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The Sununu Spin by Digby , OurFuture.org | June 12, 2012
I've always loathed this jerk, but he is always one of those guys who is wiling to come right out and defend the indefensible, so you have to give him a sort of credit: read more »The Secret of Joy: Six Lessons From Quebec's "Maple Spring" by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | June 6, 2012
As I read more about the student movement in Quebec, known as the "Maple Spring" or the "Casserole Revolution," it brings to mind the final scene from Possessing the Secret of Joy, by one of my favorite authors, Alice Walker. In that scene, the main character — Tashi, a minor character from The Color Purple — discovers a truth. From Wall Street to Wisconsin, and Cairo to Quebec, people the world over are realizing that same truth every day. Today, that truth is echoed in the chants, protests and placards of protesters in the streets of Montreal. It's the same truth Walker spelled out in huge block letters near the end of her novel: RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY. That's one of six lessons of Quebec's "Maple Spring." read more »Learning by Making by Dale Dougherty, slate.com | June 4, 2012
On a morning visit to a Northern California middle school, I saw not a single student. The principal showed me around campus, but I didn’t see or hear students talking, playing, or moving about. The science lab was empty, as were the library and the playground. It was not a school holiday: It was a state-mandated STAR testing day. The school was in an academic lockdown. A volunteer manned a table filled with cupcakes, a small reward for students at day’s end. This is what the American public school looks like in 2012, driven by obsessive adherence to standardized testing. The fate of children, their schools, and their teachers are based on these school test scores. read more »Why Is Student Debt Different From Other Kinds Of Debt? by Suzy Khimm, The Washington Post | June 1, 2012
When it comes to consumer debt, Americans are slowly but surely starting to dig themselves out of the hole of the recent downturn. Severely delinquent mortgages, credit card bills, and car loans have all been in decline over the last two years, according to the New York Federal Reserve. But Americans have had significantly more trouble paying back one particular kind of loan. “Student loan debt continues to grow even as consumers reduce mortgage debt and credit card balances,” Donghoon Lee, senior economist at the New York Fed, said in a statement. “It remains the only form of consumer debt to substantially increase since the peak of household debt in late 2008.” Why are Americans having more trouble paying off student loans, as compared to other kinds of debt? read more »Romney, Obama Vie For Who Can Hurt Education The Worst by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | May 25, 2012
In this week's round in the nation's presidential contest, education got tossed into the ring and slapped around by the opposing candidates and their spokespeople. Who won the round is anyone's guess, but poor education got mauled in the process and tossed into the spit bucket. read more »Teacher Depreciation Week by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | May 11, 2012
It was Teacher Appreciation Week this week. Unfortunately, someone forgot the appreciation part. President Obama, for one, kicked off the week by proclaiming that from now on the week would also (instead?) be forever known as National Charter Schools Week. read more »Conservatives Again Risk Higher Student Debt To Protect The Wealthy by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | May 8, 2012
Senate Republicans today filibustered the effort to prevent federal student loan rates from doubling, once again obstructing the majority and putting the finances of millions of college students at risk for the sake of protecting the leather wallets of the 1 percent. read more »Tell The Senate To Act On Student Loan Debt by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | May 7, 2012
As the Senate prepares to vote Tuesday on legislation that will stop a scheduled doubling of the rate on Stafford student loans on July 1, conservatives are engaged in a shameless (and shameful) effort to detail the effort. read more »Free College? We Can Afford It. by Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Washington Post | May 1, 2012
Student loans set off the latest Washington spitball fight. The House Republican budget called for letting interest rates double on government-subsidized student loans (and for deep cuts in Pell Grants and other student support). Students who borrow the maximum in subsidized loans would end up paying as much as $1,000 a year in added interest. Last week, President Obama sensibly called for extending the lower rate and starting stumping through colleges and talk shows to enlist students in the cause. The standoff allows for what has now become the routine exchange of insults, slurs and posturing before a deal is worked out at the last possible moment. Ignored in this is the stark reality that even with the lower rates, more and more students can’t afford the college education or advanced training that everyone except for Rick Santorum believes they need. read more »What Makes Health-care And Education Costs Similar To Each Other — And Unlike Anything Else by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post | May 1, 2012
Like the health-care sector, the higher education sector is heavily subsidized by the government. Some take that commonality as a causality: Health-care and college costs are out of control because the government subsidizes them. I think the truth is closer to the reverse: The government subsidizes them because their costs are out of control. Health-care and higher education are similar in another way, too: People don’t think they can responsibly say no to either expense. Families take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to pay medical bills and tuition costs. This inability to say no removes the ultimate form of market discipline: the consumer’s ability to simply walk out of the store. There’s certainly more we could do to bring market pressures into play in both sectors, but the reason the government ends up involved in health care and education is that a real market would require us telling more people than we’re comfortable with that they can’t have the medical care or education that they need. read more »
The Latest
For Colleges, Small Cuts Add Up to Big Savings, The New York Times | June 19, 2009
College life may look different in the not-so-distant future: Students squinting out dirtier windows, faculty offices with full wastebaskets and no phones, sporting events in which opponents never meet, and paper course catalogs existing only as artifacts of the wasteful old days. more »
School Systems Juggle Cost of Free Lunches, USA Today | June 11, 2009
School systems nationwide are trimming lunch menus, buying more food in bulk and delaying purchases of kitchen equipment to offset the costs of serving free or reduced-price lunches to millions of newly eligible students from cash-strapped families. more »
Caps and Gowns Too Costly For Some Graduates, MSNBC News | May 22, 2009
Across the nation, school staffers privy to teen problems say more students are having a hard time footing the costs of graduation. From Florida and Texas to Indiana and California, education officials are soliciting donations, recycling old gowns and, in some cases, ponying up the money themselves. more »
Economic Slump Slows Down Summer Schools, npr.org | May 21, 2009
New GI Bill Could Open Education Doors For More Vets, | May 18, 2009
The new G.I. bill takes effect Aug. 1. The law, which could potentially more than double the amount covered in the current GI Bill, could open college doors to thousands of veterans, many of whom would not otherwise have considered college because of the expense. more »
House OKs $6.4 Billion To Make Schools Greener, CNN | May 15, 2009
The House on Thursday passed a $6.4 billion school modernization bill that would commit funds for the construction and update of more energy-efficient school buildings. The measure passed 275-155 in a largely party-line vote, and will now move to the Senate for further review. more »
College Graduates Stuggle to Repay Loans, USA Today | May 13, 2009
Thousands of college graduates are facing a student loan crisis. The job market is shrinking, and the sour economy is preventing employers, parents and relatives from helping those who are behind on payments. Student loan defaults are at their highest rate since 1998, and likely will go higher. more »
Obama Seeks to Turn Around 5,000 Schools, Associated Press | May 12, 2009
President Barack Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals. The goal is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday, by beefing up funding for the federal school turnaround program created by the No Child Left Behind law. more »
Sallie Mae Flips on Subsidies, The Washington Post | May 11, 2009
For the past two decades, Sallie Mae has opposed every attempt to overhaul the $85-billion-a-year student loan industry by eliminating subsidies to lenders. But in a dramatic reversal, the lending behemoth now supports President Obama's efforts to kill the subsidies it has tried to protect for so long. more »
House Democrats Clear Budget Bill for Passage, The Washington Post | April 29, 2009
House Democrats resolved an internal squabble over a $3.5 trillion fiscal 2010 budget plan, clearing the way for final passage of the blueprint, to mark President Obama's 100th day in office. The blueprint preserves all of Obama's major domestic policy priorities while seeking to cut the deficit in half by 2012. more »
