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.

False Promise

Richard Heinberg's Snake Oil takes on the boom in fracking for oil and gas and makes the case that it is not sustainable.  He includes a history of fracking technology and examines the production data. Heinberg explains the concept of a resource pyramid and the significance of "energy returned on energy invested" (EROEI).  He gives a long response to an article in The Atlantic on the prospects for methane hydrates as a new source of hydrocarbons to be developed.  It's a question of technology versus geology.

James Howard Kunstler relates a story about giving a talk on energy at Google headquarters.  In the end, there were no questions, only statements to the effect of (as Kunstler puts it), "Dude, we've got technology." Kunstler bemoans the fact that even well educated people confuse energy and technology.  There's a deep-seated belief that the right technological fix will save us.  It shows up with the increasing interest in geoengineering to solve global warming.

Ultimately, chasing after every last bit of hydrocarbon diminishes our ability to fund the necessary transition away from that dependence on fossil fuels.  EROEI is declining which means the energy sector draws away investment and human resources from other parts of the economy. Heinberg boils down the complexity of our energy-economy-climate situation to two equally true statements:

Hydrocarbons are so abundant that, if we burn a substantial portion of them, we risk a climate catastrophe beyond imagining.

There aren't enough economically accessible, high-quality hydrocarbons to maintain world economic growth for much longer.

Update (October 5):  A report by Environment America, Fracking by the Numbers, details the overall environmental impact of the drilling.

Update (April 11, 2014):  A study in Ohio links fracking to earthquakes.

Update (June 8, 2014):  Four ways in which fracking is bad news.

Update (August 2, 2014):  Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald discuss their book, The Real Cost of Fracking: How America's Gas Shale Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food.

Update (February 14, 2015):  A report from the National Academies of Science examines geoengineering technologies in two broad categories--carbon dioxide removal and albedo modification.  The latter is easier to do, but could also make things worse.

Ten Ways Young Adults Have It Worse

Alex Henderson offers ten reasons why the Millennial generation is worse off than older adults (I am a Baby Boomer).

1. A dying middle class

2. The financial crash of September 2008

3. Crushing student loan debt

4. The broken healthcare system

5. The post-9/11 surveillance state

6. Endless war

7. Painfully low interest rates

8. Bailouts and the federal deficit

9. The George W. Bush administration

10. Unlikely homeownership

Update (September 20):  Edward McClelland reviews the demise of the middle class in the United States.

Update (December 2):  Tim Donovan bemoans the indifference toward climate change and notes that the younger generation who will bear the brunt of the coming disaster has little political influence or economic means to do anything about it.

Update (January 20, 2014):  Without comment.  "Employees Face Growing Pressure to Relax".

Update (March 31, 2014):  Households headed by someone 40 years old or younger remain 30 percent below the real level of wealth in 2007 while households of older people have recovered.

Update (April 13, 2014):  A New York Times editorial asks "Recovery for Whom?"  It points out that the age cohort of 25 to 34 is worse off than previous generations and will feel the impact of the Great Recession throughout their lives.

Update (March 1, 2019):  Young adults face a dismal economic future.

According to the New York Federal Reserve Consumer Credit Panel, debt for Americans between the ages of 19 and 29 exceeded $1 trillion at the end of 2018, the highest that number has been since late 2007.