Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
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 [...]
Obama Would Overhaul No Child Left Behind (Yahoo! News)
President Barack Obama is proposing to overhaul the No Child Left Behind education law, replacing the school accountability system that has slapped a failing label on more than a third of schools, including many that made big gains but just missed their annual targets.
No Child Left Behind prods schools to improve test scores each year, [...]
Obama To Seek Up To $4B In New Education Spending (Washington Post)
President Barack Obama said Wednesday his administration will work with Congress to expand school improvements across the country, saying the success of children cannot depend on where they live.
As he prepares to ask Congress for billions of dollars in new spending for education, Obama said the nation’s students need to be inspired to succeed in [...]
$250 Million Initiative For Science, Math Teachers Planned (Washington Post)
President Obama will announce a $250 million public-private effort Wednesday to improve science and mathematics instruction, aiming to help the nation compete in key fields with global economic rivals.
With funding from high-tech businesses, universities and foundations, the initiative seeks to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science schoolteachers over five years and provide on-the-job [...]
3 Ways To Beat Credit Card Debt (Bankrate Debt Advisor)
Dear Debt Adviser,
I have been with a large national bank for approximately 50 years, with a checking account, savings account and a credit card. I have always paid on time and pay way more than the minimum required each month on my credit card. The problem is that I just received a notice from the [...]
