Progressive Opinion

airamerica.com — According to a report published by the Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 private college Presidents make over $1 million, even as the recession and rising tuition costs are squeezing students and recent alumni dry.

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nytimes.com — That period right after college graduation is when young people tend to think they can set the world on fire. Careers are starting, and relationships in the broader world are forming. It’s exciting, and optimism is off the charts. So the gloomy outlook that this economy is offering so many of America’s brightest young people is not just disconcerting, it’s a cultural shift, a harbinger. “Attention,” as the wife of a fictional salesman once said, “must be paid.”

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washingtonmonthly.com — With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.

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nytimes.com — If you had to explain America’s economic success with one word, that word would be “education.” The rise of American education was, overwhelmingly, the rise of public education — and for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered.

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news.newamericamedia.org — President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have an unprecedented opportunity to lead real school funding reform through the federal stimulus package. They can encourage states like California to fund public schools adequately and equitably. The question is, will they?

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truthdig.com — The wild furor over President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s schoolchildren raises many questions, but there is only one that really matters. How did America surrender its political discourse — not to mention the news cycle — to the most unreasonable and unstable elements of the far right?

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huffingtonpost.com — Health care is rightly dominating the national debate, but with children all across the country heading back to school, education — currently seated in the back row of the national classroom — is raising its hand and asking to be called on.

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news.newamericamedia.org — In the midst of the recession, some young people are finding that their dreams of going to college have to be put on hold.

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truthdig.com — As the media trumpets sound for the pullback of American troops from urban areas in Iraq, the essential lesson of our involvement must be recalled: Nothing about our entanglement in Iraq has ever been as it seemed.

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postandcourier.com — U.S. Labor Department statistics show that while the nation's overall jobless rate rose last month to 9.4 percent (the highest since 1983), it was a staggering 15.5 percent among those who haven't completed high school — and a mere 4.8 percent among those with four-year college degrees. You don't need a college education to detect this indisputable lesson of those numbers: The more educated you are, the less vulnerable you are to recession-related job loss.

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