What’s the easiest way to get into an elite university? Have rich parents, of course. Or find another way, like financial aid, to finangle your way into a prep school. Prep schools, especially those on the East Coast, are assembly lines for minting rich and famous people. Ironically enough, for boarding students, many of these prep schools cost even more than the elite universities they’re preparing their students for. We compiled... 

Laura mentioned Paul Krugman’s excellent op-ed. He and Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald have been thinking along similar lines. Here are some of the stories that inspired them: The city of Camden, NJ is permanently closing its library system by the end of the year: Camden is preparing to permanently shut its library system by the end of the year, potentially leaving residents of the impoverished city among the few in the United States unable... 

So Medicaid funding that will help elderly people in nursing homes and save the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and other school employees and firefighters and other first responders is on its way to being passed. Cause for celebration, right? Jobs are saved, needed services (and lives) are saved, and our next generation gets a decent education. House Minority Leader John Boehner …  Read More →

The Princeton Review has released its annual list of the best 373 colleges in America . This exhaustive list is based on student surveys, and covers real-life aspects of school, like how hard they party, rather than spitting out a ranking of who’s the best overall. Here are some interesting rankings: Best Classroom Experience Great professors, new business trends and practices are integrated into curricula, quality classmate contribution.... 

This is where budget problems eventually lead . An endless summer awaits many of Detroit’s teachers and school buildings this Thursday. Detroit, one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America, is about to add thousands of teachers to its unemployment rolls and dozens of buildings to its vacancy problem. A third of this cash-strapped city is reported to be vacant already. The closing of more schools could be the death knell for many... 

I already know that I’ll be yelling at the TV early next week when C-SPAN2 carries the Senate debate on the unemployment extension bill, and on an amendment to restore COBRA health insurance aid for jobless workers. That’s because I’m certain that Republican multi-millionaire Senators such as Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) and John McCain (R-Ariz), he of seven eight houses , will be …  Read More →

The is a guest post by Wall St. Cheat Sheet’s Damien Hoffman. If you just graduated from college, you’ve probably read a bunch of government stats in your career center . They merely tell you which sectors are growing and which are not. Forget all that general advice. Wall St. Cheat Sheet has put together a detailed list of the REAL Top 5 Jobs for College Grads: 5. Oncologist We have mobile devices coming out of our asses and WiFi beaming... 

Sometimes the junk in my Inbox is enough to make me want to pull what’s left of my hair out. Such was the case with the article I just opened from my online subscription to Education Week . Check this out : Teacher Layoffs May Be Linked to Hiring Spree By Stephen Sawchuk An increase in teacher hiring in recent years is leading some observers to posit a link to the waves of pink slips that districts are sending across the country. So let me... 

A big round of teacher layoffs is coming. From the NY Times: School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June. The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue — state money and local property taxes — have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for... 

Too many of us are unemployed. Where’s the green jobs revolution that was supposed to save the economy? How about Obama’s infrastructure projects, have those eased the nation’s 10% unemployment pain yet? Despite politicians’ rhetoric, those two sectors haven’t provided a parachute for America’s employment nosedive. But one industry continues to quietly churn out jobs despite the recession. Its name is more often... 

President Obama signed legislation that will dramatically change the federal student loan program. The new law will eliminate fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing loans to college students and use much of the nearly $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell grants and make it easier for students to repay outstanding loans after graduating. The law also invests …  Read More →

Congress is about to enter the final stages of a legislative process that would allow it to pass both substantial health care reforms and fundamental improvements to the nation’s student loan programs at the same time. Passing health care reform would make medical coverage available to more than 30 million more Americans while reducing premiums, making health care more accessible and affordable while expanding help for lower-income families,... 

We’ve written before about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act , an excellent bill that would simultaneously save the government billions of dollars and increasing the financial aid available to students. I’m going to repeat that: This bill saves money and helps students graduate from college with less debt. Who could possibly object to that? The financial industry, of course. See, the bill saves money by cutting out the big lenders... 

In California , this is what giant budget cutbacks for the state university system look like: Because of state budget cuts to higher education, San Francisco State is now offering 3,173 course sections, 12 percent fewer than two years ago. From the university administration’s point of view, that is not as bad as it might have been: over $1.5 million in federal stimulus money prevented more draconian cuts. –snip– This spring, cutbacks... 

Today is World AIDS Day, a day reserved to increase global awareness of HIV, AIDS, and people living with the diseases. A few facts about HIV and AIDS that you might not know (from Twitter ): –10% of the world’s populations lives in Africa, yet 67% of all HIV cases occur there. –It only costs around 40 cents a day for the 2 pills that are needed to help keep someone with HIV alive. Join the campaign by shopping for certain products...