Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
The Obama administration is set to propose a plan that would assess whether students at for-profit colleges are eligible for federal student aid. If a school’s alumni attract good salaries and pay down their student loan debt, the school keeps its federal aid eligibility. If the a school’s grads fail to get good jobs and default on loans, the school could lose its eligibility.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an Associated Press report that about 5 percent of for-profit colleges and universities would be cut off from federal aid by 2012 if the administration’s proposal is implemented.
Led by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, for-profit colleges and universities have been widely criticized of late. Harkin’s office released scathing statistics about the industry, pointing out that for-profit college alumni default on their student loans at a higher rate than students at nonprofit and public institutions. Many accuse the corporate-owned schools of using sketchy marketing techniques to lure students to borrow federal money to pay tuition, but those students often fail to land good jobs, leaving their student loan debt unpaid.
Two for-profit universities, Kaplan University and Ashford University, are based in Iowa.
Harkin called the regulations “plain common sense.” But others on both sides of the issue are unhappy with the plan.
The for-profit college lobby said the new regulations are unnecessary and warn they could cut off opportunities for degree-seekers.
“The president’s 2020 goal for educating Americans means keeping all avenues to education open. Students need more information, not fewer choices,” Career College Association President Harris Miller said in a press release.
But opponents of for-profit education said the Obama plan doesn’t go far enough.
“We are particularly concerned that programs could continue to profit from federal student aid when half their students with loans can’t afford to pay the principal,” Pauline Abernathy, vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success, told The New York Times.
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