The U.S. Senate voted 52 to 45 on Tuesday to block a bill that would have prevented a doubling of student loan interest rates to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent, The New York Times reported. Although Republicans said they supported an extension of a 2007 law that temporarily cut interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans, they opposed Democrats' proposal to offset the cost of the extension by raising Social Security and Medicare taxes for the wealthy, according to The Times. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., instead pushed to pay for the extension by removing a health care fund in President Barack Obama's health care law. Undergraduates took out $112 billion in loans in 2011, double the total from 10 years ago, according to The Times.
Walmart's educational partnership with the for-profit American Public University System to provide degrees for its 1.3 million U.S. employees has received criticism from education experts, Inside Higher Education reported. The program, which offers flexible hours and college credit for job training and experience, was launched two years ago. APUS's regional accreditation, which allows for a smooth transfer of credits, has been praised by Walmart employees but is drawing skepticism from learning experts, who suggest that the institution would automatically award degree credit for experience on the job. This creates an image of a "Walmart U," or a powerful corporation that is a major player in granting its employees college credit, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Gov. John Lynch, D-N.H., will nominate attorney Jim Bassett '78 to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, The Union Leader reported. Bassett, a litigator at the Concord law firm Orr and Reno since 1985, has argued cases in state and federal courts on the constitutional separation of powers and First Amendment rights, according to The Union Leader. Bassett graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1982 and has been a board member of the Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Canterbury Shaker Village and Granite United Way and the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. He was formerly chairman of the Canterbury Board of Selectmen and chairman of the Canterbury Planning Board. The state executive council will confirm the nomination, The Union Leader reported.
