Fewer poor enrolled at regent schools, By Gunnar Olson, September 20, 2009, Des Moines Register: “Fewer and fewer students from Iowa’s low-income families are being educated by the state’s public universities, despite their mission to educate Iowans of diverse socioeconomic status, U.S. Department of Education data show. Iowa ranked nearly last in the United States for the share of Pell Grant recipients - a common measurement of low-income students - enrolled at its public universities in the 2007-08 school year. Only public universities in the District of Columbia, Rhode Island and Wyoming served lower percentages, although such comparisons are imperfect because factors vary state to state…”

Revising student aid formula, house votes to expand federal loans, By Tamar Lewin, September 17, 2009, New York Times: “The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that expands federal aid to college students while ending federal subsidies to private lenders. By shifting to direct federal lending, the Obama administration said it will save more than $80 billion over 10 years, which will go into higher Pell Grants for low-income students, new investments in community colleges, early-childhood programs and other education efforts. The vote was 253 to 171. The measure, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, now goes to the Senate, where Democratic leaders expect it to pass…”

Schools target child welfare, By Sarah Chacko, September 13, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Louisiana universities are taking steps to improve the state’s child-welfare system with a targeted curriculum for students and specialized training for social workers. Federal grant money is helping seven state universities focus their curriculum on areas where child-welfare workers need the most support, such as finding ways to help children who have been abused and neglected, and dealing with their own work-related stress. ‘Louisiana is one of the few states in the country that does not have a specialized child-welfare discipline within its university systems,’ DSS Secretary Kristy Nichols told a state Commission on Streamlining Government…”

States cut aid to college students as demand booms, By Ryan J. Foley (AP), August 12, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Struggling with budget shortfalls that reach into the billions, several states are making deep cuts in college financial aid programs, including those that provide a vital source of cash for students who most need the money. At least a dozen states are reducing award sizes, eliminating grants and tightening eligibility guidelines because of a lack of money. At the same time, the number of students seeking aid is rising sharply as more people seek a college education and need help paying the tuition bill because they or their parents lost jobs and savings during the recession. Many of the affected programs are need-based grants that provide money that complements financial aid offered by schools and the federal government…”

• UW-Madison profs help shape bold initiative for community colleges, By Todd Finkelmeyer, July 20, 2009, Capital Times: “A report released in May and co-authored by UW-Madison professors Sara Goldrick-Rab and Douglas Harris argued that community colleges are in need of significant government investment if the United States is to help more of its people get a formal education and better compete with others from around the globe for the best jobs…”
• Community colleges’ new clout, By Derrick Z. Jackson, July 18, 2009, Boston Globe: “For decades, American presidents lauded the working stiffs and immigrants who fill our community colleges, but then stiffed them during budget time. That ended this week when President Obama made one of his most welcome proposals of his first year, a $12 billion, 10-year plan to boost community colleges…”

• Summer brings a wave of homeless families, By Julie Bosman, July 6, 2009, New York Times: “As the school year sailed to a close last month, Arielle Figueras crossed the stage in her cap and gown and proudly accepted her fifth-grade diploma.  The next day, she was homeless.  Arielle, a petite 11-year-old, and her parents, brother and sister packed their belongings and arrived at the intake center for homeless families in the South Bronx. Though they had been fighting with their landlord for months and their gas and electricity had long been shut off, they refused to leave their apartment while school was in session…”
• Homeless, and on a college path to independence, By Amanda M. Fairbanks, July 5, 2009, New York Times: “For many college students, survival means keeping up on assigned reading, maintaining an acceptable grade-point average and squeezing in extracurricular activities.  But for those at Advantage Academy, a program offered by the city’s Department of Homeless Services and St. John’s University to provide homeless and formerly homeless people with the chance to earn an associate’s degree, survival looks like something altogether different…”

Stimulus eases community college troubles, By Kimberly Leonard, July 2, 2009, Stateline.org: “States are digging into their federal stimulus money to help finance community colleges, where rising tuition, soaring enrollment and budget cuts threaten to shut students out of the system.  But the $144 billion in stimulus money for state and local fiscal relief won’t make up for budget cuts in every state…“