In these days of casino capitalism, the corporate education losers look more like losers every day. If those of us who are determined to restore sanity to our schools and colleges keep pushing, the whole corrupt and cowardly con game known for decades now as "education reform" will continue to unravel in the coming year. They will not go easily, however, which means that the education affirmation movement must keep pushing, debunking, uncovering, revealing, analyzing, and dissecting.
No one wants the planned college rating system dreamed up by Pearson, Gates, and the short-sighted efficiency zealots who know a bonanza when they smell one. While the ridiculous Arne Duncan tries to put lipstick on, yet, another pig, the cowardly Dems remain as quiet as church mice about the scandalous for-profit empires being built on the backs on the most vulnerable students who use tax money to make billionaires richer.
The following clip is from a commentary at Forbes:
No one wants the planned college rating system dreamed up by Pearson, Gates, and the short-sighted efficiency zealots who know a bonanza when they smell one. While the ridiculous Arne Duncan tries to put lipstick on, yet, another pig, the cowardly Dems remain as quiet as church mice about the scandalous for-profit empires being built on the backs on the most vulnerable students who use tax money to make billionaires richer.
The following clip is from a commentary at Forbes:
. . . .I’m highly skeptical that any of these government
metrics will lead to better education.
We’ve already seen what government scorecards do
in our public education system. Thanks to the No Child Left Behind program, we
now have incessant testing of students, beginning in elementary school, and
thousands of hours devoted to teaching students how to take tests rather than
learn new material. Schools have not improved as a result. Do we want this
trend to creep into colleges too?
I’m not the only one who thinks this a bad idea. Janet
Napolitano, the president the University of California system and
former Secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama, told the Washington Post that she is “deeply skeptical” of the criteria
that a federal ratings bureau would develop.
“It’s not like you’re buying a car
or a boat,” said Napolitano.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has already criticized the critics of the new
rankings system, calling the criticism “premature and a little silly.”
Duncan emphasizes the need to address the alarming number of college
students who default on their student loans. This is certainly a problem, but a
college ranking (or rating) system is not the solution.
Perhaps the biggest problems with student debt is
the rapid rise in mediocre, for-profit online colleges. If the feds want to get
the loan problem under control, they should stop funneling money to these Yugos of higher education. As the PBS
show Frontline pointed out in 2010, for-profit universities
are
“churning out worthless
degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt.”
And they’re not cheap, either - the
GAO found that
“tuition in 14 out of 15 cases,
regardless of degree, was more expensive at the for-profit college than at the
closest public colleges.”
So yes, we do have a problem with student debt.
One solution would be to exclude truly bad colleges, which are responsible for
a disproportionate share of student debt, from federal aid. . . . .
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