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Paying Off Student Debt With Social Security by Anna Pycior, policyshop.net | August 14, 2012
Social Security turned 77 today. Unfortunately, it's not a happy day for the historic program: new data compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department for Smart Money reports: "From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security checks on those grounds. That's nearly double the pace of the department's enforcement in 2011; it's up from around 60,000 cases in all of 2007 and just 6 cases in 2000." So, we're garnishing Social Security checks. This development can't be blamed on poor personal finance and bad life choices. Most of these retirees took on this debt later in life to help others (mainly family members) pay for increasingly expensive and necessary higher ed degrees. read more »Back To School And A Renewed Call For Progressive Education by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | August 13, 2012
Even if you don't have school-aged children, you can tell schools are about to open in many places because the airwaves, mailboxes, and newspaper inserts are stuffed with "Back to School" advertising. It's also the time of year when we hear most about research studies and serious-sounding reports about public education. read more »The For-Profit Higher Education Industry, By the Numbers by Suevon Lee, propublica.org | August 9, 2012
The for-profit higher education industry was the target of a bruising report issued last week. Based on a two-year effort, the report detailed high rates of loan default, aggressive recruiting, higher than average tuition, low retention rates, and little job placement assistance. It was spearheaded by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a longtime critic of the industry. The report has provoked some pushback. The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, a membership organization composed of accredited for-profit schools, issued a statement criticizing what it saw as "continued political attacks" on the for-profit sector. Saying the report "twists the facts to fit a narrative," it went on to challenge several figures. It didn't contest the following numbers. read more »Orwellian 'Parent Trigger' Laws Have Gun Aimed at Wrong Target by Jim Horn, commondreams.org | August 8, 2012
Since No Child Left Behind became law, schools where there are lots of poor kids have been turned into brutal testing factories, where the focus is on raising test scores rather than raising children. Even so, the test scores inexorably reflect the economic disadvantages of poor communities, as parents each year continue to receive the federally-mandated letters telling them their schools are failing. Some parents shake their heads and shrug off the letters because they know their child’s teacher is doing the best she can. Others get frustrated and angry. And yet most of these parents do not know that Karl Rove and his little band of Texans created NCLB with their dismay and frustration in mind, in order to replace public education, or to “blow it up a bit,” as former Assistant Secretary of Education Susan Neuman told Time Magazine in 2008. read more »Turning College Students into a Commodity by Jim Hightower, otherwords.org | August 6, 2012
Let's take a trip deep into the magic kingdom of "Laissez Fairyland" and prostrate ourselves before the infallible and inscrutable force known as the free market. While this awesome deity cannot be seen, the high priests of free-market fundamentalism insist that we mere mortals must simply have faith that its mysterious workings are always in our best interest. Yeah, sure, your holiness. We saw how well that worked out for us wandering pilgrims after you true believers deregulated Wall Street, which then crashed on our streets. Well, get ready. Free-market purists want us to have another ungodly religious encounter with their omnipotent deity. Looking at America's trillion-dollar student debt crisis, these spiritualists had a burning-bush revelation. read more »Saddled With Student Debt? Welcome To America's Screwed Generation by Natalia Antonova, The Guardian | August 1, 2012
I may not look like it, but I am a modern-day serf. Saddled with thousands of dollars of student debt – debt that has been stripped of all consumer protections and is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy – I am part of a screwed generation. Earlier this year, the collective student loan burden in the United States passed the $1trillion mark. Analysts are increasingly referring to a student loan bubble that could result in a crisis similar to the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. A bad job market for recent graduates and skyrocketing education costs have greatly exacerbated the problem. And among the nation's elite, there is a terrible sense of denial about just how bad the younger generations have it – old white guys in Congress believe we're merely lazy and entitled, having not had the good grace to be born into families with trust funds. It's a class war, and the middle class is losing. read more »Education Reform's Central Myths by Michael Lind, salon.com | August 1, 2012
The “Overton Window” is not a new kind of low-glare, high-insulation windowpane. Identified by Joseph P. Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Overton Window refers to the boundaries of the limited range of ideas and policies that are acceptable for consideration in politics at any one time. In other words, the Overton Window is the “box” that we are constantly exhorted to think outside of, only to be ignored or punished if we succeed. The debate about K-12 educational reform in the U.S. is an example of the Overton Window at work. For a generation, almost all of the debate about improving American schools has been limited to minor variations on two themes. read more »Teachers Take A Stand Against An Onslaught by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | July 30, 2012
If you've noticed lately the tendency in car commercials to show the vehicle against a background of an empty city street, you can assume it's likely due to the abundance of empty city streets available in the place famous for being home to the major automotive companies -- Detroit. read more »Chicago Teachers – Canaries In The American Coalmine by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | July 22, 2012
When a leading conservative pundit compliments a labor union leader for getting something right, it's usually worth noticing. read more »Critical Questions Democrats Must Ask About School Choice by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | July 12, 2012
Left-leaning people everywhere recently got a hoot when the Texas Republican Party declared its opposition to the teaching of "Higher Order Thinking Skills," including "critical thinking skills," in public schools. read more »
The Latest
Stimulus May Fund Summer School, Teacher Pay, Associated Press | April 24, 2009
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has some suggestions for how schools can spend their windfall from the economic stimulus law, including summer school and extra pay for teachers to coach struggling colleagues. The nation's schools will get an unprecedented amount of money — about $100 billion, double the amount of education spending under President George W. more »
Subsidized College Loans Under Fire In Congress, npr.org | April 21, 2009
With Congress back from a two-week break, lobbyists of all stripes will be going to work on President Obama's proposal to do away with federal subsidies for privately sourced student loans. Whatever happens now will not affect college loans for next fall. But in the longer term, the question is whether Washington ought to keep on subsidizing the private loans, something it has done since 1965. more »
Student Loan Industry Pushes Back, The Washington Post | April 14, 2009
With the Obama administration proposing to overhaul the programs a majority of American students use to finance their college education, the student loan industry is fighting back. more »
White House Reaches Out to D.C. Schools, Associated Press | April 13, 2009
District of Columbia students are a familiar sight at the White House since Barack Obama became president on Jan. 20. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the White House is reaching out to support the efforts of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and schools superintendent Michelle Rhee, who are taking aggressive steps to turn around Washington's struggling schools. more »
Community Colleges Gain Importance, | April 12, 2009
In Pennsylvania, all 14 community colleges are offering or finalizing plans for tuition assistance to locals who've lost jobs. More than 1,000 people are already signed up, says Diane Bosak, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges. more »
School Aid Doesn't Always Match Needs, iht.com | March 22, 2009
In pouring rivers of cash into U.S. states and school districts, Washington is using a tangle of well-worn government formulas, some of which benefit states that spend more per pupil, while others help states with large concentrations of poor students or simply channel money based on population. more »
More Career Switchers Become Educators, USA Today | March 22, 2009
Plenty of people dream of leaving their jobs to become teachers. Today, more people are actually doing it. These teachers, with real-life experience and often with deep knowledge of their subjects, are answering a call to service that is part of a strategy to dramatically boost the size and quality of the teaching workforce. more »
Teacher 'Performance Pay' Considered., Christian Science Monitor | March 18, 2009
Performance pay is one of several areas getting attention right now as education reformers zero in on high-quality teaching as the key to helping students learn. The thinking goes like this: It takes good teachers to improve student achievement, and it will take better pay to lure and keep good teachers. Critics, including many unions, point to several issues. more »
College Study Finds Two-Year 'Penalty', USA Today | March 17, 2009
Most workers who have a degree from a community college can earn more than a person who had no formal training after high school. And even if they never complete a two-year degree, students who attend some community college can get higher-paying jobs. But what if that student goes on to earn a bachelor's? more »
School Wrestle With Spending Stimulus Funds, Christian Science Monitor | March 17, 2009
At the heart of President Obama's historic $787 billion economic stimulus program is a tough choice for educators: Do states and local school districts use the $100 billion spike in federal aid to do new things for kids or mainly to backfill the status quo? The Obama administration is calling on schools to do both. more »
