“A writer’s notebook is not a diary. Writers react. Writers need a place to record these reactions. That’s what a writer’s notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don’t want to forget. A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer.” - Ralph Fletcher
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
1976: The year free higher #education was eradicated in The United States. #ows #njpoet
According to a 2010 report by the Public Policy Institute of California, young adults in California are less likely to graduate from college than their parents. Among the 20 most populous states, California ranked 18th in 2010 in its rate of students going straight from high school to college; factor in all states and California ranked 40th. According to the institute, this crumbling bridge between high school and college means California could face a shortfall of a million skilled workers by 2025.
Andy Kroll
(Source: Mother Jones)
The striking Chicago Teachers Union helped thrust teachers unions into the national spotlight, with union-buster Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel reminding us that, these days, Republicans and Democrats frequently converge on both education policy and labor-unfriendliness.
Kristin Rawls
(Source: truth-out.org)
Kids in many public schools today resemble greatly a model community of I, Robots—unquestioningly submitted to the policies and control of curriculum and corporations. And while mainstream liberal critiques of the education system usually aim well at government practices and problems, the encroaching corporate seizure of public education receives undue address. With growing autonomy wielded by companies over federal regulations, even governments fall serf to financial hostage from corporate overlords. So even if, by some stroke of luck and tireless activity, elected officials enact strident legislations to roll back the intrusion of private firms into public schools, far more work would be required, on a grassroots level, to ensure this last domain of moral democracy remains undefiled.
Tolu Olorunda
(Source: truth-out.org)
You see, a college education isn’t just a private investment. It’s also a public good. This nation can’t be competitive globally, nor can we have a vibrant and responsible democracy, without a large number of well-educated people.
So it’s not just you who are burdened by these trends. If they continue, we’re all f*cked.
Robert Reich
(Source: robertreich.org)
Uniting the students and teachers of the CUNY system Monday was resistance to the decision of the CUNY Board of Trustees, which also unites them, to impose a five-year tuition surge of $300 a year, system-wide. While the bodies in the streets chanted, “They say tuition hike, we say tuition strike,” board of trustees Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson casually remarked, “What was approved today was a modest and predictable tuition increase.”
Well, anything is predictable if the people in power decide to precipitate it, sure. And it’s only modest compared to some things, like CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s $560,038 in total compensation last year, a sore spot for the protesters. Last year, the CUNY Board of Trustees raised Goldstein’s salary by 9 percent, over and above a 14 percent increase in 2008 .
It is worth remembering that, before 1976, there were no tuition increases, because there was no tuition. “This is supposed to be a free education. Tuition hikes have to be compared to that standard, not to how expensive private colleges are,” Phillip, 24, tells me. He identifies himself as a music student at Brooklyn College. “Free college should be the primary goal and if there is no room in the budget for it, there shouldn’t be room in the budget for salary raises for the trustees.”
(Source: truth-out.org)
We spurn real teachers—those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential—and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point.
Chris Hedges
(Source: commondreams.org)
