The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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Calling Their Bluff

June 13, 2008

Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute

As I sit at the Student Financial Aid Research Network Conference in Baltimore this morning, I thought it prudent to talk about financial aid today. Anyone with a pulse has certainly noted the travails of the student loan industry in the United States over the past year. When the Republicans were in power, the Dems squawked about the high subsidies that went to the loan lenders and pledged to do something about it when they wrestled power from the GOP in the 2006 mid-term election. The short of this is that the Dems did take control and they did act on their pledge.

Since then, the loan industry has been in a free fall. Sallie Mae threatened to leave the loan program, Boston-based TERI filed for bankruptcy, and state-guarantors are shaking. PHEAA, the Pennsylvania-based guarantor, has suspended their federal loan program until the market improves. READ MORE

"This is a man's world, but it wouldn't be NOTHING without a woman"
-James Bown

Women continued to earn more degrees than men in academic year 2002–03, about 58 percent of all degrees. Women earned 60 percent of all associate’s degrees, 58 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, and 59 percent of all master’s degrees.

Source: Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2004 & Other Awards Conferred: 2002-2003





	Charter schools’ big experiment Jay Mathews, Washington Post New Orleans, in a post-Katrina flash, has become the first major city in which more than half of all public school students attend charter schools. Some cities are moving in this direction, but none has ever moved so far, so fast. Three in every 10 D.C. public school students are in charters, a much larger percentage than in most cities. The New Orleans charter school penetration rate is much greater: 53 percent of the post-Katrina enrollment of 33,200 students, according to school officials. Democrats offer plans to revamp schools law Sam Dillon, New York Times Democrats are dividing into camps as they debate a new course for education policy after President Bush leaves office. On Wednesday, a group of a dozen prominent educators and lawmakers, led by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein of New York and the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the United States’ public schools shortchanged poor black and Latino children in a way that was “shameful,” and urged Washington to squeeze teachers and administrators harder to raise achievement among minorities.	Chicago, Illinois teaming up on early-education push for state wards Chicago Tribune Chicago officials plan to offer children under the state's care preferential placement in early childhood education programs as part of a new partnership announced Wednesday between the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the city's Department of Children and Youth Services. Bush loyalists fight foes of ‘No Child’ Law Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times No Child Left Behind — the signature domestic achievement, beyond tax cuts, of the entire Bush presidency — has changed the lives of millions of American students, parents, teachers and school administrators. Yet its future is in grave doubt. Adopted by Congress on a wave of bipartisan unity that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the law imposed unprecedented testing requirements and tough expectations on the nation’s nearly 99,000 public schools. But despite rising test scores, there is no hard-and-fast evidence, most experts say, that it is actually improving student achievement.


	Credit crisis weakens relief for states’ student-loan programs Mary Beth Marklein, USA Today The financial credit crisis is squeezing student loan programs that offer breaks to borrowers who enter critical fields such as nursing and teaching. In at least six states this year, state-affiliated lenders have dropped or scaled back programs. Bill seeks report cards on higher education Tanya Schevitz, San Francisco Chronicle A key state legislator is pushing for an accountability system that would help parents and taxpayers tell whether the state's colleges and universities are delivering on their promise of a quality education.	Underserved students make progress at for-profit institutions Michelle J. Nealy, Diverse Issues in Higher Education In their first annual academic report, the University of Phoenix (UPX) asserts that its students, as a group, make significant progress in basic content areas between freshman and senior year. Since 1976, for-profit enrollment has grown at an annual rate of about 11 percent, increasing by nearly 23, according the Department of Education. The for-profit market share of higher education has gone from 0.4 percent to nearly 6 percent in that time frame. As numbers decline in US, women’s colleges boom globally Justin Pope, Hartford Courant As their numbers decline in the United States, women's colleges are booming in much of the developing world -- places such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They've become a trendy tool for jump-starting economic growth and political development, and for helping break down barriers in the same way their U.S. counterparts have been doing since the 19th century.


	Ihor Lykarchuk: “The results of external independent testing didn’t confirm claims of poor training in our secondary schools” Alina Bazhal, Mirror Weekly (Ukraine) External independent testing (EIT) of this year’s secondary school graduates is finished. June 5th was the last day of additional testing. However, receiving a certificate is half the work in this case. All the troubles are yet to come as it is not clear how the entrance examination committees of higher educational institutions will perceive these certificates. Yemen plans comprehensive reform of education system with $274.5 mln Saba News, Yemen Times (Yemen) Yemen is carrying out a comprehensive reform of the education system within the framework of an investment program supported by the donor countries with $274.5 million, a government report has said.	Lack of funds jeopardizes higher education sector Syed Jafar Askari, The Nation (Pakistan) The higher education sector in the country has been threatened by new policies of the present government as nearly 59 public sector universities are suffering from monetary crisis after refusal of the federal finance ministry to release the Higher Education Commission's fourth quarterly instalment of development and recurring grant worth over Rs 8 billion for 2007-08. Expansion of technical education—need of the hour Daily News (Sri Lanka) It is under this agreement that Sri Lanka is receiving financial assistance to develop Sri Lanka's system of technical education which, with an innovative package of policies initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education, is to be modernized and developed with a view to contributing to the process of economic development of Sri Lanka. The speech delivered by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala on the occasion of signing a contract between the Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education with Austria and Netherlands for the enhancement of technical education in Sri Lanka on June 9.


	‘We are sorry’ Bill Curry and Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail Prime Minister Stephen Harper had yet to utter a single word of Canada's apology to former Indian residential schools students when the cheering began. Native drumming and shouts turned into loud, simultaneous clapping. Raw emotion bursting for an apology decades overdue. There were many smiles. But aboriginal eyes in the now quiet House of Commons room began to tear when the Prime Minister acknowledged the ongoing, generational impacts of residential schools. How Ottawa schools’ graduation rates stack up Pauline Tam, Ottawa Citizen As thousands of university and college students collect their degrees or diplomas this month, a Citizen survey of Ottawa schools has found that Carleton University and La Cité collégiale have dramatically improved their once abysmal graduation rates.	School boards turning to foreign students to fill classrooms as enrolments decline Jill Mahoney, Globe and Mail Canadian school boards are increasingly turning to foreign students to fill classrooms and boost budgets through hefty tuition fees. In recent years, as school boards began to experience declining enrolment, more have looked to foreign markets for youngsters to supplement their numbers while adding a welcome global perspective to classrooms. Widespread opposition to change Adam Bowie, Daily Gleaner Hundreds of parents across New Brunswick are hoping the results of surveys conducted by parent school support committees (PSSC) on changes to early French immersion programs will voice their true opinions.


	Uni fees system branded irrational Harriet Alexander, Sydney Morning Herald A review of higher education will examine how to make the inconsistent fee system fairer. A discussion paper released by the federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, at Macquarie University yesterday describes the funding system as “at best complex and at worst anomalous, inconsistent and irrational”. Teachers warned against campaign of rolling strikes Australian Broadcasting News The Education Minister, Mark McGowan, has threatened to go to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) if the teacher's union continues to hold rolling strikes.	New benchmarks for teacher courses Farrah Tomazin, The Age University teaching courses will be required to meet tough new national standards under a landmark agreement by state and federal governments to boost the quality of teachers in schools. Budget plea on education David Killick, The Mercury More money for literacy and numeracy, smaller class sizes and a boost for school maintenance top the education wish lists for tomorrow's State Budget.


	Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders facts, not fiction: Setting the record straight National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) and The College Board The National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE), consisting of a national commission, an advisory board, and a research team at New York University, aims to engage realistic and actionable discussions about the mobility and educational opportunities for AAPIs and how distinctions of race, ethnicity, language, and other cultural factors play out in the day-to-day operations of American schools throughout the educational spectrum. In particular, this project provides needed new data on key issues and trends for the access and participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in U.S. higher education. The report focuses on three pervasive and core fictions about the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, which are examined in the context of empirical data. In addition, three issues of emerging importance are presented to highlight new conversations that are surfacing among educators on college campuses.


The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher. To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.