Congress moves to renew higher-ed act .

This post comes from eSchool News. The last time Congress approved a five-year reauthorization of the comprehensive federal law initially dubbed the Higher Education Act of 1965, the year was 1998. Since then, various hurdles, for the most part political, have emerged repeatedly to prevent passage of a full five-year extension of the law that colleges and universities throughout the country have come to depend on for a massive array of important federal programs, including financial aid to students.

The legislation, often the focus of intense lobbying by representatives of higher education and lending organizations, has never gone away. It simply has received a series of temporary renewals from time to time as senators and representatives have fussed with this or that proposal for a new five-year law that continued to elude final action.

Today, however, with members of the 110th Congress in the midst of a month-long recess, they actually may be poised to do what their predecessors have failed to do for the past several years--that is, enact a new higher-ed reauthorization bill. Poised, that is, if you believe that the war in Iraq, presidential politics, economic uncertainties, and a host of other issues of the day won't once again lead to a delay. To read the rest of this article click here.