.S. Department of Education, and in 2018 was the second state-approved to participate in the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) pilot program under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Districts participating in New

Martin Luther King: A Champion for Education

Today, and every third Monday of January since 1986, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  While Dr. King’s life was tragically cut short by his assassination on April 4, 1968, his passionate work around race, equity, and peace still serves as the inspiration for many today. While Dr. King

Higher Ed: Do Better or Pay a Price

There’s a rumor in D.C., and it’s one that could pose a challenge for Democrats. The buzz in Washington is that President Trump, concerned about a populist challenge from the Warren – Sanders left on student debt, may choose to tackle the rising price of college. Unnamed administration officials have floated a series of trial balloons,

New Decade, New Federal Investments in Education

In the final days of 2019, Congress eked out a bipartisan spending bill that provides a less than 2 percent overall increase in U.S. Department of Education funding for the coming 2020-2021 school year. Most of the modest increase is due to the efforts of a House of Representatives’ Democratic majority that prioritized education funding.

ERN: Year in Review

As 2019 comes to a close, we are grateful to all of you who have joined us in our work to increase educational equity.  With your support, we achieved over 50 policy wins across the country to improve public education for our nation’s students. We were the driving force behind the recent bipartisan “Fast Track

Slices & Loaves

By: Michael Dannenberg Tomorrow, the U.S. House Education & Labor Committee will consider a comprehensive rewrite of the Higher Education Act (HEA). Among longtime student advocacy groups there’s support for the bill, but a palpable lack of enthusiasm. Mark Huelsman of the liberal group Demos, for example in commenting on the bill, has said  “House