Higher Ed Policy Roundup Vol. 2 - Issue 14
This Week In Washington
Both chambers of Congress are on recess, and the Department of Education has not produced much relevant news this week.
News You Can Use
Regarding the debate to use the GRE as an alternative to the LSAT for law school admissions, Christopher P. Chapman, president and chief executive of AccessLex Institute, told the New York Times that while some schools will keep the LSAT for its record of predictability of performance in law schools, many other schools will be “looking to innovate and experiment.”
The ABA has proposed a new rule that would allow law schools to offer up to one-third of its J.D. program online.
Recent Legislation
The following bills were recently introduced for consideration by the 115th Congress (2017-2018):
H.R. 5396 – Graduate Assistants Parity Act [Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL)] would allow graduate students to exclude tuition reductions from their gross income.
H.R. 5416 – Women’s Small Business Growth Act [Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC)] would allow female small business owners to have 15 percent of their federal student loans forgiven, tax-free, once they reached their third and fourth year of being in business. The bill would also permit an additional 20 percent of tax-free federal student loan forgiveness for each job the female business owner creates with a salary of at least $30,000.
S. 2598 – Debt-Free College Act [Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI)] would award grants to states to establish state-federal partnerships that focus on providing debt-free college for students attending public in-state higher education institutions.
