Gainful Employment Rule is Out: Was it Worth the Wait? — from New America Foundation
Excerpt:
Nearly a year after first proposing it, the Department of Education this morning officially issued the final version of its “Gainful Employment” Rule, which aims to stop for-profit colleges from saddling students with unmanageable levels of debt. As has been noted in numerous news stories, the Department made very large concessions to the for-profit higher education industry. As a result, the initial reaction from consumer advocacy groups has been, for the most part, lukewarm at best. Meanwhile, career college lobbyists remain — unsurprisingly — unsatisfied with the changes.
At Higher Ed Watch, we will provide our own analysis of the final regulation after we have thoroughly reviewed it. In the meantime, though, here are some helpful links to find out more about the rule, and to see what the press and various interested parties are saying about it.
From DSC:
Why post these things on an education-related blog? Because though entertainment is now coming to bat, learning-related applications of these technologies are on deck (if they are not already coming to bat on some occasions).
Some related resources I ran across:
All That Jazz … and Humor, Opera, Dance Music … — from The Library of Congress
[On May 10, 2011] the Library of Congress, in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment, launched a website – “the National Jukebox” – that streams 10,000 sound recordings from the historic Victor Records collection. It’s a fun and fascinating ramble for anyone who loves American music and wants to dig down into the roots of jazz, opera, a vast range of popular music, famous political speeches — even early sound effects. The collection launched today (which will expand over time) is the soundtrack of our grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ early lives – music from the dawn of sound recording just after the turn of the 20th Century to the eve of the Great Depression. The url is www.loc.gov/jukebox/.
From DSC:
I submitted the following comment to the solid article “Fixing accreditation, from the inside” (from today’s InsideHigherEd.com posting by Doug Lederman)
Thank you for the article/posting here.
Re: the committee:
Re: higher ed as an industry:
I am a liberal arts grad and I work at a liberal arts college; as such, I believe in the value of liberal arts. However, I’ve been reflecting upon why the teaching and learning environment has been changing so much and why higher education has become more of a business.
Actually, I think it’s always been somewhat of a business, but even more so these days. The key reason for me involves the *cost* of obtaining an education.
It’s one thing to charge $3000/yr for tuition and it’s another to charge $25,000+/yr for tuition. If it means essentially having to pay the price of a house to obtain an education for your children, doesn’t the set of expectations change for students? For the parents of those students? For businesses who are helping pay the tuition of their employees?
If the accreditation bodies don’t respond to the growing suspicion towards them — and towards higher education as a whole — it will be like water going around a rock in a stream. People will flow right by them — whether the government assumes control or not.
2 Chronicles 7:14 — from Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day
Boosting productivity in US higher education — from McKinsey Quarterly by Cota, Jayaram, Laboissière
Excerpt:
The United States needs more college graduates. Opinions vary on exactly how many, but McKinsey estimates that the nation will need an additional one million each year by 2020 to sustain its economic health. That would mean increasing today’s annual total—2.5 million—by 40 percent.
To meet this goal, universities and colleges would have to increase their output of graduates by 3.5 percent a year over the next decade. That’s a daunting task for two reasons. First, it would cost an additional $52 billion a year, based on 2008 costs to produce a graduate. Yet many states, plagued by fiscal woes, have recently lowered spending on higher education, a trend that’s unlikely to be reversed. Second, to achieve this increase, colleges would need to enroll many more than 3.5 percent more freshmen each year, because today, on average, only 40 percent of students who enroll go on to graduate.
Easter is coming — from BibleGateway.com
Today is Good Friday, when Christians around the world reflect on the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus Christ. In the Christian worldview, it’s one of the most important dates in all of history, trumped in significance only by the glorious events of Resurrection Day a few days later.
On the surface, the story of Good Friday describes something historically unremarkable (although certainly terrible): the unjust martyrdom of a visionary. Certainly many religious leaders and idealists have met undeserved death at the hands of brutal establishments throughout history, all the way up to the present day. But as you read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ final hours before crucifixion, you cannot escape the sense that this is different. This is injustice on a cosmic scale; this is humanity literally spitting in the face of its loving Creator.
But we can read this story without despairing because we know how it ultimately ends. The God who works all things for the good will bring unimaginable glory and grace out of even the murder of his own son.
Have you read the story of Good Friday recently? So much happened on Good Friday that it’s easier to just read it in its entirety rather than isolate the individual stories. It’s told from four different perspectives in the Bible: Matthew 26:47-27:61, Mark 14:42-15:47, Luke 22:47-23:56, and John 18-19.
It’s a bleak story, but we know a truth that puts even this in perspective: Easter is coming.
From DSC:
I was reading this morning about a pastor (who I’ve heard preach before and is a wonderful person) who had to go through a seriously dark time — brought on by prostate cancer — which led him into a painful journey through his own desert before he was able to reach a deeper level of spirituality with God. Suffering, it seems, is a part of the Christian’s journey — even if it’s unwanted.
I have to admit, that often times, I wish it were not so. I wish I/we all had the ability to listen better and to learn from others; I wish that inclination was more a part of human nature — especially learning from others’ experiences in the past. I wish that we didn’t need 2″ x 4″‘s onside our heads in order for us to wake up and to change our ways. (Brief tangent: People don’t like to hear bad news. We humans have never liked to hear bad news; ever. Think of global warming. Think of the U.S. Federal deficit — and the growing ramifications that astronomical debt brings with it.)
I was reflecting on the story of Jonah the other day…thinking, I’ve missed the whole point of Jonah. Instead of focusing on the large fish and how Jonah at first rebelled/ran away from God and then later obeyed (which is also a valuable part of the story), I should have also focused on the more important lesson. That is, that the people of Nineveh actually listened, heard the message, heeded the warning from the LORD, and then actually changed their ways! What a concept….and one that we Americans need to re-learn before our feet slip even further.
Addendum #1 – 4/18/11:
and
Addendum #2 – 4/18/11:
Finally, here are some potentially-effective ideas on how to fix Congress:
Congressional Reform Act of 2011 (If passed, this will eliminate many current problems).
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
This edition of Projections of Education Statistics provides projections for key education statistics, including enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary public and private schools. Included are national data on enrollment and graduates for the past 15 years and projections to the year 2019. Also included are state-level data on enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools and public high schools from year 2001 and projections to year 2019. This report is organized by the level of schooling with sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 concerned with aspects of elementary and secondary education and sections 5 and 6 concerned with aspects of post secondary education.
