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Beer, College and Affordable Tuition
College students think a lot about beer. More than that, colleges are crucial to the future of beer. For example, North Dakota State University's Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences provides "research and education for U.S. barley producers and domestic and international malting and brewing industries." Cargill, MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev are some of the organizations supporting the Institute.
Simply put, colleges and universities are as essential to malting as they are to microchips, medicine, movies, the military and virtually every other facet of American life. What colleges often are not, however, is affordable.
Affordability concerns are growing at the same time that states are cutting funding and endowments are diminished by the financial crisis. The result is higher tuition. The Chancellor of the University System of Georgia recently said that it would take a 77% tuition increase to offset planned cuts in state assistance.
State funding cuts are taking place in an environment that finds the public increasingly skeptical about how well colleges are managed. A study by two NGOs, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and Public Agenda, found "no evidence of sympathy for the argument that colleges and universities are starved for financial resources." An official with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity said that "universities are viewed as being somewhat akin to used car dealers, trying to shake down their customers for as much money as possible."
There are various initiatives under consideration intended to make college more affordable. Changing the student loan system to bypass banks and institute direct federal government student loans is one example.
What the debate over college affordability needs is greater input from the most important watchdog over student interests, the students themselves. In addition to first-hand knowledge of affordability, students have a unique perspective on college management. Thus, Watchdog Watch is requesting that current or prospective undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students provide us with their views on the interrelated issues of how to make college more affordable, accessible and efficient.
Comments should be sent to levinson@thecre.com. Students' views on college affordability will be published in a future column
See NDSU's Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences
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Does Google Harm Minority-Owned Businesses?
The impact of federal telecommunications policies on minority enterprises is at issue before the FCC. There are concerns that the Commission's net neutrality proceeding may harm civil rights. A leading watchdog organization explained that "if not carefully drafted, net neutrality rules could have the unintended effect of locking current disparities in place for years to come, thereby consigning minorities to a permanent digital underclass."
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, representing 16 national organizations, also raises the provocative issue of whether net neutrality requirements should be applied to search engines. The NGO states that they "are concerned about reports that Google is 'heavily biased towards established brands' and erects 'significant barrier[s] to new entrants and inevitably suppress[es] innovation.'"
MMTC warns that this "trend could have a particularly harmful impact on minority-owned businesses.... Search engine practices that assign visibility to businesses based on wealth rather than merit would impose a classic cycle of invisibility to minority enterprises: without access to capital they cannot secure visibility; but without visibility they cannot secure access to capital. Thus, the National Organizations fear repetition... of the...early days of radio and television when the Commission...did nothing to ensure that minorities would have a fair shot to secure an opportunity to participate in these industries."
The watchdog states that, irrespective of the decision on imposing new net neutrality regulations, "the Commission should open a proceeding to consider the impact of search engine practices on small and minority businesses."
MMTC's concerns deserve study. The FCC, in conjunction with SBA and the Minority Business Development Agency, should undertake an inquiry - in adherence with the principles in President Obama's Open Government Directive and the standards set by the Data Quality Act, to assess whether search engine company practices inadvertently harm small and minority-owned businesses.
See MMTC comments
The Need for a Wounded Warrior Flagship Initiative
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has released a report describing how "red tape" is delaying veterans' access to benefits and services they have earned. The veterans' watchdog group says that the Walter Reed scandal was "merely the canary in the coal mine for a host of problems facing our nation's wounded heroes."
On the positive side, the report discusses improvements already made in veterans services and notes that overall, the "VA provides much higher quality of care than the nation's private sector hospitals...and has higher prescription accuracy and patient satisfaction rates as well." As the report explains, the "problem with the VA is not the quality of care, but a lack of access to the system."
One of the problems is that the "process of applying for benefits is arduous and confusing." Moreover, as "a result of the processing delays, with the exception of those with catastrophic injuries, wounded troops often face an unacceptable burden: chaperoning complicated paperwork through the military's bureaucracy while recuperating from serious injuries."
Additional problems for wounded veterans occur when they transition from DOD to the VA "including
lost paperwork, a drop-off in the quality of care, and the lack of coordination between two distinct disability rating processes. As a result, veterans are suffering considerable delays in care and benefits instead of the 'seamless transition' they have been promised."
Minimizing paperwork burdens, ensuring "the greatest possible public benefit" from federally-managed information, and resolving policy conflicts between agencies are the job of OMB. Consequently, OMB needs to: 1) actively manage the DOD-VA coordination process; and 2) undertake a special Paperwork Reduction Act initiative scrutinizing and reforming the paperwork processes that apply to wounded veterans with strong emphases on minimizing the burden on vets and improving use of data collected and managed.
The special initiative would be consistent with the President's Open Government Directive which calls for reviewing PRA guidance. Thus, the project could serve as a model for OMB efforts to improve paperwork processes throughout the government. Moreover, the interagency coordination and paperwork improvement project should serve as OMB's "Flagship Initiative" under the Directive.
OMB needs to build on gains already achieved and take up the cause of further improving federal services to veterans. OMB should prepare regular progress updates and obtain comments on the Wounded Warrior Flagship Initiative.
See IAVA Report, Red Tape: Veterans Fight New Battles for Care and Benefits
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