Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Students aren't the only ones benefiting from the billions of new dollars Washington is spending on college aid for the poor. An Associated Press analysis shows surging proportions of both low-income students and the recently boosted government money that follows them are ending up at for-profit schools, from local career colleges to giant publicly traded chains such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan and Devry.

Title IX Expansions Bethany Stotts, November 20, 2009 During a November 10 press call on “Women Scientists and American Competitiveness,” speakers suggested that Title IX should be used to focus on “educational equity” and not just athletic equity. One speaker stressed, in particular, the importance of reaching out to federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy (DOE) for additional grant money. (Predoctoral women received 63% of the NIH’s awards in 2007, but only 25% of “competitive faculty grants” that same year, reports...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Kent County educators Friday the state's school financing system "clearly is not working" and said lawmakers must agree to both a short-term fix as well as long-term changes by the end of the year. But the gathering of superintendents and school board members also gave Granholm an earful, especially after she said lawmakers are "battle weary." "If elected people are weary, my level of sympathy for them is zilch," Catherine Mueller, Grand Rapids school board president, told Granholm. "They ran for these jobs and put themselves in this situation." Granholm appeared before educators...

Harvard University’s failed bet that interest rates would rise cost the school at least $500 million in payments to escape derivatives that backfired, reports Bloomberg. Harvard paid $497.6 million to investment banks during the fiscal year ended June 30 to get out of $1.1 billion of interest-rate swaps intended to hedge variable-rate debt for capital projects, the school’s annual report said. Harvard said it also agreed to pay $425 million over 30 to 40 years to offset an additional $764 million in swaps. The transactions began losing value last year as central banks slashed benchmark lending rates, forcing the university...

How Harvard Nearly Went Bankrupt After A Rogue Interest Rate Swap Went Very Sour Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2009 17:45 -0500 The school that epitomizes the dangers of groupthink (especially by very intelligent people) and tends to get caught in both the virtues and vices of its own ingeniosity, saw just how expensive hubris can be in 2009. Harvard's endowment dropped 27.3% in 2009 to $27 after hitting roughly $10 billion higher the year before. /snip Yet most notable in the entire report is an interesting story for all those who claim that representing the $200 or so trillion...

Verbotten. story here.

A skirmish between powerful teachers’ unions and President Barack Obama over nearly $5 billion in education spending is shaping up as a preview of the battle to come over No Child Left Behind in Congress early next year. But the tables are turned: now the unions are worried that Obama, a Democratic ally, is going to be just as tough on them as President George W. Bush, a longtime foe.

Harvard University last year lost nearly $2 billion in the cash account it uses to pay for daily operations, by investing the money with its endowment fund instead of keeping it in safer, bank-like accounts. The loss, disclosed today in the university's annual financial report, resulted from Harvard financial executives taking the unusual step of placing a large mount of the university's cash with Harvard Management Co., the entity that runs the school's endowment and invests in stocks, hedge funds and other risky assets. Typically, companies and institutions manage their cash accounts conservatively in order to have funds readily available,...

The debate over No Child Left Behind re-authorization is upon us. Except it isn’t. In his recent speech kicking off the discussion, education secretary Arne Duncan asked not whether the central federal education law should be reauthorized, he merely asked how. Let’s step back a bit, and examine why we should end federal intervention in (and spending on) our nation’s schools… in one thousand words or less:

Tucked away in an $87 billion higher education bill that passed the House last week was a broad new federal initiative aimed not at benefiting college students, but at raising quality in the early learning and care programs that serve children from birth through age 5. The initiative, the Early Learning Challenge Fund, would channel $8 billion over eight years to states with plans to improve standards, training and oversight of programs serving infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation this fall, giving President Obama, who proposed the Challenge Fund during the presidential campaign, a...

Harvard’s endowment tumbled 27.3 percent in its latest fiscal year, largely because of problems with its private equity and hedge fund portfolios, lopping off $10 billion and shrinking its portfolio to $26 billion. The loss is the biggest percentage decline at Harvard in 40 years and has prompted a review of how it manages its money and allocates assets. Jane Mendillo, who took over the endowment on July 1, 2008, intends to manage more of the school’s assets directly instead of using outside money managers and to hire additional people to oversee the management by outsiders. In her letter describing...

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 Students Borrow More Than Ever for College Heavy Debt Loads Mean Many Young People Can't Live Life They Expected By ANNE MARIE CHAKER Students are borrowing dramatically more to pay for college, accelerating a trend that has wide-ranging implications for a generation of young people. New numbers from the U.S. Education Department show that federal student-loan disbursements—the total amount borrowed by students and received by schools—in the 2008-09 academic year grew about 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. The amount of money students borrow has long been on the rise. But last year far surpassed...

Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised the federal economic recovery package Wednesday, saying it had saved more than 1,600 jobs in Orange County's public school system alone and 26,000 education jobs across Florida. Speaking at Jackson Middle in Orlando, the two called public school teachers the key to improving the country's economic situation and said many already do excellent work. But they also said that President Barack Obama's administration isn't interested in maintaining the status quo but instead wants to use the unprecedented resources now available as part of the recovery act -- some...

Indiana 1 Of 3 States With Public School Textbook Rental Fees INDIANAPOLIS -- In the midst of back-to-school season, expenses for clothing, supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes and the like are expected, but some costs catch parents off guard -- such as rental fees for textbooks. Indiana is one of just three states in which parents of public school students pay textbook rental fees, which typically run from about $100 to $400 each year, depending on the school district, 6News' Dan Spehler reported. The additional expense is something that people who move into the area may not be prepared for. Many parents...

August 10, 2009 Dear xxxx: Today's Virginian-Pilot included a helpful editorial on the support cap issue: http://hamptonroads.com/print/519013 Please read and distribute this editorial. VEA is sponsoring a rally on this issue on August 19th, at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square, at 1 p.m. Some of you may have received messages from others stating that the time of the rally is 1:30. That is not correct. The time is 1 p.m. Thank you, Robley Jones VEA GR

Item: California may not get to participate in President Obama’s Race to the Top education grant system because the state bars school districts from using student testing data in teacher evaluations:

At Harvard University, they have lowered thermostats during the winter months from 72 degrees to 68 degrees. Hot breakfasts are no longer served on weekdays at undergraduate residential houses. Instead of bacon, poached eggs, and waffles, students have to get by on cold ham, cottage cheese, cereal, and fruit. These are just some steps Harvard is taking to battle serious financial problems. Part of the blame belongs to President Obama's top economic adviser Larry Summers. In a story for Vanity Fair, Nina Munk details the crisis. Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering...

Another Obama goodie. Beck had a guest on who explained that Obama is having legislation created that will outlaw any government-insured college loans from private banks and other organizations. Government insurance on the loan will be restricted to education loans from Obama's people. The student, upon graduation, can have the loan forgiven if he/she works for the government for at least ten years. IOW, Obama is using his power to control who goes to college, what they study, and then makes them work for the government after graduation. Speechless.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Kevin O’Shea, 50, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud, theft from a federally funded program, and filing a false tax return, stemming from his role in defrauding the Philadelphia Academy Charter School (“PACS”), announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. O’Shea admitted to stealing between $400,000 and $1 million from PACS by: (1) using approximately $710,000 in PACS’ funds to purchase a building in the name of his purported non-profit business; (2) demanding kickbacks from PACS vendors; (3) submitting for reimbursement at least $40,000 in fraudulent invoices for personal meals, entertainment, home improvements, and gas and telephone...

Foiled by a dispute over education funding, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders remain at odds over how to close California's $26.3 billion budget shortfall. After hours of talks with the Republicans and the governor, Democrats said late Wednesday that talks were stalled over how to repay California schools $11 billion once the economy bounces back. Lawmakers intended to return to closed-door talks Thursday, although they had not set a time. "When times get better, we want to guarantee that education and kids get paid back the money that they are owed," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg,...