Progressive Opinion

thenation.com — This is not the essay that I had originally wanted to write. I had planned a piece about the ways that students overcome adversity in pursuit of their education. Unfortunately, I can no longer write anything quite so optimistic. Yesterday, I was informed that my academic funding has been cut, and it is now uncertain whether I will still be able to attend Rutgers University in the autumn. The regrettable thing is that my own academic uncertainty has become the norm in the Garden State, as a newly elected Republican governor goes about undoing decades worth of educational growth, possibly dooming an entire generation of bright, hardworking New Jersey students in the process. That may seem hyperbolic, but it's not. There is no such thing as "just politics" when it comes to education, and there is no such thing as compromise. What Governor Christie has done by cutting aid programs and education funding amounts to a declaration of war against the American Dream and to a betrayal of our state's—and, by extension, our nation's—future.

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thenation.com — As summer quickly fades into the rearview mirror, one ritual of the season didn’t get nearly enough public attention: summer jobs for teenagers, and how few of them there were. The jobless rate among teenagers is at its highest levels since the government began tracking the numbers in 1948. More than a quarter of 16- to 19-year-olds (26.1 percent) are officially unemployed, meaning they are job-hunting but unable to find work. So, what does this mean beyond a bunch of teenagers without gas money, a few new video games or an outfit their parents won’t finance? Plenty.

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huffingtonpost.com — If the foundation of your house is crumbling, you don't say you cannot afford to fix it. Children are the foundation of America's future. We need to invest now in their health, early childhood development, and education. Today is tomorrow.

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nytimes.com — The world leadership qualities of the United States, once so prevalent, are fading faster than the polar ice caps. We once set the standard for industrial might, for the advanced state of our physical infrastructure, and for the quality of our citizens’ lives. All are experiencing significant decline. The latest dismal news on the leadership front comes from the College Board, which tells us that the U.S., once the world’s leader in the percentage of young people with college degrees, has fallen to 12th among 36 developed nations.

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inthesetimes.com — Schools are dealing with body-blow-like budget cuts, the demands of No Child Left Behind and the Obama Administration’s focus on Race to the Top. Charters and high-stakes testing are the new normal. Teachers, and especially their unions are now widely seen as obstacles to reform. How did we get here? And are we too late to change course?

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tomdispatch.com — Isn’t it time to call what Congress will soon vote on by its right name: war escalation funding? Nonetheless, as in a tale foretold, Congress is expected to vote later this month on $33 billion in further “war funding” to pay for sending 30,000 troops (plus "support" troops, etc.) to Afghanistan -- most of whom are already there or soon will be. So, how much money are we talking about exactly? Well not enough, evidently for tea baggers, the labor movement or any other advocates of spending on jobs or health care or education or green energy to disturb their slumbers. After all, 33 billion miles could take you to the sun 226 times. And $33 billion could radically alter any non-military program in existence.

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huffingtonpost.com — This week thousands of New Jersey public school students walked out of class to protest draconian school budget cuts. "Save my teacher," their signs read. In a state that is home to a bevy of high finance billionaires, with the highest per capita income in the nation, teachers are being sacked left and right. In our town half the student body protested outside the high school. Perhaps the protesters should turn their eyes towards the twenty-five top hedge fund honchos who took in $25 billion in 2009. Their "earnings" alone could fund 658,000 entry level teachers. It's ironic that the battlefield in this war over resources is public education. Because the public remains entirely uneducated about the connection between those billionaires and school budget cuts. We are clueless about what the Wall Street billionaires do to earn their riches and whether it's of any value. We might be able to understand "weapons of mass destruction," but financial weapons of mass destruction are way beyond us.

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motherjones.com — President Obama took a huge step toward expanding access to higher education. Yet conspicuously absent from the bill Obama signed, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, was a much-touted effort to bolster community colleges, the nearly 1,200 schools that cater to students who can't afford a traditional university, need a stepping stone to a four-year school, or want job re-training when looking to change careers.

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guardian.co.uk — Believe it or not, liberals would be perfectly happy in a world where regulation weren't needed and government didn't need to run student loans. It would be great, because it would cost taxpayers less, which we're actually quite fine with, and it would mean that people in the private sector were being honest. But that ain't the world. Polluters dump crap into rivers and the air. Employers in dangerous workplaces cut corners, resulting in death and injury. Car companies knowingly put gasoline tanks in dangerous places. Lenders rip people off. When conservatives ask, how much regulation exactly do you advocate?, I say, no set amount — enough to protect the public weal.

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nytimes.com — If President Obama draws no other lesson from health care reform, it is that his early and forceful personal engagement on big issues is indispensable. Mr. Obama’s victory celebration had barely ended before people were asking, “Now what?” First and foremost is the economy, specifically the creation of jobs. He will also have to take the lead in improving the financial regulatory bills moving through Congress. President Obama has promised to reform the country’s education system, and to address climate change and oil dependency by transforming the way Americans produce and use energy. These are lofty objectives, and Mr. Obama may not reach them all. But the health care victory shows that big goals can be achieved — with Mr. Obama’s personal intervention and sustained leadership.

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