What Do Students Want to Know about President Obama’s Higher-Ed Agenda?

I wanted to point out something different we are trying out: an effort to connect with college newspapers across the country and get questions directly from students about the Obama Administration’s higher-ed agenda.  Next week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the chair of the President’s Domestic Policy Council, will answer questions in a special live chat from the White House. We are working with the Huffington Post’s network of college newspapers on the first phase and they give a run-down on the next steps:

This is how it will work: Through our extensive network of college papers, students will submit questions to HuffPost College, which the entire HuffPost community will vote on. The top questions will be asked during the live chat -- and the editor of the school paper with the highest-rated question will be flown to the White House to interview top Obama officials.

This new type of interview process is exciting, but the real news is what happened today when President Obama signed the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation legislation.  With the stroke of his pen, our Nation expanded the Pell Grant program, invested more in community colleges, increased support for minority serving institutions and ended wasteful subsidies in the student loan system that will free up nearly $68 billion dollars for college affordability and deficit reduction over the next 11 years.  Whew!

Also, don't miss this great video from Dr. Jill Biden, who gives a good overview of the policy impact of today and encourages parents to take note as they start planning now for a younger child’s higher education.