A required stop on the Republican campaign trail.
Liberty University, the arch-conservative evangelical college founded by Jerry Falwell and a much catered-to force on the Republican right, owes much of its accelerating growth to Obama-era increases in
federal financial aid programs.
In the late 1990s, Liberty students received less than $20 million in aid. Students now receive over $800 million dollars a year in federal aid.
As with any federal financial aid, the grants and loans are awarded to students, not the university. Liberty does not receive any other federal funds, but its growth has come by attracting Christian students who qualify for aid. [...]
One reason for the school’s growth is the expansion of federal aid in 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also called “the stimulus”) increased Pell Grant funding by over $15 billion dollars, and 800,000 more students qualified for the grants. Liberty students increased their total Pell Grants from $18.7 million to $44.2 million, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Huzzah for Harry Reid:
The Brown Derby closed several years ago, but if I could lay my hands on that house-sized hat, I'd give it a tip for Harry Reid.
Let me start with the confessions. First, I have not always held tight to my pom-poms. More than once in the last six months, I've said some... not all that supportive things about Senator Reid and his ability to move things through the "collegial" axle grease of the Senate. A big part of this was frustration at seeing all that "first hundred hours" legislation come rocketing through the House, only to enter a Senatorial time warp. A bigger part of that was the failure to keep popping that same vetoed Iraq bill back onto Bush's desk until either sweet reason prevailed or Bush's fingers got too tired to scrawl his 'X.' The biggest reason of all was a deep personal need to see Mitch McConnell face down in the mud while Senator Reid does a Riverdance clog on his back (Oh, and Bill O? That there is one of them met-a-phors).
Forget that. My past criticisms arguably makes me little more than a fair weather friend, but I see a lot of blue skies today, and I see one tough senator standing out in the sunshine. I'm damned impressed with Senator Reid.
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