Free Republic

So, after the whole mess surrounding the poop swastika; instances of harassment that were allegedly racially-motivated, though unverifiable since they occurred off campus; and a professor who was charged with assaulting a student reporter at protests over said events has a caused a budget shortfall at the University of Missouri. I know, totally shocking, right? (via Daily Caller): The University of Missouri (MU) is losing about 1500 students and is facing a huge $32 million budget shortfall four months after it attracted national attention as the site of massive race-based campus protests.“I am writing to you today to confirm...

Under state rules, the first two years of promise zones must be funded through philanthropy. Beginning in 2018, the Detroit Promise will be funded by increases in property tax revenue based on the 6 mills of the State Education Tax; the program will capture half of any increase in property tax revenue from the SET, officials said. Detroit Public Schools interim superintendent Alycia Meriweather told students gathered at a news conference that it’s now up to them to be prepared for college, by getting good grades. “You have an opportunity today that all the rest of us who grew up...

Can you name the most contentious issue in American politics? Here's a hint. It's being fought at the federal, state and local levels. And it doesn't go away. The struggle is persistent, ongoing, unending. Here is a second hint. The issue is not gay marriage, or gun control, or police brutality and or immigration. Those issues are either settled, largely settled, isolated or completely out of the control of local and state governments. Here is a third hint. The issue divides Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. But it is especially divisive among Democrats and among people who call themselves...

Keely Mullen, an organizer for the Million Student March movement, joined Fox Business Network anchor Neil Cavuto on the air Thursday to discuss the movement’s demands for free public college, student debt cancelation and a $15-an-hour minimum wage for student workers. In the awkward 9-minute interview, Cavuto repeatedly cited facts and figures that seemed to fluster the student. When asked who would pick up the tab for the demands she listed, Mullen said, “The 1 percent of people who are hoarding the wealth and causing a catastrophe students are facing.” “If the 1 percent just had their taxes raised a...

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Wyoming Catholic College, a Catholic university founded in 2005 in Lander, announced in late February that it “shall not participate in federal student loan programs.”The decision came after months of analysis and deliberations by the college and its board of directors.“While the financial benefits are undeniable,” said a news release, “the increasingly burdensome regulatory requirements are clearly troubling for faith-based institutions.” The decision to forego federal student loan and grant programs was reached in a unanimous vote by the college’s board of directors.“While respecting that some of our peer institutions have reached a different conclusion on this...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) —More Americans are saving money for college using 529 accounts. They amount of money in the savings plans grew to a record $248 billion in 2014, about 9 percent more than the previous year.People are starting to save for their children earlier than ever. About 31 percent of the savings plans are opened by parents when their child is barely a year old, or before, according to the College Savings Plans Network.That's smart, given the skyrocketing cost of college tuition and fees in recent years."You really should be starting to save for college as soon as...

Could the time to end federal aid to higher education have long passed? “The federal government has no constitutional authority to do anything with regard to higher education (or any level, for that matter),” George Leef writes in Forbes. “But in 1965, Congress was swarming with ‘progressives’ who were sure that because college seemed to be a good thing for the rather small percentage of Americans who went, the nation would benefit if almost everyone went.” “So the federal policy began to make higher education more ‘accessible’ for students, most significantly through grants and easily available loans. The result was...

(CNSNews.com) - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says government funded universal preschool is a “social movement” and compared it to civil rights and gay marriage during a speech in Los Angeles last month. “At the end of the day for me this is really a social movement,” Duncan said when discussing federally subsidized preschool at the LA Universal Preschool (LAUP) forum on Oct. 21. “If you look at social movements, we all celebrate what happened in the 1960’s. The civil rights movement was extraordinarily powerful, life transforming, earth shattering. But the question I have is, why didn’t the civil rights...

No Koch Bros wanted at B.C. Brooklyn College, part of the disastrous and dysfunctional City University of New York sinkhole, has a $60 million endowment. A drop in the bucket compared to CUNY’s horrifying $3 billion budget.46% of its wildly inflated budget comes from New York State. New York City taxpayers kick in another 10%.With so much taxpayer money, involuntarily extracted, they just aren’t in need of any dirty Koch Brothers cash. Brooklyn College’s liberal politics are keeping grants and progress from faculty and students, one frustrated CUNY professor told the Observer.The CUNY college has turned down a $10 million...

* The Facebook founder pledged $100million to Newark schools in 2010 to bring sweeping educational reforms * However, most of the money has been spent on labor contracts and consulting fees * The money has had little impact on student performance so far In his first major show of philanthropy, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made a splash by announcing his plan to give $100 million to help turn around Newark, New Jersey's public schools in an appearance on Oprah in 2010. But nearly four years later, Zuckerberg's money has run out, having been spent mostly on labor contracts and consulting...

Make an emancipation declaration Get hitched (and marry down) Join the military Welcome the welfare state Crowd-fund your tuition Sell your genetic material Become homeless Reimagine the semester abroad

The Obama Administration’s former Homeland Security Chief has taken over the University of California. “Janet Napolitano had zero experience leading a college before she became president of the University of California last year,” Eric Kelderman wrote in The Chonicle of Higher Education on February 21, 2014. “Yet after just four months on the job, Ms. Napolitano, 56, has outlined major goals for the system, including a reconsideration of tuition policies, improving cooperation with the other two higher-education systems in the state, ensuring the prominent role of research and graduate education, and making the campuses carbon-neutral by 2025.” “She even has...

In some cash-strapped Chicago schools, no resource can be taken for granted -- not even toilet paper. Nicholas Sposato, alderman of Chicago’s 36th ward, recently held a toilet paper drive for the schools in his community.

Could public colleges be free? Yes, says the head of the union for University of California’s 4,000 instructors and librarians. How? Trim non-essential functions, redirect a bunch of money and end tax breaks that mostly benefit wealthy college-goers’ families, argues University Council-American Federation of Teachers President Bob Samuels. . . . “The major stumbling block is people no longer believe in large government programs.” (Excerpt) Read More at InsideHigherEd.com...

The federal government has made it easier than ever to borrow money for higher education - saddling a generation with crushing debts and inflating a bubble that could bring down the economy

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he was raising “a cautionary flag” about over-building at university campuses at a time when more learning is going online when he vetoed planning money for big-ticket capital projects at state college campuses last week. With college credits increasingly available through Internet-based options, the governor said he did not think it was wise to charge into a new wave of building projects at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa State University in Ames and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls without first embarking on a comprehensive, long-range look...

There is microfilm as evidence.

Dear Carrie, I have a 3-year old daughter who I hope will go to college one day. Given the increasing costs, what's the best way for me to save? I've opened a 529 plan, but is there anything else I can do? --A Reader Dear Reader, The first thing you can do is to give yourself credit for starting to save so early. While saving for a child's college education is an enormous challenge, making it a priority when it's so far away can be the first big hurdle. So you're off to a good start. As someone who believes...

Jim Crow may be dead in most of America — but not at Columbia University. Almost 50 years after the Civil Rights Act ended legal discrimination, the bastion of liberalism is finally trying to change one of its scholarships, which is restricted to “whites only.” The Ivy League school’s Lydia C. Roberts Graduate Fellowship stipulates that the funds be given only to “a person of the Caucasian race.”

Summer break has started very early for kids in one Michigan school district. Buena Vista schools have been closed for five days already, and on Monday, the district's website stated that the school would be closed until further notice. For good reason, this decision has parents, and the community, up in arms. The problem in Buena Vista is that the school district, educating approximately 450 kids, is out of money. All the teachers have been laid off and a financial emergency has been declared. The district has suffered from declining enrollment, which, in turn, has led to a loss of...