President Obama plans to head to hard-hit Michigan on Tuesday afternoon to announce a $12 billion infusion for the nation's community college system, part of his efforts to ease the considerable pain of the still-sagging economy. In a conference call with reporters Monday, education officials said $2.5 billion of the new funds would go toward new community college facilities, with the rest going to an assortment of grants designed to boost graduation rates and encourage the teaching of skills that will better prepare students for jobs in a changing economy that is increasingly demanding a more highly educated workforce...
President Obama will call on the nation's community colleges today to produce five million more graduates by the year 2020 and will propose spending $12-billion over 10 years to improve programs, courses, and facilities at two-year institutions, White House officials said on Monday...(paid subscription required)
...Under the president's proposal, colleges would no longer administer or collect on Perkins Loans. That responsibility would shift to the Education Department, which would also reclaim its share of the money now in colleges' revolving funds. Those funds, which are made up of federal "capital contributions," institutional matches, and repaid Perkins loans, are used to make new loans to students. The federal dollars would no longer be allotted to colleges based strictly on historical formulas and usage rates. Instead, a portion of the $6-billion that the president has proposed for the new Perkins program would be used to reward institutions that hold down their tuition or graduate large numbers of low-income students (though colleges that currently participate in Perkins would be guaranteed at least as much as they now receive). Most importantly, the loans would no longer be subsidized while students are enrolled. Students would pay interest while in college, or it would be capitalized when they graduated. That change would effectively convert Perkins Loans into low-cost private loans, making it harder for colleges to persuade low-income students to borrow, said Susan Fischer, director of student financial aid at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. And requiring colleges to cover the interest for students -- an idea that Congress is reportedly considering -- would discourage less-wealthy institutions from participating, she said...
...In a cost-saving move that illustrates just how dire the budget situation has become at (Florida State University), the English department is in the process of removing almost all faculty members' office phones. The History and Modern Languages & Linguistics departments are taking similar steps...
Historically, the achievement gap between America's black and white students was widest in Southern states, where the legacies of slavery and segregation were reflected in extremely low math and reading scores among poor African-American children. But black students have made important gains in several Southern states over two decades, while in some Northern states, black achievement has improved more slowly than white achievement, or has even declined, according to a study of the black-white achievement gap released by the Department of Education this morning. As a result, the nation's most dramatic black-white gaps are no longer seen in Southern states like Alabama or Mississippi, but rather in Northern and Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Nebraska, Connecticut and Illinois, according to the federal data...Wisconsin was the only state in which the black-white achievement gap in 2007 was larger than the national average in both the fourth and eighth grade tests of both math and reading, according to the study...
Jobs requiring only an associate degree or skills certificate are projected to grow slightly faster than those requiring at least a bachelor's degree in the coming decade, according to a new report from President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. The report comes on the eve of a massive federal plan President Obama is about to unveil to help America's community colleges. An early draft included billions for job training, low-interest loans for building projects and other funding streams to create free online courses...
The University of California will use a combination of furloughs, deferred hiring and cuts in academic programs to make up for an $813 million reduction in state financing, its president, Mark G. Yudof, said Friday. Mr. Yudof said the actions amounted to a major retrenchment for the university, which has long been regarded as the nation’s leading public university...
...College campuses have long been hotbeds of activism, from Vietnam War protests a generation ago to more recent efforts to roll back affirmative action in admissions. But a rash of confrontations in recent years has led to a nationwide effort to promote civil debate on campus. A $4 million Ford Foundation initiative that began in 2006 and was expanded this year aims to promote dialogue on college campuses after a series of clashes between liberals and conservatives...
Trustee meddling in student affairs at the University of Illinois' flagship campus extended beyond admissions as one board member made sure his relative got the classes he wanted, an associate dean testified Monday before a state panel. Mary Ramsbottom, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, told the Illinois Admissions Review Commission that she received a "directive" from the provost's office in 2003 to help the student secure spots in classes that were already filled...
The nation's economic crisis is forcing schools to take unprecedented steps to survive: laying off teachers, cutting bus services, eliminating summer classes. But more drastic measures may not be far off. Could the next step in saving American education be Introduction to Nutrition, Sponsored by McDonald's or PricewaterhouseCoopers' Financial Accounting 101? Don't laugh. The City College of San Francisco is considering selling the naming rights to nearly 800 endangered classes...
The Atlantic Coast Conference won't hold its baseball championship at Fenway Park next year, choosing a North Carolina venue over far-flung Boston. Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin aren't printing media guides. The Miami Hurricanes will be busing players to games. As the recession drags on, many big schools are drawing attention for cutting sports outright -- Washington expects to save $1.2 million by eliminating swimming, for example. But college athletic departments throughout the country also are taking smaller, less obvious steps to trim costs in the sluggish economy...
