Armand Biroonak

Just when you thought that the dust had settled from the scandals of Wall Street (at least temporarily), details come out of another Ponzi scheme by the titans of banking, this time with student loans.

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.

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.

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).

As today marks the eighth anniversary of the tragic September 11th attacks, it is also a reminder of the calamitous road of foreign policy that the Bush administration took us down shortly after. The Iraq War was of course an outright disaster, but Obama’s recent troop escalation into Afghanistan should worry progressives equally.

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.

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.

The President of the National Education Association, Dennis Van Roekel voiced added concerns that, “A 'Race to the Top' can quickly turn into a 'Race to Judgment.' We need to offer incentives so that our best teachers teach the students most in need of assistance, not incentives to teach students most likely to score highest on a standardized test.”

The other main provision requires states to lift caps on charter schools –this is equally troubling. Charter schools have not shown to improve the quality of education, nor do they prove competitive to the public alternative. In fact, the Department of Education found that public school children have higher reading and math scores compared to charters’.

The ‘Race to the Top’ hopefully will not become a ‘race to the bottom.’ Yet it is hard to believe that real change will come if failed, recycled ideas to reform are continued. For sure, federal investment that reward innovation should be applauded and expanded, however policies of the former administration should not be. True reform allows program flexibility for our public schools, while improving teacher skills, emphasizing advanced level curriculum, and building school-family-community partnerships.

As progressives call for cuts to defense spending, a big challenge in doing so is addressing job losses that come with eliminating weapons programs. The number of jobs at stake can often be a powerful argument for defense supporters that cannot be ignored. The recent fight over the F-22 and its production in over 40 states is a clear example. But there is a remedy.

Just when you thought that the dust had settled from the scandals of Wall Street (at least temporarily), details come out of another Ponzi scheme by the titans of banking, this time with student loans.

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.

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.

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).

As today marks the eighth anniversary of the tragic September 11th attacks, it is also a reminder of the calamitous road of foreign policy that the Bush administration took us down shortly after. The Iraq War was of course an outright disaster, but Obama’s recent troop escalation into Afghanistan should worry progressives equally.

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.

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.

The President of the National Education Association, Dennis Van Roekel voiced added concerns that, “A 'Race to the Top' can quickly turn into a 'Race to Judgment.' We need to offer incentives so that our best teachers teach the students most in need of assistance, not incentives to teach students most likely to score highest on a standardized test.”

The other main provision requires states to lift caps on charter schools –this is equally troubling. Charter schools have not shown to improve the quality of education, nor do they prove competitive to the public alternative. In fact, the Department of Education found that public school children have higher reading and math scores compared to charters’.

The ‘Race to the Top’ hopefully will not become a ‘race to the bottom.’ Yet it is hard to believe that real change will come if failed, recycled ideas to reform are continued. For sure, federal investment that reward innovation should be applauded and expanded, however policies of the former administration should not be. True reform allows program flexibility for our public schools, while improving teacher skills, emphasizing advanced level curriculum, and building school-family-community partnerships.

As progressives call for cuts to defense spending, a big challenge in doing so is addressing job losses that come with eliminating weapons programs. The number of jobs at stake can often be a powerful argument for defense supporters that cannot be ignored. The recent fight over the F-22 and its production in over 40 states is a clear example. But there is a remedy.