Category: Education

A Train Wreck in Student Loans is a Good Thing™

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Alfred Lord, the CEO of Sallie Mae*, is saying that Sallie is looking at a potential “train wreck” in student loans, because no one is buying their repackaged debt, and because federal law has reduced the subsides

This is a good thing. The student loan business is a racket. It costs both the student and the taxpayer more than direct loans from the government.

These loans have special protections, they are not dischargeable by bankruptcy, and the juxtaposition of subsidies and government guaranties to the lenders make it a truly parasitic part of the financial system.

I should note that, God help me, I actually agree with David Frum’s position that the student loan/grant process is, and creates unconscionable costs to higher ed, because there is a federally maintained never-never land loan plan, which cushions the effects of inflation.

Where he and I differ is that he suggests, or at least strongly implies support for, ending the program with no replacement†, while I think that the government has sufficient power as lender for student loans to enforce some realistic price controls.‡

*Sallie is not a Government Sponsored Entity (GSE) like Fannie and Freddie. It was, but it found the student loan market so lucrative that it successfully lobbied Congress to privatize in 2004, which is why the name sounds like s GSE’s name.
†Something he would love as a former fellow atthe racist Manhattan institute. It would mean that his children would have a student body much more comfortable to him.
‡Oh yeah, while you are at it, do something about the inflation in college text books too.

Power Drunk Psychopath Control Freak Principal Bans Tag

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In this case, I’m referring to Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean, VA, who issued the edict because tag had become a game, “of intense aggression.”

One of the peculiarities of being a principal in the US, at least at public schools, is that you cannot work your way up through the ranks. You have to get a certification specific to being a principal.

Generally, this means that either you went in with the goal of being a principal, i.e. that you wanted to be “in education” but you did not want to teach, or you decided that you really didn’t like teaching that much.

So you get profoundly dysfunctional people like this, who think that any problem, and it appears that the tag was getting a bit rough can be solved with a mindless punitive over-reaction.

What’s more, they lack adult supervision, which is why teachers’ unions are the way they are. Would you want to work for someone like her?

Damn Good Writing, Gen. JC Christian, Patriot, Edition

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The good general wrote to the Dean of the UC Berkely law school, regarding their hiring of war criminal John Yoo.

I wish I could write so well. The phrase, “Mengele Professor of Sado-Political Studies” is prize.

A shining interrogation center upon a hill

Christopher Edley, Jr
Professor of Law and Dean
School of Law
University of California, Berkeley

Dear Dr. Edley,

I’m very impressed by your decision to hire former Justice Department official John Yoo to serve on your faculty. It was a very shrewd marketing move on your part. It allows Berkeley to finally get past its sordid history as the battleground for the expansion of our civil liberties and become the foremost advocate for that “shining interrogation center upon a hill” so many of us wish our nation to become.

…..

Go read the rest.

What the Hell Happened to Childhood?

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Some recent news on how we raise our children. First is a news story about a mother who let her 9 year old son ride alone on the subway. There is nothing wrong with the story, except for the fact that it qualifies as news. Kids have been taking mass transit on their own at that age for years, but in this plan-every-minute soccer mom stamp-out-independent-thought culture we have, it gets a significant amount of media play.

We are raising kids who will never have the smallest adventure, nor the smallest sense of responsibility.

Kudos New York Sun Columnist* and mom, Lenore Skenazy for not buying into the toxic waste paranoia of the phony missing child hysteria of the mid-1980s.

On the darker side, we have a six year old kid who is labeled a sexual harasser for smacking a girl on the butt.

The police were called, and his school record now lists him as a sexual harasser.

This is insane. Did the kid do something wrong, of course he did, and his parents should have been called in, and he should have gotten a few days detention, but it’s not sexual harassment.

We was 6 years old, not 13.

Then we have an 8 year old child suspended because he is alleged to have sniffed line from a marker on his shirt. School administrators are suggesting that he was “trying to get high”, aka “huffing”.

There are two problems with all of this, the first is that we are allowing people who are clearly psychopaths abuse their authority, and the second is that increasingly, there are policies in place to support these psychopaths.

Osama bin Laden does not have to destroy America, we are doing it through what we do to the next generation.

*When I say the phrase “Kudos to NY Sun Columnist”, something is very, very, wrong with reality.

Breaking: Abstinence Only Education Makes You Really Stupid

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Another bit of news from the department of the blatantly obvious.

It appears that in their zeal to keep teens from having sex, abstinence education may be contributing to STD and pregnancies.

In the hit parade of abstinence only stupidity reinforced myths believed by teens:

  • Fla. Teens Believe Drinking Bleach Will Prevent HIV
  • Drinking Mountain Dew Will Stop Pregnancy
  • smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant.

Is it any wonder that Florida has the sixth-highest teen pregnancy rate nationally?

Taliban Style CatholicsGo After High School Sports

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In Kansas*, a religious high school refused to allow a female referee to officiate at their game, because they did not believe that women should ever have authority over men.

To the credit of then Kansas State High School Activities Association, they are in the process of considering banning St. Mary’s Academy from any sporting events with their members schools if this is actually their policy.

They should do so, and they so should do so for non sports activities too. Whether that be beauty contests, band competitions, car washes, or educational conferences.

These people are the real American Taliban, and any accomodation will encourage more extreme demands.

*You know, Kansas would be the last place that I would expect this. So say we all, by the might of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Economics Update

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The Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority will stop making loans under the Michigan Alternative Student Loan, because it cannot raise money in the capital markets to lend out. You can see their notice here

Student loans are about as safe as it gets. You cannot discharge them through bankruptcy, and they are very safe, but no one is willing to buy the paper, both because the bond insurers are basically belly up, and because no one trusts anything.

In a similar vein, though more directly related to the bursting housing bubble, Freddie Mac cut nearly in half the size of its REMIC (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits) issue, because it cannot find buyers.

And in the useful congressional hearings area, i.e. not Roger Clemens and steroids, we have hearings on the collapse of the bond insurers.

In another sign of a slowing economy, media company Belo corporation is showing a loss.

Part of this may be the fact that, and I speak from experience having experienced their flagship Dallas Morning News, that Belo is to journalism what Osama bin Laden is to wet t-shirt contests. When you have a crappy product, you get hammered.

Natalie’s Audition at Sudbrook

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My daughter, Natalie, is in 5th grade, and so will be going on to middle school next year.

She decided that she wanted to audition for a spot at the Sudbrook arts-magnet middle school. And today she auditioned.

I don’t know what happened, parents are not allowed in the auditions.

Natalie has a lovely voice, though she needs training to project her voice, and she is studying violin.

Senate Looking at Well Endowed Schools

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Get your mind out of the gutter, this is about the Senate is looking at tuitions exploding as university endowments skyrocket.

It’s a legitimate question. The US government spends billions sending students to increasingly expensive colleges and universities, but these same not for profit institutions are amassing increasingly large endowments as they hike costs for the students.

As Richard Vedder noted, there is a whole lot of excess going on in higher education.

The example that he gives is Whitman College at Princeton, a residence hall that, “cost $388,571 per room unit, nearly identical to what Donald Trump spent on his luxury resort Ocean Club Panama.”

The explosion in college costs started during the Vietnam War, where the alternative to college was combat, and it has continued unabated for the next 40 years, helped along by collusion among the top schools in tuition and financial aid.

Simply expanding student loan and grand programs make this worse. Regulation is needed to ensure that the managers educational institutions don’t take the money and build monuments to their own egos.

In Other Unsurprising News, the MPAA is a Bunch of Lying Jackals*

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Well, Harold Feld ads some fact checking to MPAA claims that, “40% of industry loses from internet piracy could be traced to file sharing at universities.”

LEK Consulting Services, which did the research for the MPAA, has now released its methodology, and based on their own numbers, the file sharing through university computing services is about 3%.

They used this study to justify attempts to use legislation to coerce universities to lock down their networks in very expensive ways, and to make the penalties for such activities worse than murder.

*No offense intended to Jackals.

The Best Slashdot Post Ever

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You can read it, in all of its awfulness, here, in a discussion of a professor who bemoans the fact that students are learning Java, as opposed to “real” computer languages.

University should be about people (Score:2, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08, @03:22AM (#21951018)

I’m concerned about the narrowm view of the world IT people and engineers have these days. I think the problem starts at college – There’s a culture that somehow science is more rational and usefull then the humanitities. Lecturers encourage students to joke about arts students, and humilaite them whenever possible. This encourages eliteism, and I for one am sick of it.

Let’s tell it like it is. ‘science’ is just as much about opinion as the humanities. Research simply follows the fad of the day. Take dieticians for example. These men and woman believe that just because they have degree in medical science that they are all knowing. Why, what they recommend one day may kill you the next! (see the DDT story for more information.) Science is 95% opinion then facts, lets face it. What about astrology, the most rediculious of the sciences! But I degress…

Another example is music. We know what sounds good. Everyone agreed that Valves for instance sound great. But knowitall engineers use trensastors with inferious sound quality just to save a few bucks. They argue with numbers. Hey, I don’t want to do maths just to listen to music. I know what I like. You cannot apply objective reasoning to a subject which is intristically subjective. But try telling those recent grads with their useless piece of paper that and they go all
mightier–then-thou.

The problem with you technical guys are that you are all so eliteist. Whilst you want to trun collage into a trade school with yore narrow minded views that collage should be a job training centre, Humanities are focused on making you a well rounded person who is actually interesting to be with, not a boringfocused geek. Really, it makes me so mad when people say “oh, he’s doing a humanities degree, that’s easy”. I have to read *3* *books* *a* *week* on average. Not picture books either I assue you. It is a lot of work, but the upshot is improved grammer and spelling skills that are lacking in the technical. As for those that say “you will be working at mcdonalds” , I’m going on to so a PhD in socialolgy where I’ll be line for tenure where I have a much more rewarding job then being a science freak or an engineer. Anyways, all I have to do to be a engineer wold be to get my MSCE and how hard couyld that be? Technical stuff is simply whatever fad the market thinks is hot at the moment, but all great things were done by humanities.

You technical types are far to narrow minded and cynsical. You should learn to enjoy life.

Peace be to god, he transcends all.

Ummmm….Amazing. I’ve marked all the misspellings, and least I think that I did.

Three whole books a week, huh…I’m so impressed.

FWIW, I am a product of two liberal arts majors, my dad did sociology/city planning, and my mom did English, but started in mathematics.

I respect the social sciences.

I just don’t respect this particular social scientist.

Spectacular self-ownage.

Homesteading Today – Any unschoolers?

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I occasionally look at a bbs that a lot of my friends frequent, and I just found this post on Unschoolers, a variant of home schooling. The misspellings are in red:

As I stated I myself went to public school. The only knowladge I feel i retained was a bit of poetry and how not to get the snot beat out of me by the three mean bullies.

When my first two childern were in school, i started seeing some of the same things in them. one was a slow prcessor(by this I dont mean slow witted, I mean he could not get the work compleated on time so the grades were low because he needed longer. They tested him , his work was perfect but he needed twice as long to do it. He is quiet so it wasnt talking or other distractions.Just a differant form of process. If i didnt have the same issue I might not have picked up on it.), the other a bully of sorts(miss popularity) . I felt I needed to rescue them from such “hell”.

Now they are so wounderfull. they both read well. Fell good about who they are. There arent better kids anywhere. My younger childern are learning, all are at differant levels. but it is all natural. They want it ,cant get enough. They are driven by the things they want for them selves. the things they want to do. No my 8 year old does not read at his expected “level”. but all the seasoned unschoolers tell me that it will come. it is comeing.
My responsability as mom is to always be aware.if there is a problem fix it. (We have not had any yet) and to provide all the materials, encourage and support.
My elder son is into woodworking.This requires math, reading and fallowing a blueprint at this point. He is learning by doing. He is working through an aprintaceship. His passions also include birds.I cant tell you how many books he has read on this matter. He knows what steps he will have to take to get his falconers licence.”All this on his own”

My eldest daughter is into sewing,nitting,and weaving. I cant help her directly here. I want to learn myself.We are looking for someone to teach us. We are trying to muddle our way through books on the matters. She has a dream to open a resturaunt. She is 11-12 tomarrow! She is a real good cook, and cooking for a family of 11 is giveing her lots of practice. (They are responsable for meals twice a week. No help from me.)We are working on shopping, and buddgeting. but her mine goal is to run her home when she has her own family. I want to give her everything I can to prpair her for that goal.

So to sum it all up “unschooling” in learning through life liveing.Much Of what Ive learned i didnt learn untill I was teaching my childern.

Hmmmm…who is teaching them spelling? Is anyone teaching them anything.

Nancy “Know Nothing” Grasmick Re-Appointed State School Superintendent

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Despite pleas from the Governor, Speaker of the State House, and Senate President, lamd duck members of the Maryland State Board of Education voted to trenew Nancy Grasmick’s contract for another four years.

It should be noted that Grasmick tried to seize 11 low performing Baltimore City schools during the election for Governor, and was for a long time considered a potential running mate for then incumbent governor Republican Bob “Bad Hair” Ehrlich.

She also was front and center in Ehrlich’s attempts to take over the whole Baltimore City School District and to decertify the Teachers’ Union.

This is going to get ugly, and she’s a hack, in addition to being one of the most test crazy senior executives in the nation. Her policies got schools not teaching science or social studies for two months so that they can do test prep.

Here’s How it Works, We Take Iraqi Officers to the US For Training, and They DESERT

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Big surprise there, bombs are not going off daily, nor are death squads roaming the street. All we have is an occasional mall shooter.

So, we train them there, then take the most promising back to the US for more estensive training, and they go missing.

They desert, they seek asylum, or they seek asylum in Canada, as a brigadier general did earlier this year.

Things have to be going swimmingly there.

Oral Roberts’ Son Resigns as President of Oral Roberts University

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Shades of Elmer Gantry. They go into the more prosaic stuff, like a nearly $40 thousand shopping spree, and a nearly $30 thousand senior trip for his kids, repeatedly remodeling their home, and requiring students to work on a political campaign for a specific candidate.

There are also allegations that his wife had an inappropriate relationship with an underage student, or students, at the university.

There is a lot to be found, now that the rock has been turned over. I could see a reprise of the Jim and Tammy Fae Bakker PTL ministries.