Saturday, October 2, 2010

Is Education The New Subprime? | iStockAnalyst.com

Is Education The New Subprime?

By: Jacob H. Zamansky Saturday, October 02, 2010 11:28 AM

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Publicly traded corporations accused of wrongdoing countering critics by saying they are helping low-income Americans achieve the American dream.

No, this isn't the subprime loan debacle all over again. It's the for-profit higher education industry, which is currently reeling from plummeting stock prices and shareholder unrest due to a government investigation that found potentially fraudulent practices and a need for new regulations.

Indeed, on August 3, 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report which concluded that for-profit educational institutions had "encouraged fraudulent practices" designed to recruit students. The GAO investigated for-profit colleges in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, D.C. Recruiters at

Progressives Rally for Justice, Jobs, Education | CafeSentido.com

Progressives Rally for Justice, Jobs, Education

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2 October 2010 :: staff

The ‘One Nation Working Together’ rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC, is projected to gather 200,000 progressive activists, volunteers and supporters from around the country. There are sister rallies taking place across the country, as part of a collective effort to promote progressive values and “demand change”. The rally has been said to show the progressive base is highly energized and will mobilize to support Democrats and Pres. Obama’s reform agenda.

The rally’s organizers say the event is intended to call for concerted national action to promote justice, create jobs and make education more affordable and more accessible for all Americans. The central message of the rally was: opportunity should be available to all people; justice should prevail over tribalism and class difference; and economic prosperity must be rooted in a society-wide consciousness of

Blog U.: Chinese Contradictions - The World View - Inside Higher Ed

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Chinese Contradictions
By Philip G. Altbach October 2, 2010 2:45 pm
Recent statistics concerning flows of students from China and Chinese views about migration raise some interesting questions concerning the present and future of Chinese higher education—particularly at the elite levels. Record numbers of Chinese continue to study abroad—270,000 are self-funded and (only) about 25 percent are returning to China, surprising in the context of the economic problems of the West and China’s booming economy (figures come from Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation).
Almost 100,000 Chinese students study in the United States. At the same time, China is now host to 240,000 international students, approaching the number of Chinese students going abroad. Most are from Asia, but a growing number are from Western countries, including 18,000 from the United States. Information is not available what percentage of these students are pursuing a degree versus staying for a year or semester, or where they are studying. To encourage more incoming students, the Chinese government has announced that it will offer 20,000 scholarships to international students. China is increasingly an important player not

The tragic loss of reduced class size

Delaine Eastin

Friday, October 1, 2010

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OPEN FORUM

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More Open Forum »

My grandmother's favorite poem ends with the line,

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!' "

So much might have been so much better in California had Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some feckless members of the Legislature not put their no-taxes pledge ahead of our children's destiny. With $17 billion in spending cuts in education over the past two years, many of the initiatives that were showing such promise are being axed by a penny-wise, pound-foolish set of policies.

In 1995, when I proposed cutting class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, then-Gov. Pete Wilson at first rejected the call, saying he had a better idea of what to do with

Teacher Layoffs and War | CommonDreams.org

Teacher Layoffs and War

Rethinking Schools Editors

Our government’s perverse definition of “national security” was on display again this summer. By large majorities, the U.S. Congress approved a so-called emergency appropriation of $33.5 billion to escalate the war in Afghanistan—adding to the more than $1 trillion that the United States has already spent waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Meanwhile, as schools faced the potential layoff of an estimated 300,000 teachers across the country, Congress dawdled until the second week in August, finally approving $10 billion to save the jobs of about half that number. The catch was that Congress “found” the money by cutting $12 billion in spending on food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)—a measure that the Food Research and Action Center says will hurt 40 million people, almost half of them children, when the cuts take effect in 2014. As Connecticut Rep.

Join us for Elevating the Dialog, an informal webinar/chat | Edutopia Group Discussions by and for Educators

Join us for Elevating the Dialog, an informal webinar/chat

Betty Ray

Community Manager @edutopia and mother of one, East Bay, CA

Posted on 9/28/2010 4:13pm

Between the NBC "Education Nation" Summit, Waiting for Superman, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's 100 million gift to Newark city schools, there has been a lot of media attention on the topic of education reform. Unfortunately, as many of us have been discussing here, much of it has excluded real, actual educators (let alone students)!

FutureofEducation.com and Edutopia are collaborating to produce an online discussion specifically for educators to move past the bashing, and engage in a meaningful discussion about the best way to keep the *students* as the focus.

The event is scheduled for Monday, October 4, from 2-4pm Pacific and will take place via the Elluminate platform. I will post more details, including schedule of speakers and login info, as we have them.

Education Nation & Ideological Blindness : Stager-to-Go

As some of you know, I have been writing about school improvement and the political, corporate and ideological forces that have been attempting to claim “school reform” as their own invention for more than a decade for my blog, District Administration Magazine, The Huffington Post and GOOD Magazine(perhaps my most cogent discussion of the “School Wars” and the desire to surrender the public treasure of public education to private hands.)

You may also beware of my serious misgivings about what I view as NBC News’ unprecedented attack on public education in the guise of Education Nation. I so annoyed NBC News earlier this week that they had me blocked from posting on Facebook for a time. Since my social media sentence was commuted, I continue to try and correct the record on Education Nation‘s Facebook page and via Twitter.

My greatest concern about Education Nation is the one-sided depiction of both the “crisis” in public education and the “solution” to said crisis. Despite NBC News’ cries that 300 people are participating in their televised panels and therefore diversity is automatically achieved, citizens would be well-advised to heed the advice of Watergate’s “Deep Throat,” and follow the money.

Merely adding Al Sharpton or NBC and Oprah’s resident education expert, R&B singer John Legend, to a discussion does not ensure that multiple perspectives will be heard or that expertise is bestowed upon

Cavalcade of Stars Respond to Education Nation

Mark your calendars!

A few days ago, Edutopia asked me to write another piece voicing my objections to NBC’s Education Nation coverage and the deeply flawed documentary, “Waiting for Superman.” I suggested that they host a webinar instead. I had already tweeted, blogged and Facebooked so much that I inexplicably lost my voice.

Edutopia took the suggestion and enlisted boy wonder, Steve Hargaddon, to organize and host the event entitled, Elevating the Education Reform Debate. This two hour webinar will feature some of the voices silenced by NBC, Oprah and director Davis Guggenheim. They include my heroes and colleagues, Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn; friends, Chris Lehmann and Will Richardson; YouTube sensation, Sir Ken Robinson; and Julie Evans. I cannot wait to hear what they (or I) will say on Monday.

Wake the kids and call your neighbors! This is an event you won’t want to miss!

This Elluminate webinar is FREE and open to the entire World Wide Web.

Date: Monday, October 4, 2010
Time: 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 9pm GMT (international times here)
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed
Recordings: Posted after the event at http://www.learncentral.org/event/106358

Note: Conference organizers have a nasty tendency to book me last on the program, this webinar maybe no exception. Therefore, stick around for Sir Ken and hangout for me to bring up the rear. I promise not to disappoint!

The Education Industrial Complex | Lefty Parent

The Education Industrial Complex

by Cooper Zale

Not sure who coined the phrase “Education Industrial Complex”, a play off the more famous “Military Industrial Complex” used by President Eisenhower in a 1961 speech. I kept thinking it was radical educator and public school critic John Taylor Gatto, but in my research on the Internet could not find any confirmation of that. I did find a use of the term by Paul Peterson, director of Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard Kennedy School, in a 2008 commentary…

Around 1970 or thereabouts, the educational-industrial complex was hammered into place: School boards gave teachers collective bargaining rights. State governments assumed greater responsibility for financing the schools. The courts instructed schools on the civil liberties of their students. Regulations multiplied. America gained a federal Department of Education. And state

Join Police Officers and Firefighters to Walk for Patrick Kennedy for City Council � Parents 4 democratic Schools

Join Police Officers and Firefighters to Walk for Patrick Kennedy for City Council

Tomorrow Police Officers and Firefighters from across Sacramento will join together and walk door to door for my campaign. I hope you will join them! Following the walk will be a free barbecue with the brave men and women of the Police and Fire Departments at the grill.

Location: The Old Fire Station on Stockton Blvd near Broadway (3101 Stockton Blvd)

Time: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

With only a month left in the campaign, I need your help now more than ever! If you can’t make it tomorrow, you can still lend a hand any time. If you have any time available, please call Kenny Alvarado at 509-0986 or email him atKenny@patrick-kennedy.com. We need volunteers to walk precincts and make phone calls every day!

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Sincerely,

Patrick Kennedy

Connect with Patrick:

Follow Patrick on Twitter

Become a fan

Email the Campaign:

patrick@patrick-kennedy.com

Contact Us:

www.patrick-kennedy.com

School Bullying: A National Pandemic Disease | The Bilerico Project

School Bullying: A National Pandemic Disease

Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren

October 2, 2010 12:00 PM

lot of people are jarred by the recent explosion of LGBT school suicides. Five in the last three weeks -- notably the horrific bullying and bridge-jumping death of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University. LGBT rallies and protests are happening. One current petition demands that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan add gender identity and sexual orientation to current anti-bullying programs.

But LGBT bullying won't end if we separate it from bullying suffered by other students. With Gay History Month starting, it's a good moment to put our demographic suicide problem into a bigger perspective. School bullying is a contagious social cancer that is

Saturday coffee. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee.

by preaprez

Miguel del Valle.

Lake effect rain? What the hell?

I’ve heard of lake effect snow. Today they’re calling for lake effect rain.

If you’re looking for a definition of an early autumn day, come to Chicago. The leaves are starting to change color. It won’t get into the 60s. There’s a stiff north wind.

That doesn’t keep the young guys in the neighborhood from walking around in basketball shorts. But that’ll give way to sweat pants in another week or two.

Tomorrow’s Logan Square Farmers Market will be selling mostly apples and butternut squash. The peaches and

Saturday Solutions: Beware of “either-or” thinking � Failing Schools

Saturday Solutions: Beware of “either-or” thinking

OCTOBER 2, 2010

by Sabrina

The more time I spend in the education reform community, and the more time I spend debating those who disagree with me, the more I understand how dangerous it can be to oversimplify things.

For instance, I’ve encountered way too many people who feel you must be either pro-teacher OR pro-student. You must be either pro-neighborhood school OR pro-charter school. You must be either pro-corporate reform OR pro-status quo. You must either be willing to sacrifice everything for your needy students OR be a bad teacher.

Thoughtful people understand that such distinctions are crude and unnecessary. Those of us wh

Governor vetoes university transparency bill

Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, October 2, 2010

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MORE EDUCATION

Cal sports cuts: tough call, but right one 10.02.10
Career politician, outsider vie to lead schools 10.01.10
The tragic loss of reduced class size10.01.10

(10-01) 13:37 PDT San Francisco -- California's public university foundations, which manage some $1.6 billion across dozens of campuses, will remain closed to public scrutiny after Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggervetoed a bill that would have brought the nonprofit enterprises under the state's Public Records Act.

SB330, by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would have allowed the public to examine the finances of campus foundations, which raise money for scholarships, as well as pay for lobbying efforts on behalf of colleges and universities, executive board