The Early Presidential Debates in a Single Chart

  It is very encouraging to see the discussion of student debt and of early-childhood education, at least on the Democratic side, as well as the fact that standardized testing has been included among the topics not yet discussed by either party. From our perspective, it would be very helpful to see a discussion of…

Why is ABC Hiding from the Public the Ugly Truth about the Treatment of Refugee Families?

The author of this post is Ana Fores Tamayo, and it is a somewhat edited version of what was was originally published on her blog Adjunct Justice on September 18 [http://adjunct-justice.blogspot.com/2015/09/why-is-abc-hiding-from-public-us-dirty.html].   When Pope Francis touches US soil, he will begin a whirlwind tour through the northeast corner of our vast country. So, he decided to hold a…

The DOE's "College Scorecard" Isn't Accurate

Thanks to Steve Filling of California State University, Stanislaus, who is Chair of the CSU Academic Senate, for alerting me to to an October 9 article in The Hechinger Report entitled “There’s finally federal data on low-income college graduation rates—but it’s wrong.”  Here are some excerpts: The U.S. Department of Education has released college-by-college graduation…

Steven Salaita Returns to Illinois

Steven Salaita spoke tonight at the University of Illinois at Chicago before a supportive crowd of 150 about his new book, Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom, which Aaron Barlow reviewed and I also reviewed last week. Salaita will be speaking on Oct. 13 in Urbana. He wondered about the controversy that got him fired, “Why was it…

Is the Exploitation of Education Coming to an End?

In The New York Times today is an article, “For-Profit Colleges Accused of Fraud Still Receive U.S. Funds.” Exploitation of the failed student loan programs (failed, that is, in terms of protection against fraud by for-profits) continues, the Times says, even in the face of an Education Department crackdown on “bad actors.” The article claims:…

Sometimes a Single Statistic Is a Terrible Revelation

Over the past decade, any number of commentators have noted the striking differences between our national discussions of and our national responses to terrorist attacks and domestic gun violence. In fact, that contrast has now been referenced so frequently that it has become something of a truism. But, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles…