The following editorial by editorial page editor Thomas G. Donlan appeared in Barrons here. The Power of Credit The much-lamented “student loan crisis” has deep bipartisan roots, tapping a lode of sentiment and misunderstanding. Though the problems of student debtors today are relatively trivial in fiscal terms, they are instructive in political terms. Inserting federal-government [...]
Bret Stephens offers some advice to the college class of 2012 in today’s Wall Street Journal. Most of them won’t like it, but they should pay attention.
President Obama has been traveling the country speaking on college campuses. His topic is the interest rate students pay on their student loans. In a transparent effort to attract a new generation of students to his campaign, the President promises them to keep interest rates low. But as Andrew Biggs points out in today’s Wall [...]
Portland’s Lincoln High School is the national champion of the We the People Competition. And this is not the first time they have won the title. It is testimony to the great work of the Lincoln students, their teacher, their volunteer coaches, and the Classroom Law Project which has made Oregon’s statewide competition the best [...]
Writing in the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone points out that colleges are spending big on diversity programs while investing less and less in science education and research. Diversity is important, but without investment in science there will be few good jobs for those who graduate. Read Barone’s commentary here.
If you are about to send your kid off to college, have a look at Peter Berkowitz’s piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. He describes the situation in California’s public universities, and it’s not a pretty picture. No student is required to study American history or English, and some programs explicitly describe their mission as [...]
The Daily Caller reports today on a Virginia middle school teacher’s assignment requiring students to research Republican presidential candidate weaknesses and report their findings to the Obama campaign. Read the story here.
The Cascade Policy Institute has been a long time and steadfast supporter of choice in public education. During its 2011 session, the Oregon Legislature took a major step in the direction of greater choice by allowing students to freely transfer from one district to another. Districts could not prevent students in their geographic area from [...]
Oregon farmer Mark Dickman writes in yesterday’s Oregonian on the Governor’s lack of attention to job creation. Once the Governor thought he would get what he wanted, says Dickman, he threw his Republican and business collaborators under the bus. Putting in it most favorable light, the best one can say is the Governor and his [...]
This one is hard to believe. While inspecting student lunch sacks and pails, a state government agent in North Carolina required a student to purchase the chicken nuggets being served in the school cafeteria. Apparently the students turkey and cheese sandwich, along with a banana, did not meet Department of Agriculture standards for a healthy [...]
Oregon’s congressional delegation talks a good story when it comes to education. But with one exception, their track record is pretty dismal when it comes to educating kids in the District of Columbia where our elected representatives spend much of their time. But then our President isn’t doing any better. Last year the U.S. House [...]
The New York Times editorial board is upset with the influence the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is having on state legislatures. [see editorial from today's newspaper here] ALEC was founded by “right-wing activist” Paul Weyrich, and its funders include “Exxon Mobil, the Olin and Scaife families and foundations tied to Koch Industries.” Among some [...]
ARE SALEM EXPERTS SMARTER THAN ONES IN WASHINGTON? Along with most other states, Oregon seeks a waiver from the constraining mandates of No Child Left Behind. The state argues that the cookie-cutter approach of the law inhibits educators’ efforts to meet the challenges of educating roughly 540,000 students in Oregon’s 1,300 public schools. The state [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OREGONLIVE.COM 12/01/11 – When John Kitzhaber graduated from South Eugene High School in 1965, his goal was to attend Dartmouth College, where his father once taught. Unfortunately, his C average as a self-described unmotivated student didn’t qualify him for the school of his choice. Instead, he had to attend the University of [...]
Among the OECD’s 34 member nations (most of the world’s richest countries), student performance in the United States ranks 17th in reading, 31st in math and 23rd in science. And as a report in today’s Oregonian underscores, test scores in the U.S. are not getting better. A story in this week’s Economist identifies four factors [...]
As a lifelong educator, I am very sympathetic with Portland State University President Wim Wiewel’s plea (in today’s Oregonian) for no cuts to the federal Pell grant program. That program provides much needed support for low income college students. It is a worthy program that yields significant benefits to the beneficiary students. The problem is [...]
As governments face growing costs and declining revenues, there is a renewed interest in consolidation of local governments. The consolidation effort, according to reporter Kate Linebaugh writing in the Wall Street Journal, has encountered significant resistance from people who value the autonomy and access that comes with local governments of all kinds. The United States [...]
In his May 30 column in Renew America, Portland writer Mark Ellis comments on the recent failed 548 million dollar bond measure pushed by Portland’s education lobby. “Does the failed bond represent a tipping point? In this town, which up to now has rarely met a school tax it wouldn’t approve, the answer will come [...]
