Friday, June 25, 2010

Eight N.J. high schools teach students personal finance, budgeting in pilot program | NJ.com

Eight N.J. high schools teach students personal finance, budgeting in pilot program

Published: Friday, June 25, 2010, 5:15 AM Updated: Friday, June 25, 2010, 5:43 AM

Kristen Alloway/The Star-Ledger
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Danielle Richards/The Star-LedgerJohn Byrne, economics teacher at Alexander Hamilton Prep, discussing the components of the personal finance curriculum which will be implemented this fall.

ELIZABETH — As Bayron Ortiz of Elizabeth and heads off to technical school, he is confident he will have a handle on how to manage his own money.

First, he’ll try to establish good credit and avoid racking up bills as he begins Lincoln Technical Institute in the fall.

"If you can’t afford it, it’s better not to buy it," said the 18-year-old graduate of Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy. "That debt drags on for the rest of your life."

The recent Elizabeth High School graduate owes his knowledge of credit cards, interest rates and budgeting to the high school economics course he took this year, which included a hefty dose of personal finance.

Elizabeth is one of eight New Jersey districts that will pilot a program this fall to teach high school students personal finance — budgeting, credits cards and debt, saving and investing. As part of the revamped high school graduation requirements the state Department of Education unveiled a

News: The Senate Scrutiny Begins - Inside Higher Ed

The Senate Scrutiny Begins

June 25, 2010

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats began their investigation of for-profit higher education here in earnest Thursday, holding the first in what they promise will be a series of hearingsaimed at better understanding the sector’s value to students and taxpayers.

For three hours, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee heard testimony that, taken together, amounted to a largely scathing overview of the sector.

A former student spoke of being pressured into a vocational program that led her to debt and unemployment. The U.S. Department of Education’s inspector general and a former California prosecutor recounted instances of fraud. An investor who made billions of dollars taking advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis asserted that for-profit higher education is on its way to being the next big debt crisis.

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And that picture, of an industry rife with misuse of federal funds, was just what the committee chair, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), wanted. “We have a responsibility to ensure the taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and that for-profit colleges are serving students, not just the shareholders,” Harkin said at the start of the hearing, which was based in part on the findings of a report he released Thursday synthesizing available data on the sector. Federal financial aid provides students an opportunity to receive postsecondary education, he added, and “Congress has a responsibility to ensure that this opportunity is real, and not just false hopes peddled on a billboard or pop-up ad.”

After a decade of little oversight of for-profit higher education that coincided with dramatic growth in enrollments and revenues derived from federal financial aid funding, Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration have begun tightening their grip on the sector. Its institutions enroll about 10 percent of the nation’s postsecondary students but receive nearly a quarter of the funds dedicated to student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

While the U.S. Department of Education has thus far focused on revising regulations related to the integrity of the Title IV programs, and have gone out of their way to say they are not singling out private secto

Dallas ISD trustees OK $1.25 billion budget | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Dallas ISD trustees OK $1.25 billion budget

11:04 PM CDT on Thursday, June 24, 2010

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News
tdhobbs@dallasnews.com

Dallas school district employees won't receive a raise under a $1.25 billion budget approved by trustees Thursday. But taxpayers will get a small break and the district's reserve fund will grow by more than originally projected.

Some trustees had said earlier this month that they wanted to give employees a raise, but they were advised that there was no money for such a move.

The budget does call for putting money in the district's reserve fund, which was left dangerously low after a budget crisis in 2008.

The reserve fund is expected to grow more than initially estimated – from about $37 million to $60 million. District officials said additional revenue and lower spending in some departments are allowing more

South Hadley group completes plan to confront bullying - The Boston Globe

South Hadley group completes plan to confront bullying

Better oversight, reporting sought

By Sydney Lupkin

Globe Correspondent / June 25, 2010

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Nearly six months after the suicide of South Hadley student Phoebe Prince, the town is moving to overhaul its antibullying policy.

An antibullying task force has submitted its final report to the School Committee, calling for new reporting guidelines and new programs, including an electronic system that would allow students to alert teachers of bullying anonymously. Day-to-day policy changes would include documenting all bullying reports and and notifying parents within one day of any incident.

GLOBE EDUCATION NEWS

South Hadley group completes plan to confront bullying

Nearly six months after the suicide of South Hadley student Phoebe Prince, the town is moving to overhaul its antibullying policy. (By Sydney Lupkin, Globe Correspondent)

BU effort offers a summer of science

For $9.50 an hour, Christina Richardson nursed ailing patients — and her own bruised dreams — during the past three summers at a Louisiana nursing home. (By June Q. Wu, Globe Correspondent)

N.E. researchers create functioning lung tissue

Two teams of researchers from New England have built living, breathing lung tissue in the laboratory — feats of engineering that could speed up the development of new drugs and bring researchers a step closer to the tantalizing dream of growing replacement lungs for patients. (By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff)

Researchers say sense of touch guides impressions, decisions

Think someone is a tough customer? Maybe it is all in your head — or your fingertips. (By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent)

At Wentworth, survivors learn to build a stronger Haiti

Charles-Edouard Jean was in the middle of an afternoon shower in his Port-au-Prince home when the floor began to tremble beneath him and his wife let out a scream. The most destructive earthquake in Haiti’s history had struck. (By Alex Katz, Globe Correspondent)

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Friday, June 25, 2010