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The Truth about Student Debt by Anya Kamenetz, prospect.org | January 23, 2013
There are a few ready talking points when discussing the student-loan crisis: the collective $1 trillion burden of debt, how student debt is now larger than credit card debt in this country, the fact that the 90-day delinquency rate spiked to 11 percent last year, meaning over one in ten borrowers are behind on their payments—all facts that don’t give much hope to those with loans, or those trying to resolve the financial crisis. Another widely repeated belief is that student loans are completely nondischargeable in bankruptcy, a statement that a quick fact-check proves to be rated “pants on fire” and one that is causing tens of thousands of borrowers to suffer for no reason, for years. read more »Teacher Rebellion: Refusal to Administer Standardized Testing Spreads in Washington by Laura Gottesdiener, alternet.org | January 17, 2013
The teachers are rising up again—and this time, they’re going after standardized tests. In Seattle, a boycott against the national Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests is spreading across high schools. At Garfield High School, where the boycott began, 19 teachers called a press conference to announce that they would refuse to give the tests because they are a waste of time and resources for the students. The test scores do not affect the students’ grades or ability to graduate, and the test’s material itself has nothing to do with the students’ classes or curriculum—meaning that students rarely take the tests seriously. Despite this irrelevance, however, teachers in the Seattle school district learned that this year, the MAP test scores would be used to measure their teacher evaluations—spurring frustration and anger read more »Fighting Education Shock Therapy by James Cersonsky, prospect.org | January 14, 2013
The watchword of austerity, “there is no alternative,” connotes painful cuts and layoffs adopted by fiscally shot local governments. In practice, though, this is a contradiction in terms: the politics of austerity are also a politics of imaginative restructuring, in which fiscal crisis is a cover for what Clintonites called “reinventing government” or, as partisans of Naomi Klein might prefer, “shock therapy.” The lie is starkest in the realm of education policy, where the Obama administration prescribes a slate of options for impoverished communities receiving federal School Improvement Grants. These range from “turnarounds,” which replace the principal and at least half of school staff, to charterization or outright closure. The catch with turnarounds and closings? Urban schools affected by them house more students of color than those left alone. As such, a growing national movement argues, the implementation of these policies systematically violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race-based discrimination in federally funded programs. read more »How Our Universities Have Been Turned into Corporate Marketing Centers by Jim Hightower, alternet.org | January 14, 2013
The "ivory tower" of academia has become overshadowed by a new edifice on campus that is reaching ridiculous heights: the tower of mammon. As public universities have been driven by budget-whacking lawmakers to seek ever-more private funding, schools that once prided themselves as being centers of free thinking are increasingly dominated by corporate-think, turning their institutions into sales centers. "A lot of schools are taking a much more corporate approach," exulted a PRexecutive who works with top university administrators, marveling that "a CMO didn't even exist on most campuses 10 years ago." A what? A chief marketing officer, whose job is to peddle the place like it's a new model of car or line of cosmetics. Forget intellectual pursuits, we're talking about pursuing buyers, in the brave new academic marketplace. This results in colleges resorting to the same kind of ridiculous come-ons that hawkers of consumer products often barf-up. read more »Michelle Rhee Gets A Failing Grade On Her Report Card by Ross Eisenberry, epi.org | January 10, 2013
Michelle Rhee and her misnamed school privatization organization, StudentsFirst, recently issued a report card on the nation’s schools that has been roundly criticized, and rightly so. Rhee ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia by how closely they hew to her vision of school “reform,” which involves high stakes testing, maximizing the number of charter schools, expanding voucher programs that use tax dollars to pay for private schools, and eliminating teacher tenure and pension plans. Rhee’s right-wing agenda of privatization, de-unionization, and the funneling of public tax dollars into corporate coffers is becoming clearer to the public—and perhaps even to her own staff. Coupled with her recent stumble over the shootings at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., her reluctance to oppose a Michigan bill to allow concealed weapons in schools, and the PBS Frontline exposé about cheating scandals during her tenure as chancellor in D.C., Rhee and her agenda may be losing their glitz and appeal. We can only hope so. read more »Families Shoulder Heftier Burdens as College Debt Swells by Marian Wang, propublica.org | January 3, 2013
It's been a year of eye-popping records for student debt. Outstanding student loan debt surpassed credit card debt, with one government estimate pegging total student loan debt at more than $1 trillion. Such staggering figures drew renewed attention to the fact that rising higher education costs and falling government support for state colleges and universities has burdened individual students and their families with immense debt — all at a time when new graduates face anemic prospects for getting a decent job. Increasingly, the debt burden falls on parents, not just students. read more »Today in Poverty: An Education Wish List by Greg Kaufmann and Elaine Weiss, The Nation | December 20, 2012
10. A Roof Over Every Student’s Head. 9. School Breakfast and Lunch for All Eligible Students. 8. Expanded Access to Quality Pre-kindergarten. 7. Elimination of Waiting Lists for Child Care Subsidies. 6. Affordable physical, mental and dental medical care. 5. Expanded learning time that delivers enriching after-school experiences. 4. Experienced, qualified teachers in appropriately sized classes. 3. Fully-resourced schools. 2. An enriching, holistic curriculum. 1. National policies that enable parents, families, and communities to provide children with what they need to thrive educationally. read more »Why You Can Kiss Public Education (and the Middle Class) Goodbye by Thomm Hartman, alternet.org | December 17, 2012
Quick - when you hear "public housing," what picture jumps into your mind? Or "public hospital"? All around us, our public institutions are disintegrating, and the most important public institution of all – our public education system – is the next to be ghettoized. Despite several progressive victories this Election Day, there was one significant defeat in Georgia, as voters approved of Constitutional Amendment 1 , which changes Georgia’s Constitution to give Republicans in that state the power to create charter schools as part of Georgia’s public education system. The result will be crucial taxpayer dollars being funneled away from free public schools and directed toward brand new, sometimes for-profit, privately-run charter schools. This is a major shot in the multigenerational war on public education part of our commons. read more »Schools in the Crosshairs by Abby Rapoport, prospect.org | December 2, 2012
Won’t Back Down, like the movement it champions, begins from the assumption that public schools are a hopeless mess. The complicated challenges that public educators grapple with—severe budget cuts, for instance, or health problems that make learning a particular challenge for low-income kids—are nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, parents are exempted from responsibility. Anyone who believes in the school-reform fairy tale of Won’t Back Down should be required to watch another film released this fall to much less fanfare. This one doesn’t feature an Academy Award winner or a soundtrack of No. 1 hits. Instead, Brooklyn Castle chronicles a messy reality—that of Intermediate School 318, a Brooklyn middle school where 70 percent of the kids live below the poverty line, and where funding cuts are threatening the after-school activities that are key to getting many of them engaged. That includes the school’s chess team, which is, improbably, among the best in the country. read more »Charter School Proponents To Announce Major Focus On Shutting Down Failing Schools by Joy Resmovits, Huffington Post | November 28, 2012
Charter schools are about to get a reality check. As someone who has observed the breakneck pace of the growing charter school movement up close, Greg Richmond, who leads the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), is taking a step back. "We didn't start this movement in order to create more failing schools, but that's what we have," Richmond told The Huffington Post. "Hundreds of them." On Wednesday morning, Richmond will join New Jersey Schools Commissioner Chris Cerf and California charter schools advocate Jed Wallace at Washington D.C.'s National Press Club to announce a new campaign, "One Million Lives," that aims to crack the whip on the duds. The campaign will focus on getting states to adopt rules that make failing charter schools close automatically, hold charter authorizers accountable for their schools' performance, and revamp their authorizing bodies so they become more professional. read more »
The Latest
California: Protect Our Schools from Devastating Layoffs, action.aclu.org | August 8, 2010
The story itself is bad enough but it is also set against the backdrop of Californian civilisation being beaten back into some form of rootless serfdom as the institutions of good governance unravel and fail. more »
Will The GOP Senators Whose States Face Thousands Of Teacher Layoffs Vote Against Teacher Funding? , wonkroom.thinkprogress.org | August 3, 2010
Today, the Senate will be taking a procedural vote on a bill providing $26 billion in aid to state and local governments, $10 billion of which is dedicated to preventing teacher layoffs. This particular batch of funding has been included in, and then cut from, multiple bills, as each time conservatives have objected. more »
Senate Vote on Medicaid, Education Funds Delayed, thehill.com | August 3, 2010
The Senate tabled a jobs measure Monday because Democrats underestimated the package’s cost. Democrats had scheduled a vote to end debate on their proposal to send $10 billion in funding to states and local governments to prevent public teacher layoffs. The package contains another $16.1 billion to help states with Medicaid obligations.
Education Funds Out of Senate War Bill, Politico | July 23, 2010
The Senate sent back to the House Thursday night a stripped-down $59 billion war funding bill, after striking all of the added education assistance which Democrats had wanted to avert threatened teacher layoffs in the fall. more »
Krugman: we're paying the price of dumbing down America., The New York Times | October 11, 2009
American Graduates Finding Jobs in China, The New York Times | August 11, 2009
Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home. Even those with limited or no knowledge of Chinese are heeding the call. They are lured by China’s surging economy, the lower cost of living and a chance to bypass some of the dues-paying that is common to first jobs in the United States. more »
Teachers Could Earn More Under Obama Plan, USA Today | July 24, 2009
States that want a piece of the Obama administration's $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund for schools must hew to internationally benchmarked academic standards and let schools pay teachers and principals more if they work in hard-to-staff schools — or if student scores improve on basic skills tests. more »
Student Loan Measure Clears House Panel, The Washington Post | July 22, 2009
A bill that cleared a House committee would largely remove private lenders from the federal student loan industry, generating an estimated $87 billion savings over 10 years to fund more government grants and loans. more »
Black-White Student Achievement Gap Persists, MSNBC News | July 15, 2009
Despite unprecedented efforts to improve minority achievement in the past decade, the gap between black and white students remains frustratingly wide, according to an Education Department report. There is good news in the report: Reading and math scores are improving for black students across the country. more »
Obama Plans $12 Billion Boost To Community Colleges, USA Today | July 14, 2009
President Obama is expected to announce a $12 billion proposal today that will put the nation's community colleges front and center in his economic recovery plan. Among his goals: to modernize community college facilities, to increase the quality of online courses and to ensure that more students complete their programs. more »
