Quality Education
Top Stories
Don’t Let Them Kill Student Loan Reform
March 11th, 2010
Something so simple, so easy: end tens of billions of dollars in bank subsidies to the private lending industry and return much of the savings back into the hand of students, with the Department of Education providing loans to students directly. A no-brainer right? Well reform may be a no-go, if six Senate Democrats have their way. more » Featured Issues
Miller Harkin Act to Save Direct Lending
March 12th, 2010
______________________
With word that Six Senators were expressing opposition to putting direct lending in the budget bill reconciliation -- which only requires sixty votes to pass the Senate -- Rep George Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate Education Committe, got to work. more »
The Last Obscenity: Will the Bank Lobby Succeed in Screwing Poor Kids?
March 11th, 2010
It is, as President Obama stated, a "no-brainer." Cut the $90 billion in subsides that go to banks to make risk-free student loans that are GUARANTEED BY THE GOVERNMENT, go to direct lending, and use the money saved to increase Pell grants and tuition tax credits for working families so more poor kids can afford college. $90 billion over 10 years isn't bubkas. more »
Pay Teachers More
From the debates in Wisconsin and elsewhere about public sector unions, you might get the impression that we’re going bust because teachers are overpaid. That’s a pernicious fallacy. A basic educational challenge is not that teachers are raking it in, but that they are underpaid. If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession.... more »
The Case
Conservatives Letting Head Start Fall Behind
President Bush signed bipartisan legislation in December reauthorizing the Head Start program. But even as they praised the program, Congress funded the program at $480 million below its authorized level. Then President Bush in early February proposed a budget that would reduce funding even further below what the Congress authorized. more »
Progressive Values for Education
Americans want schools that teach values as well as math and reading. more »
The Facts
College: Soaring Out of Reach for Families
The dream of a college education is being priced out of reach for more and more American students and their families. Tuition is rising while wages are flat or sinking. Conservatives in Congress have responded by cutting $12 billion from federal student loan programs and raising loan interest rates for student and their parents. Conservatives in state governments have cut back funding for colleges, passing more costs to families in the form of increased tuitions and fees. See below to find out how your representative voted.more »
The News
The Case
Free College? We Can Afford It.
Student loans set off the latest Washington spitball fight. The House Republican budget called for letting interest rates double on government-subsidized student loans (and for deep cuts in Pell Grants and other student support). Students who borrow the maximum in subsidized loans would end up paying as much as $1,000 a year in added interest. Last week, President Obama sensibly called for extending the lower rate and starting stumping through colleges and talk shows to enlist students in the cause. The standoff allows for what has now become the routine exchange of insults, slurs and posturing before a deal is worked out at the last possible moment. Ignored in this is the stark reality that even with the lower rates, more and more students can’t afford the college education or advanced training that everyone except for Rick Santorum believes they need.more »
What Makes Health-care And Education Costs Similar To Each Other — And Unlike Anything Else
Like the health-care sector, the higher education sector is heavily subsidized by the government. Some take that commonality as a causality: Health-care and college costs are out of control because the government subsidizes them. I think the truth is closer to the reverse: The government subsidizes them because their costs are out of control. Health-care and higher education are similar in another way, too: People don’t think they can responsibly say no to either expense. Families take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to pay medical bills and tuition costs. This inability to say no removes the ultimate form of market discipline: the consumer’s ability to simply walk out of the store. There’s certainly more we could do to bring market pressures into play in both sectors, but the reason the government ends up involved in health care and education is that a real market would require us telling more people than we’re comfortable with that they can’t have the medical care or education that they need.more »
Latest from our Bloggers
may
11
2012
10:57 am
10:57 am
It was Teacher Appreciation Week this week. Unfortunately, someone forgot the appreciation part.
President Obama, for one, kicked off the week by proclaiming that from now on the week would also (instead?) be forever known as National Charter Schools Week. more »
may
8
2012
3:54 pm
3:54 pm
Senate Republicans today filibustered the effort to prevent federal student loan rates from doubling, once again obstructing the majority and putting the finances of millions of college students at risk for the sake of protecting the leather wallets of the 1 percent.
may
7
2012
4:32 pm
4:32 pm
As the Senate prepares to vote Tuesday on legislation that will stop a scheduled doubling of the rate on Stafford student loans on July 1, conservatives are engaged in a shameless (and shameful) effort to detail the effort. more »
apr
27
2012
3:56 pm
3:56 pm
Two Occupy movement volunteers, a Chicago community organizer, an Atlanta health care activist and a crusader against "prison-based gerrymandering" have been nominated for the annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award, which honors an unsung progressive hero. more »
apr
27
2012
11:09 am
11:09 am
House Republicans are trying to snooker the public with a vote today, around 12 PM ET, on a sham student loan bill. We need you to call House switchboard at 202-225-3121 NOW, ask for your representative and say "Vote No." more »
apr
26
2012
2:43 pm
2:43 pm
Republicans in the US House of Representatives have scheduled a vote on Friday to stop interest rates on college student loans from doubling beginning July 1. more »
apr
25
2012
6:01 am
6:01 am
Here’s the real debt crisis: student loan debt. Today, the average student graduates from college with a diploma and an anchor — $25,000 of debt.
And if Congress doesn’t act, student loan interest rates will double on July 1. more »
apr
24
2012
3:45 pm
3:45 pm
When I graduated from high school, my parents expected that I would go to college. I say "expected," but it was really closer to a demand than an expectation. As my father said, "I don't know where you'll go, but you're going to somebody's university." Education was a high priority in our home. Even though neither of my parents went to college, they saw a college degree as the first step towards a "good job" and upward mobility.
We were comfortably middle class. So, I didn't qualify for much in the way of financial aid. But my parents could not afford to foot the entire bill for my education, even at the public university I chose to attend. My grades were good enough to get me a few scholarships to make that first year easier, but that was it. Like a lot people, I financed my education through student loans.
I was 18-years-old when I went into debt to get an education — as an investment in my future. That was over twenty years ago. Last year, at the age of forty-two, I finally paid off that debt.
Getting an education shouldn't mean decades of crushing debt. Tell Congress to stop student loan interest rates from doubling.
