Higher education bonds

A Dowling College alumni group has launched a campaign to save the 48-year old Long Island school after it announced plans to close last week.

Debt-ridden Dowling College on Long Island is shutting its doors after 48 years, the school’s president announced late Tuesday.

The University of Texas System will issue $215 million of triple-A-rated debt that includes some of the $922 million in tuition revenue bonds authorized by the 2015 Texas Legislature.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, blasted a budget proposal by House Republicans to address a $600 million deficit by funding a college scholarship program at the expense of health care programs.

Bipartisan groups of House and Senate lawmakers are urging the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to ease barriers that prevent nonprofit lenders from using tax-exempt bonds to refinance student loans.

A one-day strike by the faculty of the San Francisco Community College District is a bad sign because it shows a strong resistance to the district’s efforts to balance its books, Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

Illinois’ recent approval of some funding for higher education and student aid does little to calm concerns about the long-term impact of the funding drought on state university and community college balance sheets and reputations.

Columbia University recently issued $50 million in green bonds through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) that will fund construction of a new science center for the Ivy League school’s Manhattanville campus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday.

Illinois’ cash-starved higher education institutions will soon get some relief after state lawmakers passed a $600 million funding bill to get them through the summer despite the lack of a state budget.

With Illinois’ public higher education schools facing downgrades and accreditation risks, Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislature’s Democratic majority remain at loggerheads over how to free up their funding amid the ongoing budget impasse.