International Foundation for Higher Education

by the AASCU State Relations and Policy Analysis Team While history was witness to many notable events that affected the United States and the world in 2011, the defning theme of the

year was that of an increasingly and dangerously fragile interconnected global economy. The cascading effect of the lackluster domestic economy on higher education was felt in its most acute form yet, with 2011 marking a new low point in state funding for public colleges and universities. Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding cuts, combined with increasing student enrollments, resulted in per-student funding reaching a 30-year low.

A report released on Thursday by the American Bar Association suggests that the economic downturn and the difficult legal job market have spurred most law schools to change their curricula to produce lawyers who are ready to practice. Seventy-six percent of the law schools surveyed said the job market has influenced their curricular changes.

Key Objectives:

Make student loan repayment both simple and fair

The bill would create a new “10-10 standard” for student loan forgiveness.

If  you make payments  equal  to  10% of your discretionary income for 10 years,  your

remaining federal student loan debt would be forgiven.