Joshua Cook
BenSwann.com
2/1/2014
In President Obama’s State of the Union address, he mentioned plans to make higher education available for everyone.
Obama said, “We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt.”
Obama didn’t provide details on how he plans to do this, but he has talked about student loan forgiveness in the past.
Students not awarded with full scholarships turn to student loans. And now, those borrowers are defaulting at an alarming rate…
…Bypassing Congress and using executive orders to get things done was a reoccurring mantra in Obama’s State of the Union address. Will Obama issue an executive order to forgive student loans completely, or will his plan look similar to Warren’s proposal? Currently, the rhetoric from Obama’s opposition are merely scare tactics. Big barks from GOP leaders with no bite. So it should be interesting to see what solutions Obama offers to “solve” the student loan fiasco.
President Obama wants college to be for everybody, but realistically, should this be the case? Is it better to graduate with an art history degree and $30k in debt or to skip college? With that much debt and limited job prospects, the parents’ basement is really the only housing this person could afford. Students are discovering that a college degree is not the golden ticket to prosperity as promised by Big Education. A college degree may help, but the key to success in America is still hard work, determination and relentless persistence that will win in the end.
The entire article is at BenSwann.com
Related: Shameless: “Too Big to Fail” Argument Hauled Out for Higher Ed
You know that something is really in trouble when the defenders of that something have to resort to jaded and intellectually feeble arguments in favor of it. For quite a few years, I have been convinced that higher education is in trouble, because it costs so much and often delivers so little, but a recent Huffington Post piece by the Chancellor of UCLA absolutely clinches it…
Why does Mike Huckabee support Common Cause? Mike Huckabee to Common Core Creators: Rebrand, Don’t Retreat
Though former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told his Fox News Channel audience in early December he was no longer supporting the Common Core standards for which he had avidly campaigned, his message to one of the groups that created the standards was different.
According to The Washington Post, at a recent meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the organizations that created the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Huckabee urged state education officials to get rid of the “Common Core” name because it has become “toxic.”…
…Merely changing the name of the “Common Core” standards, in fact, is becoming the new trend across the country…
Video: Common Core: How ‘Nonprofits’ Reaped Millions
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) proponents frequently use the talking point that the standards initiative was “state-led.” A group of governors (National Governors Association Center) and state school officers are often said to have coordinated the standards.
A closer look, however, reveals that several “nonprofit” education companies drove the Common Core initiative while being flooded with millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…
Read the whole thing!
NY teachers reject Common Core, vote ‘no confidence’ in education commissioner
The New York State United Teachers union dealt a major blow to the Common Core curriculum standards at its board meeting Saturday.
The teachers’ union withdrew its support of Common Core and cast a vote of “no confidence” in the state’s Education Commissioner John King, Jr. – calling for his removal…
…The union has been “sounding warning bells since 2011,” NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said in the statement, criticizing the over-emphasis on standardized testing, a rushed timeline for implementation and unrealistic assessments for Common Core state standards, according to NYSUT.org…
Early Childhood Standards of Common Core are Developmentally Inappropriate
Early Childhood Standards of Common Core are Developmentally Inappropriate
Child Psychologist Dr. Megan Koschnick Criticizes Common Core Standards for K-3 as Age and Developmentally Inappropriate……“Why do we care if [Common Core standards] are age inappropriate? Well, you can answer that with one word – stress,” said Dr. Megan Koschnick during her presentation. “Instead of thinking about what’s developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners, they are thinking [college] is where we want this kindergartener to end up, so let’s back track down to kindergarten and have kindergarteners work on these skills from an early age. This can cause major stress for the child because they are not prepared for this level of education.”…
“Much of the wage gap can be explained away by simply taking account of college majors.”
“Early childhood educators and social workers can expect to earn around $36,000 and $39,000, respectively. By contrast, petroleum engineering and metallurgy degrees promise median earnings of $120,000 and $80,000. Not many aspiring early childhood educators would change course once they learn they can earn more in metallurgy or mining. The sexes, taken as a group, are somewhat different. Women, far more than men, appear to be drawn to jobs in the caring professions; and men are more likely to turn up in people-free zones. In the pursuit of happiness, men and women appear to take different paths.”
Writes Christina Hoff Summers in a piece called “No, Women Don’t Make Less Money Than Men.”…
