TG Updates

TG enhances reauthorization pages on TG Online
With Congress adjourned, the process of reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA) may seem stagnant right now. During the lull, TG has been working to enhance its online reauthorization resources to make them more useful for when reauthorization activities pick up again.

Federal Updates

The elusive RT4: Calculations not required for less-than-half-time enrollment
Return of Title IV funds (RT4) calculations are not exactly fun. They may be bearable, but chances are they're not your favorite activity as a financial aid administrator. So why would you complete the calculation when you don't need to?

Trends and Issues

Edufacts™ — August 2004
Each month, TG provides current information about education issues through Edufacts. Produced by TG as a public service, Edufacts illustrate studies and surveys conducted by TG and other educational organizations, and trends observed. This month, Edufacts looks at the ratio of bachelor's degrees earned by women to those earned by men.

Legislative Update

The August 5 issue of TG's Legislative Report includes details on fiscal proposals from the Kerry-Edwards presidential ticket, the latest budget deficit projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and a recent meeting of the Texas Interim Committee on Higher Education. Keep up with the latest developments by reading the full report on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/lege_report/index.cfm.

This, That, and the Other...

If you have children heading back to school this month, your wallet is probably feeling a little lighter. Junior's piggybank may be similarly shedding pounds.

American families are projected to spend $14.79 billion on back-to-school clothing, supplies, electronics, and other items this year, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation. That breaks down to an average of $483.28 per family, up 7.2 percent from last year.

On top of that, teens and preteens are planning to kick in an additional $884 million of their own money.

Details on the survey and additional data are available from the federation's website at www.nrf.com.

To help college students find a balance in managing their particularly tight finances, TG offers a number of informative resources on the "Managing Your Money" page of Adventures In Education, our public-service college and career planning website, at www.aie.org/
links/links_manage.cfm.