Quality Education
Top Stories
Worker Training in Demand, but in Short Supply
December 11th, 2009
The U.S. must train workers for the job growth of tomorrow. According to employment projection data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday, middle-skill jobs will experience the highest growth over the next decade. These jobs pay well, but also require a post-secondary certificate or an associate’s degree. more » Featured Issues
Executive Pay Hits Campuses
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.... more »
The Higher Education Fiscal Crisis Protects the Wealthy
Our current budget crisis in California and the rest of the country has been artificially created by cutting taxes on the wealthiest people and corporations. The corporate elites in the U.S., the top 1 percent who own close to half the wealth, are the beneficiaries of massive tax cuts over the past few decades, while at the same time working people are paying more through increased sales and use taxes and higher public college tuition.... more »
Constraining America’s Brightest
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.”... more »
The Case
Conservatives Letting Head Start Fall Behind
President Bush signed bipartisan legislation in December reauthorizing the Head Start program. But even as they praised the program, Congress funded the program at $480 million below its authorized level. Then President Bush in early February proposed a budget that would reduce funding even further below what the Congress authorized. more »
Progressive Values for Education
Americans want schools that teach values as well as math and reading. more »
The Facts
College: Soaring Out of Reach for Families
The dream of a college education is being priced out of reach for more and more American students and their families. Tuition is rising while wages are flat or sinking. Conservatives in Congress have responded by cutting $12 billion from federal student loan programs and raising loan interest rates for student and their parents. Conservatives in state governments have cut back funding for colleges, passing more costs to families in the form of increased tuitions and fees. See below to find out how your representative voted.more »
Investing In People
Here are some basic facts behind our call for "real investment" in people, assembled from recent government and private studies. We've fallen behind as a nation, but making the right spending choices will yield lasting dividends.more »
The News
American Graduates Finding Jobs in China
August 11th, 2009
Teachers Could Earn More Under Obama Plan
July 24th, 2009
The Case
Lieberman Vows to Fight for Assholes
"...While Sen. Lieberman's decision to align himself with the nation's assholes could be a high-risk strategy, politically speaking, a new poll of likely Connecticut voters indicates that they are a key constituency for the Senator..."more »
It's not just my empty wine fridge
In a recent interview for his new film, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer impatiently asked Michael Moore why he was bellyaching about capitalism since he’d obviously done so well financially. Moore patiently replied that he was simply trying to do what the good priests and nuns had taught him to do: “to help the least among us.” more »
Latest from our Bloggers
feb
9
2010
4:11 pm
4:11 pm
It should be, as the President once called it, a "no-brainer": Overhaul our broken system for distributing federal student loans. Stop giving banks undeserved profits for administering these loans (an estimated $80 billion over ten years), since they take no risk and have managed the program poorly. Make sure our money goes directly to the young people that need them the most. Who could be against that? In fact, the student loan reform bill has already passed the House. more »
feb
9
2010
11:27 am
11:27 am
Right now, we taxpayers give big banks billions to subsidize their student loans. Giving big banks money is decidedly unpopular after the TARP bailout, among liberals and conservatives. So you'd think there would be consensus to end the subsidies.
Apparently not. more »
feb
5
2010
6:43 am
6:43 am
The president rightly calls it a "no brainer." Direct lending to college students that saves $90 billion in excess subsidies to big banks and uses it to pay for college grants for poor kids and tax breaks for working families to help pay for tuition. This isn't complicated. The House passed it overwhelmingly last year. more »
jan
22
2010
5:51 pm
5:51 pm
The effects of the recession have been far reaching –that is no secret of course –but the picture for students in this downturn is only beginning to be painted more clearly. According to the Higher Education Research Institute’s annual survey of college freshman, students are really feeling the financial squeeze unlike ever before.
nov
20
2009
12:45 am
12:45 am
Representative John Kline (R-MN) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced legislation this week that keeps our broken student loan system in status quo, with corrupt private lenders and federal bank subsidies worth billions. more »
nov
13
2009
6:21 pm
6:21 pm
Recently the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, advised college financial administrators that with the likely passage of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) in the Senate, universit more »
nov
12
2009
11:18 am
11:18 am
This week, 50 organizations representing millions of students, families, workers and educators, wrote to urge the Senate to support President Obama’s higher education agenda. The groups expressed their support for initiatives embodied in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. more »
