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College Affordability & Cost

College students may get break on textbook expenses USA Today July 30, 2010 Thanks to a new law that took effect this month, colleges must release required book lists at the time of class registration. Publishers must disclose prices and revision information to schools.  Proponents say the law will give students more time to take advantage of textbook buy-back programs, book rentals and prices that are often lower online than in college bookstores. They expect it will also force professors to pay more attention to the cost of books they assign.

AP-Univision Poll: College dreams for Hispanics AP July 29, 2010 Despite strong belief in the value of a college diploma, Hispanics more often than not fall short of their goal to pursue a higher education degree.

College Students Hide Hunger, Homelessness NPR July 28, 2010 For many college students and their families, rising tuition costs and a tough economy are presenting new challenges as college bills come in. This has led to a little-known but growing population of financially stressed students, who are facing hunger and sometimes even homelessness.

Economy Forces States to Scale Back Scholarship Programs Education Week July 27, 2010 States are realizing that when times get tough, large merit-based student aid programs are not designed in ways that can be sustained. Still, it's difficult for politicians to cut popular education programs, especially those that help the middle class. To keep programs from going under, some states are raising the minimum grade point average or testing criteria to reduce the number of awards. Others are offering a set amount rather than total tuition coverage.

Textbooks: Sympathy for the debt-laden - Editorial Boston Globe July 27, 2010 Despite certain provisions of the Higher Education Opportunity Act in 2008 that went into effect this month, professors and universities lack strong incentives to minimize the financial burden of expensive textbooks on students. Educators should see paring down required reading lists as a duty to their debt-laden pupils. They should also investigate more imaginative alternatives.

The Real Cost of College Textbooks New York Times July 26, 2010 New federal regulations aimed at textbook pricing went into effect this month. Publishers will now "unbundle" college textbooks from accompanying materials like workbooks and CD's, allowing them to be bought separately.

As college text prices soar, students get a rental option Boston Globe July 26, 2010 In an effort to curb escalating book prices amid sky-high college costs, bookstores at more than a dozen campuses across the state and hundreds more around the country will begin renting textbooks at about half the cost of buying them.

Education Department Takes Aim at For-Profits With Student-Debt Rule Chronicle of Higher Education July 23, 2010 The proposed "gainful employment" rule, which has been anticipated by for-profit colleges and short-sellers alike, would cut off federal aid to programs whose students have the highest debt burdens and lowest loan-repayment rates, while limiting enrollment growth at hundreds of other programs. For-profit lobbyists are calling the rule "unwise and unnecessary."

Proposed Rule Links Federal Student Aid to Loan Repayment Rates and Debt-to-Earnings Levels for Career College Graduates News Release July 23, 2010 The Obama Administration released today its proposed regulations requiring for-profit career colleges to better prepare students for "gainful employment" or risk losing access to federal student aid. The proposed rules seek to protect students from taking on unsustainable debt they cannot repay and to protect taxpayers from high loan default rates.

Obama Cracks Down on For-Profit Colleges, Links Loans to Income Bloomberg.com July 23, 2010 Today the U.S. government relaxed a proposal governing the industry's access to federal student aid.The rules proposed today would give companies the option of showing that at least 45 percent of students are paying down principal on their loans, and, under some circumstances, would allow them to go on a "restricted" status rather than becoming ineligible for grants.

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