The success of achieving president Obama’s education goals and making the U.S. the place that has “the highest proportion of students graduating from college in the world by 2020” depends on how well the U.S. educates American Hispanics; in 16 years, almost one quarter of college-age adults will be Latino. The trouble, according to “Taking […]
Daniel Luzer
Daniel Luzer is the news editor at Governing Magazine and former web editor of the Washington Monthly. Find him on Twitter: @Daniel_Luzer
Plan to Tax Pittsburgh College Students Still in Limbo
In an update to the story of the mayor of Pittsburgh’s attempt to tax local college students, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the schools are still absolutely opposed to the mayor’s plan: Pittsburgh’s universities told Mayor Luke Ravenstahl yesterday they won’t agree to his call for them to contribute $5 million to city coffers to […]
Napster Returns: The Value of the College Lecture
Drake Bennett had an interesting piece in the Boston Globe yesterday about intellectual property and the university. A few years ago a Harvard graduate, Andrew Magliozzi started a website called Finalsclub.org. Among other things FinalsClub pays Harvard students to post their class notes online. But the site is not just an aid for slackers. According […]
More Schools in Danger of Losing Federal Funds
New rules for student loan defaults would cause many schools to lose federal money. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: More than 220 colleges have long-term student loan default rates so high that they would lose all federal student financial assistance under the terms of a new law that eventually will […]
Friends in High Places
Well somebody in the Obama administration likes for-profit colleges. U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha J. Kanter speaking at a Career College Association investor meeting, thinks that for-profit schools “have so much to offer the country in promoting opportunity to students.” According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Kanter noted that for-profit […]
The Smartest Poor Kids
Lawrence Summers, President Obama’s Director of the National Economic Council, recently said that American income inequality continues to plague higher education. According to a Reuters article, only “10 percent of students in leading colleges and universities come from families in the lower half of the income distribution.” Summers spoke about higher education at Yeshiva University […]
Higher Percentage of Blacks Seek Education than Whites
From the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education comes news that 32 percent of black people over age three were enrolled in an education program. In contrast, only 24 percent of white people were registered in some form of school. The article explains that: Since the end of slavery when prohibitions against blacks learning to […]
Tech School
Barbara Barreda writes in Education Week that it may be time to change how schools use technology. Historically, universities and (to a lesser extent) public schools were the institutions that brought new equipment and training to students. Students alone did not have the money and ability to access cutting-edge technology. But, as Barreda says: While […]
Online University Now Has Real Football Team
In a curiously Onion-like article, Inside Higher Ed reported today that Post University, a for-profit school in which most students take their courses online, will now have a football team: To hear Ken Zirkle, Post’s president, tell it, starting a sprint football team and affiliating it with those from a handful of highly selective institutions […]
Student Lives in Van to Avoid Debt
Duke University graduate student Ken Ilgunas is saving on living expenses by simply not renting an apartment. Ilgunas, 26, sleeps in a 1994 Ford Econoline van. The student’s vehicle has no running water so he showers in the campus gym and cooks with camping gear. Ilgunas decided to live in his van in order to […]

