Students who drop out of community college before their second year have cost taxpayers nearly $1-billion annually, says a report released today by the American Institutes for Research.

From 2004 to 2009, the study found, federal, state, and local governments spent almost $4-billion in student aid and appropriations to community colleges that benefited full-time, first-year students who never made it to graduation day.

"There's a lot of institutional failure here," Mark Schneider, who is vice president of the organization and the author of the report, said at a news conference. "We can't keep pouring money into these institutions without figuring out how to make them better."

The latest effort to increase oversight of the rapidly growing online education industry hit a wall this month when a federal court struck down a new U.S. Department of Education regulation that would have required schools to register in every state where they have students.

The decision comes as online and distance learning jumped 150 percent in Ohio since 2004 to more than 93,000 students; nationwide 4.3 million students take at least one online course, according to federal and state data.

Senator Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), is holding a full committee hearing on Thursday regarding for-profit higher education policy solutions. Mr. Harkin's hearing is happening at a time when Department of Education's "gainful employment" rule was recently published amid DoEd Inspector General investigations about the crafting of the rule itself.

A series of new federal regulations aimed at ending high-pressure and misleading sales tactics at for-profit colleges take effect this month, as the industry continues to face scrutiny from the state and federal government.

Under the rules, schools no longer will be able to pay admissions employees based on how many students they enroll. They can lose some or all of their financial aid dollars if they, or a company doing business for them, engage in misleading or deceptive advertising. And schools must provide students with data on graduation and job placement rates, as well as the median student debt load.

At a time when 83 graduates are chasing each single job vacancy, according to latest figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters, a recruitment crisis is looming in the UK's information technology industry.

An additional 500,000 workers will be needed in IT and telecommunications over the next five years, according to a report published in January by e-skills UK, the sector skills council for IT. It predicts that jobs in the sector will grow nearly five times faster than the UK average over the next decade.

At a time when 83 graduates are chasing each single job vacancy, according to latest figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters, a recruitment crisis is looming in the UK’s information technology industry.

An additional 500,000 workers will be needed in IT and telecommunications over the next five years, according to a report published in January by e-skills UK, the sector skills council for IT. It predicts that jobs in the sector will grow nearly five times faster than the UK average over the next decade.

As Americans celebrate July 4th with barbecues and fireworks, many don't know much about the history behind the holiday, a new Marist poll shows.

According to Marist, "Only 58 percent of residents know that the United States declared its independence in 1776. Twenty-six percent are unsure, and 16 percent mentioned another date."

And the younger the respondent, the less likely he or she was to know

Not only that but, says Marist, "About one in four Americans doesn't know from which country the United States declared its independence. While 76 percent correctly cite Great Britain, 19 percent are unsure, and 5 percent mention another country."

Westwood College, which has been among the institutions singled out by U.S. senators critical of for-profit colleges, announced Wednesday that it would provide up to $500 a month for six months to certain graduates who fail to find jobs in their fields within six months of earning their degrees.

The "employment pledge," as Westwood calls it, would be available to students who earn at least a 3.0 grade point average and work with the college's career office to actively pursue a job. In return, eligible bachelor's degree recipients could earn up to $500 a month and associate degree recipients up to $250 a month for six months.

President Obama is laser-focused on economic growth. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last month, he advocated reviewing federal regulations to root out those "that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive."

Last week, by defunding a controversial new regulation called "Gainful Employment" -- a rule advocates say would prevent students from attending programs that burden them with "too much debt" -- the House of Representatives, in a bipartisan vote, decided that a great place to start would be higher education.

The House is right.

To date, the debate over federal higher education policy has been the poster child for dysfunctional processes.

Washington, DC -- February 2, 2011 -- The Coalition for Educational Success filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government for negligence and malpractice in connection with the U.S. Government Accountability Office's investigation that resulted in an erroneous and completely biased August 2010 report that was highly critical of career colleges. The Coalition's complaint cites the GAO's biased and negligent conduct as harmful to the career college sector and is seeking relief in the form of damages to be proven at trial.