Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Dems Try To Out Maneuver GOP By Pairing Health-Care And Student Loan Bills (Wall Street Journal)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that health-care legislation, which House Democrats hope to pass by the end of next week, would also include a proposal to overhaul the nation’s student-loan program.
Tying the student-loan and health-care legislation “has always been part of the plan,” Ms. Pelosi (D., Calif.) said.
House Democrats are readying a two-part strategy [...]
How to Cut College Costs Before Freshman Year (Mainstreet)
It’s bad enough that tuition for a four-year college can cost north of $100,000 – but that’s all the more reason parents should take a hard look at not just college costs, but also at the cost of preparing for college. With SAT tests, study guides, tutoring and advanced placement exams, not to mention fees [...]
Building a Better Teacher (New York Times)
ON A WINTER DAY five years ago, Doug Lemov realized he had a problem. After a successful career as a teacher, a principal and a charter-school founder, he was working as a consultant, hired by troubled schools eager — desperate, in some cases — for Lemov to tell them what to do to get better. [...]
Online Education Scholarships Help Parents Return to School (US News and World Report)
For many parents who split their time between 40-hour workweeks and taking care of their kids, the idea of continuing their education seems almost impossible. An online learning site called eLearners.com has helped parents overcome the three main barriers to returning to school: time, money, and lack of confidence, says Helen MacDermott, content director for [...]
Mike Rose/Opinion: Race to the Top of What? Education Is About More Than Jobs (Truthdig)
The race is on. Forty-one states have just finished the mad dash to submit proposals for the Obama education initiative, Race to the Top. Now that the first round of competition is over we should be asking the basic questions that got lost in the flurry: What is the true purpose of all this reform? [...]
Smaller Banks Now Offering More Private Student Loans (Bankrate.com)
Highlights
High-risk students may have better success at small banks, credit unions.
Community bank loans don’t offer the same benefits as student loans.
Shop around and ask big and small lenders for the full cost of a loan.
PARENTS & COLLEGE STUDENTS READ THIS: The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden (Wall Street Journal)
When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.
It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 [...]
Assessing a Child’s Speech Delay Is Difficult, Yet Vital (New York Times)
Every pediatrician knows the frustration of trying to quantify the speech and language skills of a screaming toddler. How many words can he say? Can she put two or more words together into a sentence? Can people besides you understand him when he talks? Questions like these, put to the parents, are the quick and [...]
TAXES 101: Simple And Overlooked Deductions For College Expenses (Kiplinger.com)
I’ve received dozens of follow-up questions since I wrote about the American Opportunity Credit in my column Get a Bigger Tax Break for College Expenses. Here are some more answers.
Does graduate school count toward the American Opportunity Credit?
No. The American Opportunity Credit applies only to the first four years of postsecondary education, so graduate school [...]
EDUCATION UPDATE: School Lunch Safety Rules Tighten (USA Today)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced sweeping steps Thursday to “assure the safety and quality of food” purchased for the National School Lunch Program.The measures include tightening requirements on companies that supply ground beef to schools, testing the beef more often and more thoroughly, and improving communications within the USDA to “identify potential food safety [...]
