Big Ed

Christian Exoo and Calvin Exoo propose that the crisis in higher education is not access, but rather retention. And, while schemes like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) seem to make college level classes available to thousands of students who couldn't otherwise attend well-known colleges, the completion rates of MOOCs are spectacularly bad.  In addition, the sorts of at-risk students MOOCs might wish to serve are exactly the sorts of students most ill prepared to benefit from online classes.  The kinds of support found in physical schools just isn't available in MOOCs. Privatization is not the answer to everything.

Update (November 15):  A study by Toby J. Park at Florida State University of 38,000 community college students shows that 94 percent leave school at least once and, of that group, 57 percent do re-enroll.  But leaving more than once makes it very unlikely to finish a bachelor's degree.  76 percent of degree holders only left school once.  Only 16 percent in this study finished a bachelor's degree within six years, although some were still enrolled and others only seek two year degrees.

Update (November 19):  The profit motive means sliding back toward "separate and unequal".

Update (December 3):  A survey of MOOC users show that most are already privileged and well educated.

Update (December 5):  There's money to be made in charter schools.

Update (January 11, 2014):  Susan Douglas argues that the Right has an interest in devaluing higher education.  Rising tuition in response to budget cuts can restrict access and causes some people to question whether a college education is worthwhile.

Update (June 25, 2014):  The Detroit Free Press has a special report on charter schools.

Update (July 14, 2014):  David Dayen reports on the formation of Democrats for Public Education to combat "market-driven" educational reform.

Update (July 16, 2014):  Tenure for teachers is under attack.  Gabriel Arana explains that tenure is about due process (just like physicians have a process before losing their license or lawyers have a process before being disbarred).  Teaching quality matters, but only accounts for about 10 to 20 percent of student achievement.

Update (July 25, 2014):  Andrew Leonard takes a critical look at technology and classrooms pointing out that "there's a crucial difference between 'access to information' and 'education'".

Update (September 21, 2014):  Around three-fourths of college instructors are part-time, but they are being taken advantage of with pay that scarcely amounts to minimum wage.

Update (October 13, 2014):  Cabell Gathman examines online diploma mills.  Also, Noam Chomsky's views on how corporate models are hurting education.

Update (May 2, 2015):  The fight for living wages includes adjunct college instructors.

Update (September 28, 2017):  Part-time instructors continue to struggle to make a living.

Update (March 26, 2018):  In a book excerpt, Allen Marshall argues that schools have lost their purpose and college isn't for everyone.

Whether at the secondary or postsecondary levels, the true purpose of the American education system seems to be to make sure children are unprepared for the adult world—and to charge them huge sums for the privilege.

Update (June 2, 2018):  Debra Leigh Scott offers the five steps used to destroy higher education. And I like this quote from H.G. Wells:

History is becoming more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

Arctic Warming

A study from the University of Colorado finds that the Canadian Arctic has reached the highest average summer temperatures in at least 44,000 years.

Update (October 28):  Global Post is starting a series on the impacts of climate change called Calamity Calling.

Party of Selfishness and Greed

Charles Simic tears into the "soulless bastards" of those like the Koch brothers and the Republican Party.

[T]he backers of the government shut-down . . . spent more than $200 million last year to spread disinformation and delude the gullible among the populace about the supposedly catastrophic harm giving health care to the uninsured would do to the economy.

Indifference to the plight and suffering of human beings of one class or another by some segment of the population is a universal phenomenon, but spending millions of dollars to deepen the misery of one's fellow citizens and enlisting members of one political party to help you do so is downright vile. 

Update (October 20):  While the Democrats held firm against being blackmailed over the debt limit and President Obama struck back against the Reagan theme that "government is the problem", nothing has been done about the sequester and the crisis is likely to resume in just a few months.  Martin Wolf says the Democrats have really conceded the argument:

It's strange to me that a government that has obviously achieved very important things . . . should be now regarded as nothing more than a complete nuisance. . . [S]o in a way . . . the extreme conservative position has won . . . it's only a question of how much you cut . . . rather than, well, what do we want government for? . . . How do we make it effective?  And how do we ensure that it is properly financed?

Update (October 28):  E.J. Dionne reiterates the thought that national politics has been focused on the wrong problem.

Decline and Fall

Chris Hedges bemoans a state of mind "where fantasy is more real than reality".  In the end, all empires are unsustainable.  But this time collapse threatens all of civilization.

It is more pleasant, I admit, to stand mesmerized in front of our electronic hallucinations.  It is easier to check out intellectually.  It is more gratifying to imbibe the hedonism and sickness of the worship of the self and money.  It is more comforting to chatter about celebrity gossip and ignore or dismiss what is reality.

Update (December 14):  In an overview of recent events, Patrick Smith notes that the role of the United States is changing.   Diplomacy is not just for small nations anymore.

Health Insurance Failure

Because health insurance is such a dire threat to the Republic, the Republican controlled House of Representatives was compelled to shut down the Federal government last Tuesday.  But the real disgrace stems from the Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion.  In 26 Republican controlled states the expansion was declined.  As a result, eight million people fall in the crack between lack of Medicaid and no ACA provision for subsidized insurance.  The New York Times editorializes about their own report:

It is outrageous that millions of the poorest people in the country will be denied health insurance because of decisions made mostly by Republican governors and legislators.

Update (October 13):  The Times with a follow up editorial about how the childless poor fall through the gaps in the safety net.

Update (November 1):  Paul Krugman marvels that those Republican controlled states are willing to pay a large price simply to maintain their "war on the poor".

Update (November 17):  The Washington Post editorializes against the "misguided opposition" of Republicans to Medicaid expansion.