Holy Family School » house

Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:00:46 +0000

LONDON — What is a university education worth? Who derives the benefits? And who should pay for it?

Universities in Britain Brace for Cuts in Subsidies
(October 16, 2010)

These were just some of the questions that pushed their way onto the front pages here last week after the publication of “Securing a Sustainable Future For Higher Education,” the results of a yearlong inquiry into higher education and student finance in Britain.

Better known as the Browne Review after the inquiry’s chairman, John Browne, the former head of BP, the report called for the cap on tuition fees at British universities, now set at ?3,290, or $5,275, a year, to be scrapped in favor of a free-market approach paid for by the students themselves — but only after they graduate and are earning more than ?21,000 a year.

“Students do not pay charges, only graduates do; and then only if they are successful,” the report said. “The system of payments is highly progressive. No one earning under ?21,000 will pay anything.”

Lord Browne added in an interview with the BBC, “If you choose to go into a job which doesn’t pay very much or if you choose to go out of the workforce to build a family, you won’t have to pay it back.”

In addition to recommending that students bear a larger share of the costs, the report also called for increased student choice in higher education. It suggested this be done partly by allowing the more popular educational institutions to expand to meet demand, partly by mandating a uniform standard of information (including likely future earnings for each course) be made available to prospective students, and partly by proposing to expand the total number of university places by 10 percent over the next three years.

The report also proposes that part-time students should be treated the same as full-time students financially. (Under the current system, full-time students in Britain are given a government loan to cover the full costs of tuition; part-time students are required to pay their fees in advance.)

Tuition fees would be limited only by what the market will bear — though if universities were to charge above ?6,000 a year the government would claw back a portion of the increase to pay for the costs of providing up-front finance. Fees at Oxford, Cambridge and other members of the Russell Group of 20 leading British universities are widely expected to quickly rise above ?10,000 a year, with less prestigious institutions presumably charging considerably less.

If implemented, the Browne Review’s suggestions will reshape the landscape of British higher education — and perhaps act as a spur across Europe, where global competition for the most talented students has left many countries wondering whether their own approaches to higher education are sustainable. Ireland, which abolished tuition fees in the mid-1990s and is now facing an acute shortfall in public funding for education, is paying particularly close attention to developments in Britain.

“The world has moved on,” said Ellen Hazelkorn, head of the Higher Education Policy Unit at the Dublin Institute of Technology. “Universities here think they’re going to keep getting the same level of support from the state. There’s not a hope of that.” Yet any party that re-introduces tuition fees would be signing its own death warrant. “Politically it’s almost impossible,” Dr. Hazelkorn said.

The politics aren’t much easier in Britain, where all 57 members of Parliament from the Liberal Democrat Party — the junior partner in the country’s coalition government — last month signed a pledge to abolish tuition fees. But Vincent Cable, the Liberal Democrat who serves as Business Secretary, last week called that promise “no longer feasible,” telling the House of Commons he found Lord Browne’s proposals “fair and affordable.”

David Willetts, the Universities Minister, said last month that he hoped to be able to implement the overhaul by the start of the 2012 academic year, which would mean legislation drafted and approved by Parliament in the coming year. But with the Labour Party favoring a graduate tax — a method of paying for education considered and rejected by the Browne review — and many Liberal Democrat members saying they still oppose any increase in tuition, the government will have to fight — and possibly make compromises — to get any bill through.

In his recent memoir, former Prime Minister Tony Blair writes that he came closest to losing his own job not over the Iraq war but over an earlier increase in tuition fees, when a government with a 167 vote majority scraped through by five votes.

According to Andreas Schleicher, an official in the education directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the answer to who pays for higher education depends largely on how society views the benefits. “In the United States and Japan university education is viewed as a private good — something whose benefits accrue mainly to the individual,” he said. “So in those countries student fees can be very high, and are paid either by the students themselves or by their parents and families. In Japan a whole extended family can be expected to contribute.”

Next Page ?

Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:44:31 +0000

President Obama created a grant program to copy his block-by-block approach to ending poverty. The British government praised his charter schools as a model. And a new documentary opening across the country revolves around him: Geoffrey Canada, the magnetic Harlem Children’s Zone leader with strong ideas about how American education should be fixed.

Movie Review | ‘Waiting for â??Superman’: Students Caught in the School Squeeze
(September 24, 2010)

Enlarge This Image

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Julio Rodriguez, standing, teaches physics and earth science at Promise Academy. Donielle Richards, foreground, worked on a physics problem.

Last week, Mr. Canada was in Birmingham, England, addressing Prime Minister David Cameron and members of his Conservative Party about improving schools.

But back home and out of the spotlight, Mr. Canada and his charter schools have struggled with the same difficulties faced by other urban schools, even as they outspend them. After a rocky start earlier this decade typical of many new schools, Mr. Canada’s two charter schools, featured as unqualified successes in “Waiting for ‘Superman,’?” the new documentary, again hit choppy waters this summer, when New York State made its exams harder to pass.

A drop-off occurred, in spite of private donations that keep class sizes small, allow for an extended school day and an 11-month school year, and offer students incentives for good performance like trips to the Gal?pagos Islands or Disney World.

The parent organization of the schools, the Harlem Children’s Zone, enjoys substantial largess, much of it from Wall Street. While its cradle-to-college approach, which seeks to break the cycle of poverty for all 10,000 children in a 97-block zone of Harlem, may be breathtaking in scope, the jury is still out on its overall impact. And its cost — around $16,000 per student in the classroom each year, as well as thousands of dollars in out-of-class spending — has raised questions about its utility as a nationwide model.

Mr. Canada, 58, who began putting his ideas into practice on a single block, on West 119th Street, in the mid-1990s, does not apologize for the cost of his model, saying his goals are wider than just fixing a school or two. His hope is to prove that if money is spent in a concentrated way to give poor children the things middle-class children take for granted — like high-quality schooling, a safe neighborhood, parents who read to them, and good medical care — they will not pass on the patterns of poverty to another generation.

“You could, in theory, figure out a less costly way of working with a small number of kids, and providing them with an education,” Mr. Canada said. “But that is not what we are attempting to do. We are attempting to save a community and its kids all at the same time.”

Few would deny that a middle-class renaissance is under way in the sections of Harlem where Mr. Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone have focused their efforts. The zone extends from 116th to 143th Streets, between Madison Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

All children who live in the zone have access to many of its services, including after-school programs, asthma care, precollege advice and adult classes for expectant parents, called Baby College. The organization has placed young teaching assistants, known as peacemakers, in many of the elementary school classrooms in the area and poured money into organizing block associations, helping tenants buy buildings from the city, and refurbishing parks and playgrounds. By linking services, the program aims to improve on early-childhood programs like Head Start, whose impact has been shown to evaporate as children age.

Amid the facades of new condominiums that signal gentrification, however, deep poverty remains. So does low student performance in most of the neighborhood’s public schools, despite modest gains over the past decade and a growing number of better-performing charter schools, a development Mr. Canada helped pioneer.

Last month, the Obama administration awarded $10 million in grants to 21 neighborhood groups around the country to help them plan their own versions of the Harlem Children’s Zone, and the president is seeking $210 million for next year, although appropriations committees in the Senate and the House have earmarked only $20 million and $60 million, respectively.

But there has been some criticism. Grover J. Whitehurst, a co-author of a Brookings Institution analysis of the zone (pdf), said there was still too little evidence that its approach, of linking social services to promote student achievement, justified an investment of federal education dollars, and urged that a more rigorous study be conducted.

Next Page ?

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties

Calif school shooting suspect called uncooperative (AP)

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:56:05 +0000

CARLSBAD, Calif. – The suspect in a San Diego-area grade school shooting that left two young girls injured was not cooperating with investigators, police said, and the man’s neighbors described strange behavior in the months before the shooting.

Brendan L. O’Rourke, 41, was in custody Saturday for investigation of six counts of attempted murder and numerous weapons violations.

Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain said O’Rourke was refusing to answer questions and police did not know what he intended to do or why he opened fire, but they believe he acted alone.

“He is not cooperating with the investigation,” Cain said Friday night. “He probably has some mental health issues.”

O’Rourke’s neighbors told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a story posted on its website Saturday that he often screamed obscenities and racial epithets alone in his apartment. Neighbors said they frequently called police.

Vickie Rowe-Mitchell, who lives in the apartment beneath O’Rourke, said he would curse and scream the N-word for hours late at night, and said his stomping and banging was so loud her ceiling fan would shake and parts of her ceiling would fall.

“I always felt in my head he was going to do something bad,” she told the newspaper. “It was just a feeling in my soul.”

None of the residents of Canyon Creek Apartments knew what he did for a living.

Another neighbor, Ashley Johnson, said she had seen O’Rourke on Friday morning just a few hours before the shooting.

“I was opening my door and she was just leaving,” Johnson said. “He closed his door really fast and there was this weird chemical smell. It smelled really weird in his house.”

Police said a propane tank was found near O’Rourke’s car and a gas canister was found at a playground at the school after the shooting.

At about noon Friday, police said O’Rourke parked his car, jumped a fence and opened fire on the crowded playground, hitting a 6-year-old and 7-year-old in the arms before construction workers tackled him.

The girls were taken by helicopter to Rady Children’s Hospital. The injuries were not life-threatening and they are expected to make a full recovery, Cain said.

Second-grader Caden Smith said he ended up in a classroom with injured girls.

“One, her arm was covered in blood and all you could see was red,” Caden told the North County Times. “The other, there wasn’t that much blood.”

Third-grader Tommy Donahue said he was playing outside when he heard what sounded like firecrackers.

“Once the noise happened, everybody decided to scream and run for the classroom,” Tommy told the newspaper as he stood next to his mother. “I felt safe in the classroom.”

O’Rourke was briefly taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital then booked at the Vista Jail.

Sheriff’s deputies reached by phone Saturday said they did not know if he had hired a lawyer.

Parents, like professional surfer Scott Chandler who lives across the street, shudder to think of what could have happened if the man had not been stopped.

“He had some kind of mission he was on and he didn’t complete it,” Chandler said.

Chandler was repairing a Jet Ski in his driveway when he heard two loud bangs and saw children running and screaming. He ran downhill in his flip-flops and took cover behind some tall Eucalyptus trees while he called 911. He saw several men struggling on the side of the road.

He approached the crowd after realizing the school’s construction workers were pinning down the man. Chandler said he saw bullets fall out of the suspect’s pocket.

“His face was in the dirt, his teeth were in the dirt, and he just grunted,” Chandler said.

Calif school shooting suspect called uncooperative (AP)

The New Health Care Rules: What They Will and Won’t Do (Time.com)

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:28:01 +0000

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When Democrats front-loaded the Affordable Care Act with consumer protections set to kick in six weeks before Election Day, they never imagined health care reform itself would stay so unpopular. The newest reliable poll on public opinion on the new law, sponsored by the Associated Press, shows that 40% of Americans oppose the new law, with 30% saying they have no opinion and just 30% favoring it.

Opposition to the overhaul has remained strong despite efforts by the Obama Administration and pro-health reform advocacy groups to turn the tide. The reason, they say, is that Americans are confused about how the law will work. There’s some truth to this notion, with polls consistently showing that Americans dislike the law overall, but like many of the law’s components when asked about them individually. Polls also show misconceptions are common. The AP survey, for instance, indicates that 65% of people believe the law will probably increase the federal deficit, despite estimates that the law will reduce the federal debt by some $140 billion over ten years. (Read about the first victims of health care reform.)

The Administration is banking on a massive public education campaign about a set of insurance regulations that kick in today to increase support for health reform. Other numbers from the new AP poll, however, suggest how hard that will be. When asked a series of quiz-like questions about new rules already in place – like tax credits for small business – along with the popular insurance regulations that kick in today – like new coverage rules for children – most respondents are already familiar with them and understand how they work, even as they misunderstand more distant changes to the health care system. Additionally, some of the provisions taking effect are fairly narrow in scope, meaning a relatively small number of Americans will be personally impacted by them. (See the top 10 health care reform ads.)

Here’s a rundown of which new consumer protections go into effect today.

Coverage for children with pre-existing conditions

Insurance companies are no longer permitted to exclude from coverage pre-existing conditions in enrollees 18 and under. This provision, while wildly popular in the abstract, comes with a long list of caveats. There’s nothing in the law that prevents insurers from charging as much as they want to cover the costs of paying for pre-existing conditions. While all group plans, such as those provided by employers, will fall under this new rule, individual policies that existed before March 23, 2010, aren’t subject to it. Since new child-only plans will have to cover pre-existing conditions, some insurers have opted not to sell them at all. The government estimates 31,000 to 72,000 uninsured children could gain coverage because of this new rule and up to 90,000 who have insurance but have a pre-existing condition exclusion could get new coverage for their conditions – provided they can afford it.

Ban on lifetime limits and restrictions on annual limits

Insurers are no longer allowed to set a lifetime limit on benefits. This is particularly helpful to people with very expensive or long-term health problems. The government estimates that about 20,000 people in the U.S. hit their lifetime limits every year. The law also begins phasing out annual limits on coverage. Except for individual plans purchased before March 23, 2010, which may have “grandfathered status,” all plans issued or renewed between today and Sept. 23, 2011, will not be able to set annual limits lower than $750,000. (The limit is raised each year until it is eliminated in 2014.) Not all plans have annual limits anyway and some are already higher than this, meaning the new rule will affect fewer than 2 million plans, according to federal estimates. For plans that currently have limits below $750,000 and will therefore have to make changes, the government predicts premiums will increase by percentages in the single digits. (See the top 10 players in health care reform.)

Ban on rescissions

Insurance companies are no longer allowed to retroactively cancel policies just because people make inadvertent errors on their enrollment forms. Such action by insurers, while rare, is often egregious and a way for insurers to avoid paying for care when their customers become very ill. The new rule states that insurers can only rescind policies if enrollees are found to have committed fraud. The ban on unfair rescissions is, like coverage of pre-existing conditions in children, wildly popular but impactful for only a small number of people. The government estimates that currently there are about 10,700 rescissions every year.

Coverage for young adults

Insurance companies must allow parents to include children 25 or younger as dependents on their policies. Children 25 and under can join their parents’ policies even if they are not listed as a dependent for tax purposes and even if they don’t live with their parents. However, as with coverage for children with pre-existing conditions, there are a number of caveats that apply to this new rule. Some plans that existed before the Affordable Care Act was signed on March 23, 2010 – those which maintain “grandfathered status” will not be required to extend dependent coverage to these young adults if they can get their own insurance through work. Children 19-25 who have pre-existing conditions may face exclusion periods. Plus, about half the states already allow adult children to be included as dependents. Still, up to about 2.5 million young adults could gain new coverage.

Free preventive care

Insurers must cover preventive care without requiring enrollees to cough up co-pays or co-insurance. The rule only applies to preventive care delivered by practitioners in an insurer’s network. Plans with “grandfathered status” do not have to abide by this new rule. Procedures, screenings and tests that are considered “preventive” will be determined by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Centers for Disease Control (for vaccines) and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Other new rules

Regulations that kick in today also allow people more freedom to choose doctors within their insurers’ networks and freedom to receive covered care in emergency rooms even if they are not pre-approved. Insurers also must follow a strict set of guidelines when handling claim appeals.

See 10 health care reform ads.

See TIME’s health and medicine covers.

View this article on Time.com

PC Pro School

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:42:03 +0000

Here is another opportunity to express your individuality or PC Pro School brand. Every school has to advertise to succeed, but it is a minefield out there. Unless you have a six figure budget, you have to be very careful about how you go about marketing yourself or your company.

The branded promotional products market is one that has been around for years. You can get anything you can possibly think of made in your business logo or brand. Everything from golf tees, cars, towels to phones and pens, and everything in between. The choice of what material to go for can be a daunting one considering the range, but it doesn’t have to be so difficult.

Choosing an item should consider the company it represents. You will find institutions like banks will offer good quality pens or golf tees which are serious but useful items for their kind of valued clientele. Whereas a design studio might offer a crayon set or specially design mug coaster or mouse mat to appeal to their clients. Each offering carefully directed to where it will do the most good, or cause the least offense.

Having custom note-pads is a good middle ground for an office based business. Whether you intend on using them internally or giving them out to clients or contacts, they are a useful way of marketing your organization. A small logo or letterhead at the top with contact details underneath, will ensure that the note-pad is used.

Adding green credentials like using recycled paper, or paper from FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) will add an extra dimension to the brand and show consideration, and environmental awareness, which all companies want to be associated with.

The worst thing you can do is waste valuable money and resources on corporate braded items that don’t have the desired effect. Not everyone wants a golf umbrella or uses mouse mats. Consider the items carefully before making a choice and spending your money. A note-pad is neutral enough and useful enough that it’s bound to be used in the vast majority of situations. It is also market neutral, in that it doesn’t only relate to a particular field or type of client. Everybody uses paper for one reason or another and it bound to have a need for more. Choosing custom note-pads to advertise your company is one of the most effective promotional goods you can get.

It isn’t all about business though. Taking your own themed stationery to school or college is a sure way to set yourself apart from the rest. Having family headed note-pads around the house adds that little bit of class to things. Using them as shopping lists, or telephone scratch pads are just two of the many uses they can be put to.

Whatever your needs, let ThoughtMechanics provide you the ultimate is personal service. We will print your note-pads with whatever logo, text or design you need and have them to you as quick as possible.

Express yourself with PC Pro Schools.

PC Pro School

The Bay Citizen: University Head’s Housing Raises Ire

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:57:50 +0000

Five minutes before midnight on June 30, movers hauled the last boxes from a spectacular rented home in the Oakland Hills. The tenant’s lease was about to expire, and in his haste to get out, he left behind thousands of dollars of damage to the hardwood floors and Venetian plastered walls.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.

Enlarge This Image

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California, lived in this home at 16 Woodmont Way in the Oakland Hills, shown Wednesday.

The tenant was Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California. His midnight move was the latest chapter in a two-year housing drama that has cost the university more than $600,000 and has drawn senior U.C. officials into an increasingly time-consuming and acrimonious ordeal over the president’s private residence.

The effort to resolve Mr. Yudof’s housing problems has taken place while the U.C., the nation’s largest and most prestigious public university system, struggles with one of the worst financial crises in its history, including layoffs, student protests and tuition increases.

After six years as chancellor at the University of Texas, Mr. Yudof arrived here in 2008, vowing to bring fiscal responsibility to the 10-campus U.C. system. He chose not to live at university-owned Blake House, the traditional presidential mansion, which the university estimates requires $10 million of renovations and repairs.

Instead, Mr. Yudof, 65, moved with his wife into a 10,000-square-foot, four-story house with 16 rooms, 8 bathrooms and panoramic views. He said he needed the house, which rented for $13,365 a month by the end of the lease and was paid for by U.C., to fulfill his obligation to host functions for staff members, donors and visiting dignitaries.

Mr. Yudof held 23 such functions over a two-year period, according to the university. He also ordered a list of improvements and repairs — including air conditioning and 12 phones — that drove up costs and, according to staff members, tied up university officials in meetings and lengthy negotiations on issues ranging from water bills to gopher eradication.

After the Yudofs vacated the property at the end of June, Brennan Mulligan, the landlord, informed university officials that he intended to keep the U.C.’s $32,100 security deposit. Mr. Mulligan requested an additional $45,000 to cover the repairs for hundreds of holes left from hanging art, a scratched marble bathtub, a broken $2,000 Sivoia window shade and other claims.

“At some point, I got a call from the general counsel, and I’m like, ‘Why am I talking to the general counsel?’?” said Mr. Mulligan, 40, a boyish Hong Kong-based business consultant and a U.C. Berkeley graduate who bought the Oakland house in 2003 after selling his bike-messenger bag company, Timbuk2.

“To me it’s like, ‘Is this how they spend their time?’?” Mr. Mulligan said.

Among Mr. Mulligan’s list of complaints was the university’s failure to respond to a May 2010 notification from the East Bay Municipal Utility District that the district suspected a water leak on the property. By the time the leak was discovered, shortly after Mr. Yudof moved, the house’s bimonthly water bill had spiked to nearly $5,000 and 1.2 million gallons of water had trickled into the Oakland Hills, according to copies of the bills.

“It took the plumber 10 minutes to find the leak, literally 10 minutes,” Mr. Mulligan said at an evening interview at the house, the lights of San Francisco visible beyond the glass fa?ade of the living room. “There was a broken pipe and a pool of water and I was just like, ‘Wow, this looks like that oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s just coming out.’?”

Mr. Yudof said he was unaware of the leak.

On Aug. 5, Mr. Yudof’s aides presented Mr. Mulligan with a settlement agreement that would allow him to keep the security deposit and receive an additional $19,759.05. The university presented the written agreement to Mr. Mulligan on the same day The Bay Citizen filed a public-records request for information about the university’s expenditures on the house.

On Aug. 8, Mr. Yudof killed the deal.

He said he had been aware of the university’s discussions with Mr. Mulligan but balked at the settlement when he learned about the “outrageous and ridiculous” terms. He said his decision was unrelated to the public-records request.

“I thought it was totally inappropriate what they were doing,” Mr. Yudof said of his staff. “I don’t have to sign a settlement proposal drafted by the staff on this or any other matter. And I didn’t.”

In an interview last week, Mr. Yudof attributed the housing problems and higher-than-expected costs to Mr. Mulligan, whom he described as “the landlord from hell.”

He said Mr. Mulligan was often unresponsive to maintenance requests, and in one instance missed a payment to a vendor, forcing the university to pick up the tab for a significant repair.

Next Page ?

sfainaru@baycitizen.org

The Bay Citizen: University Head’s Housing Raises Ire

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:28:34 +0000

CHICAGO — From continuing education and enrichment classes to graduate school, many of America’s retirees are pursuing their interests at the college level.

It’s a trend that is likely to grow as seniors’ ranks swell with baby boomers, who by 2015 will represent some 35% of the U.S. population, looking to either acquire new job skills or simply enjoy new learning experiences. (Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964)

Nearly six decades after graduating from college, Pete Shannon still can’t get enough of lectures and homework assignments.

The 78-year-old Dallas retiree has taken dozens of classes at his local community college since he stopped working as a certified public accountant in 2004. This summer he studied music composition, and in the fall he plans to tackle philosophy and whatever else piques his interest.

Exams can be challenging, but one thing he doesn’t sweat is tuition bills. In one of many such arrangements across the U.S., Dallas County residents age 65 and over get up to six hours’ tuition free at Richland College every semester.

“It’s a marvelous opportunity,” Shannon says, calling the college his “candy store.” “It’s a wonderful place to go. The catalog is rich with all kinds of classes.”

The prospect of having to pay for even moderately priced college classes might sound daunting to a retiree living on fixed income. But numerous discounts, tuition waivers and other deals make it possible.

“There are more opportunities than in the past for senior citizens to take college classes and get help paying for them,” says financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and Fastweb.com.

Many community colleges and some four-year colleges allow seniors to audit classes for free and significantly reduce tuition for those who take them for credit. The financial arrangements vary widely by school and so do the age requirements — generally 60, 62, or 65 and over.

Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., offer free tuition for senior citizens at some or all of their public colleges, according to FinAid.org. The student still must buy textbooks and may have to pay fees.

Two relatively new opportunities offer even more help.

The Senior Scholarships program, created last year as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, provides $1,000 education awards for people 55 or older who volunteer 350 or more hours a year. The money may be used for the volunteer’s own education or transferred to a child, foster child or grandchild.

And the American Opportunity tax credit can lower taxes for students of any age dollar-for-dollar for the first $2,000 spent on tuition, fees and course materials. The credit also applies to 25% of the second $2,000. Unless extended, the temporary credit expires at year’s end.

More seniors might head back to school if they knew about the deep discounts and freebies — or lived near colleges. As it is, education remains an untapped resource for most.

According to data released in June by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans from age 65 to 74 say they spend 6.77 hours on leisure and sports on a typical weekday, watch 3.58 hours of TV, spend 0.71 hour reading, 0.59 hour socializing and 0.03 hour on education. That’s less than two minutes, compared to 0.46 hour or about 28 minutes for the population as a whole.

Shannon, who got his undergraduate degree in business economics from Rice University in 1953, is happy to stay in school for life. He says he takes college classes to get out of the house, at his wife’s urging, and exercise his brain. The rest of him gets a workout, too, as he often bikes the 4 1/2 miles (6.4 kilometers) to campus.

A perfect 4.0 grade-point average through 114 credit hours shows he’s not taking any mental shortcuts.

“I like writing the papers and doing the work,” he says. “It’s more complete than Googling a subject. And by the time you finish the semester, you’ve learned something.”

Thanks to the tuition deals, he reckons he has spent no more than $1,000 on education expenses since he retired. But he’d dig a little deeper into his retirement savings if he had to.

“Frankly, I’d go to college even if I had to pay up to $1,000 a year for it,” he says. “I’d consider it part of my personal entertainment budget.”

If retirement-age students decide to borrow to pay for college, loans don’t have to be as burdensome as they might expect.

Federal student loans are discharged on the borrower’s death. That means the retiree student’s heirs won’t get shortchanged because of those late-in-life classes in history and Chinese. The senior can also choose the repayment plan with the longest payback period, thus the lowest monthly payment.

When finances aren’t an issue, most any educational experience is still possible in retirement. Anne Carter Harrison-Clark of Williamsburg, Virginia, is thriving as a 71-year-old student at the William & Mary Law School.

Learning more about the law is something she long aspired to do during a career as a lobbyist and public policy lecturer at Georgetown University, among other roles. Now she has both the time and money to do it, thanks to she and her husband Bob selling property near the top of the market six years ago.

Immersed in her third year of law classes, she is thrilled to be studying at the college where her great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was educated. She doesn’t at all mind being the only white-haired student or getting constantly asked why she’s there.

The short answer to that is she wants to keep the brain cells going with new information and new contacts. And she doesn’t know where this educational “journey” will take her, although she does intend to get her law degree at some point, on her own schedule.

“This whole (college) experience has been like dessert, like double fudge icing on a cake. Just a wonderful experience,” says Harrison-Clark, who already has a Ph.D. in politics. “I highly encourage it.”

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

Obama defends education policies to critics (AP)

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:19:17 +0000

WASHINGTON – Challenging civil rights organizations and teachers’ unions that have criticized his education policies, President Barack Obama said Thursday that minority students have the most to gain from overhauling the nation’s schools.

“We have an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind,” Obama told the centennial convention of the National Urban League.

The Urban League has been a vocal critic of Obama’s education policies, most notably the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” program that awards grants to states based on their plans for innovative education reforms. A report released earlier this week by eight civil rights groups, including the Urban League, says federal data shows that just 3 percent of the nation’s black students and less than 1 percent of Latino students are affected by the first round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” competition.

Obama pushed back Thursday, arguing that minority students are the ones who have been hurt the most by the status quo.

Obama’s reforms have also drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, who have argued that the reforms set unfair standards for teacher performance.

Obama said the goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability. He pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.

“We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good,” he said. “When you try to shake things up, sometimes people aren’t happy.”

Seeking to ease his strained relationship with the powerful teacher’s unions, Obama hailed teachers as “the single most important factor in a classroom,” calling for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.

“Instead of a culture where we’re always idolizing sports stars or celebrities, I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who shape our children’s future,” Obama said.

The president laid the groundwork for what he called “an honest conversation” about education with comments on several recent developments that were designed as sweeteners for his mostly minority audience.

For instance, he said his goal with his domestic agenda, including the economy, health care and other priorities, is to create “an economy that lifts all Americans — not just some, but all.” That comment earned him significant applause and pleased murmurs in the room.

The president also said he very much looks forward to signing a bill recently passed by Congress to reduce the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. The matter has been a longtime thorn for the black community, as the quarter-century-old law that Congress changed has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

“We got it done,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

And he forthrightly addressed the racial firestorm over the recent ouster of a black Agriculture Department official. He said the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod “marked both the challenges we face and the progress we’ve made.”

“She deserves better than what happened last week,” Obama said.

___

Associated Press White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

Obama defends education policies to critics (AP)

School funds fight ramps up, Obama threatens veto (Reuters)

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:34:52 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The fight to win extra federal funding for states for education jobs is growing fiercer in the U.S. Congress, just as President Barack Obama threatens to veto a $10 billion schools measure if the money is taken from a stimulus education program.

In early July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill that included $10 billion for school jobs. Some funding would come out of the Race to the Top program created in the stimulus plan that Obama has touted as an important step toward reforming education.

“The President supports teacher jobs but we will recommend a veto if the final bill includes cuts to reform programs,” said White House Director of the Domestic Policy Melody Barnes in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “It doesn’t have to come to that.”

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Congress would likely take $500 million away from the Race program under the proposed legislation.

Because the House added billions of dollars in non-military spending before passing the war funds, the measure must return to the Senate, which already passed its own bill for supporting troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Barnes said Congress could fund the boost in other ways, and Obama is working with the Senate to find sources.

Fiscal conservatives are worried that efforts to assist U.S. states, which are still in an economic quagmire from the recession that began in 2007, will add to the country’s ballooning debt and deficit.

Democrats say state economies risk collapse, which could derail the nation’s wobbly economic recovery.

“We have been told by economists that if these state economies go down, we could go into a recession that will be very hard to dig out of,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

“It is not in anybody’s interest, for deficit reduction or job creation, for us to have stability of the state economies be jeopardized,” she added.

As well as sending $10 billion to states for education jobs, the administration would like to give states additional funds for Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor that typically accounts for a third of state budgets.

A measure for those funds stalled in Congress after being attached to spending bills conservatives said were not covered by revenue.

When it comes to education, withholding the $10 billion will cost the economy 100,000 to 300,000 jobs, White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer said on the conference call. Keeping teachers employed will save money because they will not have to file for unemployment insurance and will continue to pay taxes at their current rate, she said.

The National Education Association has said the additional funds will save approximately 138,000 education jobs.

The $862 billion stimulus plan passed last year included a transfer of $135 billion to states, with much of the money going toward education. States have already used most of the money.

The plan included $4 billion of Race to the Top grants to spur academic innovation and boost support for semi-autonomous public charter schools. Since the plan was passed in February 2009, only two states have received the grants, with Delaware winning about $100 million and Tennessee about $500 million.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Donna Smith; Editing by Dan Grebler)

School funds fight ramps up, Obama threatens veto (Reuters)

House bill would make school lunches healthier (AP)

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:22:37 +0000

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are moving forward on first lady Michelle Obama’s vision for healthier school lunches, propelling legislation that calls for tougher standards governing food in school and more meals for hungry children.

The bill approved by the House Education and Labor Committee Thursday would allow the Agriculture Department to create new standards for all food in schools, including vending machine items. The legislation would spend about $8 billion more over 10 years on nutrition programs.

In a statement, Mrs. Obama said the bill would both combat hunger and help curtail childhood obesity.

House bill would make school lunches healthier (AP)

Holy Family School » house

Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab

Related

Universities in Britain Brace for Cuts in Subsidies
(October 16, 2010)

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties

Related

Movie Review | ‘Waiting for â??Superman’: Students Caught in the School Squeeze
(September 24, 2010)

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Calif school shooting suspect called uncooperative (AP)

The New Health Care Rules: What They Will and Won’t Do (Time.com)

PC Pro School

The Bay Citizen: University Head’s Housing Raises Ire

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

Obama defends education policies to critics (AP)

School funds fight ramps up, Obama threatens veto (Reuters)

House bill would make school lunches healthier (AP)

Holy Family School » house

Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab

Related

Universities in Britain Brace for Cuts in Subsidies (October 16, 2010)

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties

Related

Movie Review | ‘Waiting for â??Superman’: Students Caught in the School Squeeze (September 24, 2010)

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Calif school shooting suspect called uncooperative (AP)

The New Health Care Rules: What They Will and Won’t Do (Time.com)

PC Pro School

The Bay Citizen: University Head’s Housing Raises Ire

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

Obama defends education policies to critics (AP)

School funds fight ramps up, Obama threatens veto (Reuters)

House bill would make school lunches healthier (AP)

Universities in Britain Brace for Cuts in Subsidies
(October 16, 2010)

Movie Review | ‘Waiting for â??Superman’: Students Caught in the School Squeeze
(September 24, 2010)