The MOHELA Strategy and the Nebraska AG
December, 2022Lincoln — Last week, I explained in the Nebraska Examiner why the Biden administration's student loan cancellations make good sense for the Nebraska economy and expressed displeasure that...
View ArticleIdentifying the Biggest Rural Losers
December, 2022Washington — After the mid-term elections, which saw rural voters across the nation vote overwhelmingly for Republicans, a friend and colleague of mine asked pointed questions:"Many...
View ArticleBringing Order Out Of Chaos
January, 2023Washington — After the chaos of the House speaker's election, the nation needs to see a demonstration that the House can pass meaningful legislation under its new leadership and new rules....
View ArticleNebraska Authors Diminished
January, 2023Lincoln — The reputations of two remarkable Nebraska writers are in decline, according to sources that surprisingly seem to welcome it. First, a group of Vermont librarians has removed...
View ArticleDon't Close the Books Yet on Governor Ricketts
January, 2023Lincoln — Before the books are closed on the performance of Pete Ricketts as Nebraska's governor, a few entries should be re-assessed and fact-checked. The governor left office riding...
View ArticleNebraska AG's Backfiring Lawsuit
January, 2023Lincoln — Is pressure building on the Nebraska attorney general to drop or settle Nebraska v. Biden, which seeks to block the Biden Administration's student loan cancellation plan? For...
View ArticleHistory's Lessons for Nebraska Special Education
February, 2023Lincoln — Nebraska's latest attempt to deal with complex public school funding and property taxation issues has unexpectedly brought about new and welcome discussions about increasing...
View ArticleTen Years of Blog Posts
February, 2023Ten years ago I started writing this blog without expectation that it would be read by many people, because I did not distribute it through social media nor did I take comments or...
View ArticleMany Problems with Proposed NET Regulations
April, 2023Lincoln — In advance of a May 4, 2023, public hearing, the Nebraska Environmental Trust is taking comments on its proposed Title 137 rules and regulations. I've followed the Trust closely...
View ArticleStates: Beware of Education Policy Dangers
June, 2023Lincoln — States like Nebraska are taking up ideas that have superficial appeal as good education policy but are fraught with dangers the states haven't thought through.One such idea is...
View ArticleFamily Slavery Research
June, 2023Lincoln — This, the month of the new official American holiday Juneteenth, is a fitting time to look at the history of slavery in our own family. I've been a subscriber to the genealogical...
View ArticleMixed Supreme Court Messages
July, 2023Washington — Talk about mixed messages. Take these two, from Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinions on, respectively, the recent affirmative action and student loan cancellation...
View ArticleSecretary's Bombshell
July, 2023Washington — After yesterday's bombshell announcement by the Secretary of Education that the government would cancel $39 billion of student loans for over 800,000 borrowers, it's time to get...
View ArticleIs It Racketeering?
August, 2023Washington — A few years ago, a Philadelphia newspaper reporter called me to validate, if possible, what he thought was an outrageous statement from a board member of the federal student...
View ArticleSpeak for Yourself, David Brooks
August, 2023Washington — David Brooks made a splash with his column "What if We're the Bad Guys Here?"We can condemn the Trumpian populists until the cows come home, but the real question is: When will...
View ArticleWill Merlin Hear these Birds in the Future?
August, 2023Lincoln — The bird identification app Merlin heard the following birds during the early mornings of July 23-29 on the north half of our tallgrass prairie and riparian woods at 5840 West...
View ArticleDOJ and the Student Loan Crisis
August, 2023Washington — How much of the nation's student loan crisis can be attributed to the Department of Justice? It's a question that deserves more exploration than it has received.There are at...
View ArticleTime for the Big Fix in U.S. Higher Education
August, 2023Washington — Now is a propitious time to fix much of what's wrong in U.S. higher education pricing, admissions, and financial aid. Three recent developments make such action more plausible...
View ArticleNo One Looks Good in Prison Deal
September, 2023Lincoln — Seldom is a public policy deal struck that does not have winners somewhere along the way, but the recent state prison siting agreement on 300 acres north of Lincoln seems to...
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Crackdown Welcome, but Decades Too Late
October, 2023Washington — Welcome news from the U.S. Department of Education: it is finally cracking down on student loan servicers that are failing in their responsibility to borrowers. Federal...
View ArticleThe Causes of National Student Loan Dysfunction
November, 2023Washington — Is the nation's long-running student loan imbroglio a failure of program implementation or are its causes more deeply rooted in decades-old structural contradictions and...
View ArticleFAFSA Delays Are Only Part of the Problem
December, 2023Washington — A bipartisan group of thirty-seven U.S. senators recently wrote urgently to the Secretary of Education, troubled by a delayed rollout of the latest version of the Free...
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Civil War Echos in a Puzzling Name Choice
December, 2023Lincoln — Looking recently into the family tree, I came across the name Abel McClellan Wimer, born 1869, son of John Elias Wimer (1837-1907) and his wife Sarah Margaret Moyers...
View ArticleReject the Proposed Price-Fixing Settlement
January, 2024Washington — Because it is one of the largest, most-consequential higher education lawsuits in recent memory, federal Judge Matthew F. Kennelly should not approve an unbalanced, unfair,...
View ArticleWhite Rural Rage, Reviewed
March, 2024Lincoln and Washington — White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, a new book by political scientist Thomas Schaller and journalist Paul Waldman, is such worthy documentation of...
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