Government Regulations

AT LAST--AFTER SIX YEARS, three Congresses, and 14 extensions of the existing law, the House and Senate finally agreed to legislation reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, and in August President George W. Bush signed it.

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN new veteran education benefits will be available next year. The challenge is getting veterans to take advantage of all the benefits available to them.

AS CONGRESS APPEARED TO be finally nearing the end of an on-again, off-again effort to reauthorize the Higher Education Act for the first time in five years, the news of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D-Mass.) cancer diagnosis cast a pall over the Capitol and also gave signs of impacting the progress of HEA's renewal.

Is there a crisis looming in the student loan industry? Are we in the midst of one already? Depending on what you read, the answer is both "yes" and "no."

WENDY GONAVER LOST HER TEACHING job at <b>California State University, Fullerton</b> in May because she refused to sign a state-mandated loyalty oath for all state employees. Gonaver, a practicing Quaker and pacifist, believes the oath is an infringement on her religious beliefs and her rights to free speech.

INSTABILITY IN THE FINANCIAL markets that has rocked the national economy in recent months will have no impact on federal student loans if action by Congress and words from the Bush administration this spring are any indication.

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF Education has been working overtime to implement a complicated new grant program that provides up to $4,000 a year for aspiring teachers.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Streamlined. My colleagues and I are proud to present this series of publications to inform college and university administrators about new and innovative methods of streamlining business office operations.