Contributor
Lisa Caruso, NationalJournal.com
Biography provided by participant
Lisa Caruso covers education, immigration and transportation for National Journal. She joined the magazine in 2003 as editor of the People section and later served as a lobbying reporter. Prior to that, she covered budget, appropriations, and the congressional leadership for CongressDaily. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she got her start in journalism at the York Dispatch in York, Pa. before covering environmental issues for Stevens Publishing and Congressional Green Sheets.
Recent Responses
July 15, 2009 12:42 PM
Today House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., released his legislation to make college more affordable by ending the federally subsidized student loan program and originating all new federal student loans through the direct loan program (for a a savings of $87 billion over 10 years). Among other provisions, the bill would spend $40 billion to increase the maximum Pell grant and link future increases to the CPI plus 1, invest $3 billion for college access and completion programs, and invest $1.2 billion in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. Signficantly, Miller declined to act on the administration's proposal to…
Read moreJuly 14, 2009 05:03 PM
In case you missed it, today President Obama announced the American Graduation Initiative to provde community colleges with $12 billion over the next decade (using funds saved by the administration's proposal to end federal subsidies to private student loan providers) to educate another 5 million Americans by 2020. The plan includes a Community College Challenge Fund to award competitive grants to community colleges and states "to innovate and expand proven reforms...that demonstrate improved educational and employment outcomes." It also calls for a new research center "with a mission to develop and implement new measures of community colleges' success so prospective students and…
Read moreJuly 13, 2009 04:34 PM
Alan Berube, Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, submitted the following: This week, President Obama is scheduled to make a major announcement on expanding financial support for community colleges. That's a good thing. Community colleges are arguably more focused on providing their students with the specific skills needed to obtain jobs than are other institutions of higher learning, as George Boggs notes. (In fact, recent community college graduates were not included among the respondents to the NACE survey cited above.) And right now, the already-strained public two-year sector is facing tremendous pressures from exploding enrollments amid declining resources…
Read moreJuly 13, 2009 07:53 AM
Matthew Segal, founder and executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and national co-chair of the 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Coalition, submitted the following: Our higher education system is generally successful in training students who are capable of contributing their talents, ideas, and diverse skill sets to the American workforce. However, while colleges and universities provide students valuable career services support, these efforts are unable to overcome the fundamental economic challenges overwhelming recent graduates as they enter the labor force. As the country weathers a recession, Young Americans struggle with near-Depression Era economic…
Read moreJuly 8, 2009 03:14 PM
David G. Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, NJ, submitted the following: We know that the form of local school governance does not – alone – translate into improved operations, transparency and accountability to stakeholders. Nor does governance by elected or appointed boards, the mayor, or a chartered board of trustees automatically result in the focus on curriculum and instructional issues we need from those who operate public schools, especially in poor and racially isolated communities. But local education agencies, however governed, are legal constructs of states, established by state law to carry out the states’ obligation…
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About This Blog
This Education Blog is funded by support provided, in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the purpose of creating an educational forum for sharing research, ideas and opinions regarding issues related to college readiness and college completion. The Blog may not be used to post partisan political statements supporting or opposing candidates for public office. All statements and materials posted on the Blog, including any statements regarding specific legislation, reflect the views of the individual contributors and do not reflect the views of National Journal or the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation. National Journal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation take no positions regarding any legislation discussed in the Blog. National Journal reserves the right to monitor material placed on this site and to remove any posting they may deem inappropriate.
