The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Higher Education Act" ...
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Sallie Mae
Sallie Mae, started in 1972 as a government sponsored enterprise meant to "encourage private banks to loan to students who were considered to be a credit risk," pushed became a private lender in 1997. Since then, the stock price "has gone up almost 2,000 percent" and company executives have become among the highest paid in the nation. CBS' 60 Minutes investigates, and explores the question of whether it's appropriate for Sallie Mae to act as both a lender and a collector.
Tags: Sallie Mae; student loans; student loan default; Higher Education Act; U.S. Department of Education
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The SAT's Greatest Test
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a study "to determine whether state exams already given to high-school students may one day replace the SAT in college admissions." The story package sheds light on both students' and colleges' concerns about SAT, and details how the questions for the test are engineered. It also looks at the test-taking business side, and reveals that high-school seniors who take the test yield an annual revenue stream of more that $200-million. "The SAT may also continue to thrive because the alternatives to the test are embryonic, too expensive, or lacking in political support," the Chronicle finds.
Tags: race; minorities; bias; Educational Testing Service; Stanley Kaplan; ACT; discrimination; admissions; Scholastic Assessment Test
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Seeking the Shade
The Chronicle of Higher Education investigates violations of the Alabama sunshine law by public university boards in the state. The story details circumstances surrounding multiple closed meetings of officials at Auburn University, the University of Alabama and the University of West Alabama. The report also details lawsuits alleging violations of state freedom of information acts that are pending against public colleges or public college foundations in Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. In Arizona, Florida and New Jersey public college lobbyists have managed to curtail or limit the expansion of open-records or open-meeting laws.
Tags: FOIA; lobbyists; lobbying; media; universities; colleges; higher education; press; journalists; SPJ; disclosure; First Amendment; legislature; newspapers
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Betrayal of Trust?
The Chronicle of Higher Education examines the reasons for the "perception, held by some, that American colleges and universities are hooked on securing money at any cost." The story focuses on a controversial act of Iowa State University, which violated a deceased widow's wishes by selling instead of maintaining 240 acres of land received under the widow's will. The article also looks at the misspending of millions of dollars left to the University of Florida foundation by a wealthy supporter, and reveals "wide-spread abuses by fund raisers for California State University at Fullerton."
Tags: universities; higher education; fund-raising; gifts; foundations; public interest; scholarships; finance; money; wills
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The Politicking and Policy Making Behind a $40-Billion Windfall
The story looks at what President Clinton called "the biggest investment in higher education since the G.I. Bill": the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which will pour $40 billion in tax breaks into the pockets of college students and their families. The story shed new light on: 1) the great extent to which politics shaped the policy making process; 2) what happened in the preceding months that led Mr. Clinton to make higher education the center of his tax bill strategy; 3) how Congress tried to shape the tax bill to focus on its own priorities for education -- including some personal ones; and 4) the intense disagreement among higher-education lobbyists about whether to embrace the Administration's plan, or risk angering a President viewed as an ally.
Tags: None
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Many Owners of Proprietary Schools Gave Generously to Member of Congress
The story looks at the federal campaign contributions that representatives of the nation's for-profit trade schools made to the lawmakers who sit on the House of Representatives Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities, which sets the government's policies on these schools. Records provided by the Federal Election Commission indicated that between January 1995 and October 15, 1996, individual trade-school officials and the political-action committee of the Career College Association, which represents trade schools, had contributed $133,000 to these lawmakers. The donations were especially heavy because the 105th Congress will renew the Higher Education Act. (November 8, 1996)
Tags: FEC
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No title (id: 10146)
Chronicle of Higher Education describes how U.S. colleges are scrambling because they will soon have nowhere to dispose of nuclear waste; a new federal law closes access to traditional dumps, July 29, 1992.