Like so many of us living in Wonk’s World, I’ve been checking out the seemingly endless (but fascinating!) series of edu innovation conferences to which Jeff referred in his last post. The other day at an AEI confab I was struck by two things. First, the normally clean-cut Michael Horn, executive director of the education arm of the Innosight Institute, has grown a pretty awesome seventies ‘staContinue Reading »

"Form 1040A" Copyright © Microsoft

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently uncovered in an audit that 2.1 million taxpayers may have mistakenly claimed the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), a tax credit meant to help offset the costs of higher education. The result? Approximately $3.2 billion in erroneous tax creditContinue Reading »

With the prospect of President Obama’s student loan bill passing through the budget reconciliation bill fast approaching, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) took to the Washington Post op-ed page to tell some lies about the bill. Alexander, who used to be the Secretary of Education and knows better, said:

Starting in July, all 19 million students who want government-backed loans will lContinue Reading »

There have been numerous news reports of the “tightening” credit markets and their potential impact on student loan availability. The majority of federal student loans are made through private banks and if these banks can’t find investors to buy their loans, they don’t have money to make new loans—hence, a problem with student loan availability (to be clear, there is currently no problem with fContinue Reading »