Blogs: Quality Education

Earlier this week the House held a hearing on private student loans and bankruptcy, shedding light for the first time on a rather unknown yet devastating aspect of student debt. more »

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I applaud the House of Representatives for passing last week the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA). The bill will increase the annual Pell Grant maximum to $5,500 in 2010 and adjust it to inflation over time. more »

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I congratulate the House passing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) —see description of the bill here. This historic legislation commits billions to student aid and higher education investments, while ending wasteful bank subsidies that total $87 billion. more »

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The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) is expected to be introduced in the House today. A historic bill, it will invest billions in student aid and higher education, while ending subsidies to banks (See Bob Brandon’s post outlining the bill here). more »

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The Wall Street Journal reports that the total amount borrowed by students in the 2008-09 academic year grew 25% to $75.1 billion. more »

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I wrote last week about the absolutely shameful, shocking and appalling attacks from conservatives against President Obama in response to his plans to give students a back to school pep talk about the importance of education. more »

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"You people," Mr. Harrison — my high school English teacher — said to our class, with a hint of pride, "already have your own ideas. I can't mold you. But people coming after you," he said as a note dismay crept into his voice, "come to my class and they sit here and wait for me to tell them what to think."

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Students are borrowing more than ever to pay for college. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, for the 2008-09 academic year, students borrowed nearly 25 percent more than the previous year to pay for school, borrowing a total of over $75 billion. more »

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Well the reviews are already in on Obama's big speech on "the importance of education", and they aren't pretty. The descriptions range from "brainwashing" and "indoctrination of your children" to accusations that Obama's speech shows that he is actually Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, and of course, a terrorist. more »

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The Obama administration realizes that our education system is lagging, but the recently announced ‘Race to the Top’ initiative may not be the solution. The Department of Education’s ‘Race to the Top’ puts up for grabs almost $5 billion of federal dollars to states that devise innovations and demonstrate improvements in K-12 education. This program is a good start in theory, but the fine print promotes broad, sweeping changes that are cause for concern.

First, to be eligible, states are required to link performance with testing. This is similar to the failed No Child Left Behind policy that focused too much on student assessment, and too little on broader factors and gains, when gauging school quality. For those who forgot, NCLB showed little gains in student progress, with schools forced to teach to the test and tests emphasizing low level skills.

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