Key to Success: Skip College (What?!)
Jacques Steinberg, of The New York Times, explains that for some people, a college degree may not be the answer to economic success:
…The idea that four years of higher education will translate into a better job, higher earnings and a happier life — a refrain sure to be repeated this month at graduation ceremonies across the country — has been pounded into the heads of schoolchildren, parents and educators. But there’s an underside to that conventional wisdom. Perhaps no more than half of those who began a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest projections from the Department of Education. (The figures don’t include transfer students, who aren’t tracked.)
For college students who ranked among the bottom quarter of their high school classes, the numbers are even more stark: 80 percent will probably never get a bachelor’s degree or even a two-year associate’s degree.
That can be a lot of tuition to pay, without a degree to show for it.
A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so…Continue reading Plan B – Skip College >>
Most New Jobs are with the Fed
Gallup is showing that most new jobs being created right now are with the Federal government:
Gallup’s Job Creation Index for April reveals significantly more hiring within the federal government than in the private sector. Both show a substantially more positive picture than state and local governments, where firing far eclipses hiring.
Gallup’s Job Creation Index is based on the percentage of American workers who say their employers are hiring minus the percentage who say their employers are letting workers go. The overall Index value for American workers in April tilts positive, with 27% of workers saying their places of employment are hiring, and 22% saying their employers are letting people go — resulting in an overall +5 Job Creation Index…Continue reading Federal Government Outpaces Private Sector in Job Creation: Both see more hiring than firing; the opposite is true in state and local governments >>
Colorado Governor puts public colleges ahead of needs of his own mother!
Colleen Slevin, at The Denver Post, reports about a new budget law signed into law by Colorado’s Governor Bill Ritter, impacting education:
Gov. Bill Ritter signed a $18.2 billion budget into law Thursday, saying it contained some tough cuts but that the pain was fairly spread across the board.
“This budget is fair, it’s thoughtful, it’s responsible and it’s balanced,” Ritter said during a ceremony flanked by legislative leaders and members of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.
It will take effect in July when the state’s fiscal year begins.
Schools will get $365 million, or 6.4 percent, less than they normally would have because lawmakers changed the way they interpreted Amendment 23, the voter-approved law that requires that certain parts of education funding increase each year. The cut has some school districts planning for layoffs.
[...]
Ritter said his 85-year-old mother would lose her tax break but said having that money would prevent deeper cuts to public schools as well as higher education.
Military.com: Yorktown University caters to service members.
Melissa Renahan reports on Military.com this week, that Yorktown University is helping U.S. Military personnel advance their careers:
Though Yorktown University just received its national accreditation with the Distance and Education Training Council in 2008, it is already becoming well known among the ranks of military students. The online-based school is focused on the armed forces at a time when higher education is moving to the forefront of all military service members’ careers.
In the case of Yorktown student Capt. Austin Smith, who is a C-17 pilot stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord-McChord Field, pursuing a secondary degree was spurred on by the opportunity for career advancement.
“There is a big push for Air Force officers to get advanced degrees,” said Smith.
“Specifically for me, it’s about being prepared for the majors board. From the moment I arrived here three years ago, I was advised to start school. Right now most of the officers in my squadron are working towards degrees.”
Smith is impressed with the accessibility of his professors and feels they truly value students’ feedback, not to mention understand his challenges as an airman. In fact, in one class Smith’s teacher is the president of the university, and Smith has already spoken to him numerous times since beginning the semester…Continue reading Advanced education for military on the rise >>
Does Education Reduce the Risk of Unemployment?
The Calculated Risk blog has charted the unemployment rate by level of education, according to the Beureau of Labor Statistics, from 1992 to 2008. The results are interesting. (Click HERE, or on the chart to enlarge.)
For more information, see Unemployment Rate by Level of Education >>
5 Years in a Row: More Apps than Spaces at Charter Schools in Denver
Jeremy P. Meyer reports on DenverPost.com:
West Denver Prep — which some parents have come to view as a first step toward college and possibly a lifeline out of poverty — is rated the second-best school in Denver.
The school’s college-preparatory curriculum and swift interventions for struggling students have been touted for helping at- risk kids beat the academic odds. West Denver Prep now posts some of the best academic growth in the state.
The middle school also draws nearly double the number of applicants it can seat, meaning waiting lists are long and disappointments high during the annual school- choice enrollment period.
It’s a scenario played out across the state each winter, as parents battle to get their kids into popular, high-performing schools during the choice period.
The Colorado Department of Education estimates about 38,000 children are waiting to get into Colorado charter schools….Continue reading Demand in charter schools forces lotteries, long waiting lists >>
Will the Next ‘Google’ Come from an Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program?
Ashlee Vance and Claire Cain Miller, of The New York Times, report on a popular trend among venture capital firms hoping to become extremely wealthy:
…This coveted position, called an E.I.R. in Silicon Valley shorthand, is emblematic of the valley’s economy of ideas. Most E.I.R.’s receive a monthly stipend of up to $15,000 to sit and think for about six months. In return, the venture capital firm usually gets the first shot at financing the idea that emerges from this meditation.
“The E.I.R. takes out some of the risk because they are known quantities,” said Adam Grosser, a partner at Foundation Capital. “They have a track record of success and a proven ability to disrupt a market with their ideas.”
Venture capital firms have been struggling to find a company that will make them not just rich, but fabulously rich. They dream about investing in the next Intel, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo or Google. But after Google appeared in 1998, the hunt to find the next superprofitable household name stalled. The likes of Facebook and Twitter have garnered plenty of attention but have yet to strike on a business model capable of sending an I.P.O. into the stratosphere. Ten-year returns for the venture capital industry have sunk to 8.4 percent, annualized, in the decade ended last Sept. 30, from 40.2 percent in the 10 years ended Sept. 30, 2008, a number inflated by the spectacular success of Google and other dot-com companies at the beginning of that period.
The entrepreneur-in-residence model has gained prominence as a calculated way for a venture capital firm to nurture a successful company into being and to increase the odds of solid returns. The firms often tap someone who has successfully started and sold a start-up, hoping that lightning will strike twice…Continue reading 6 Months, $90,000 and (Maybe) a Great Idea >>
Why isn’t anything getting cheaper in this recession?
Why isn’t anything getting cheaper in this recession? Martin Crutsinger discusses this in Inflation outpaces wages, squeezing U.S. consumers:
The spending power of families is being squeezed, government data showed Friday, highlighting doubts about consumers’ ability to drive the economic rebound.
Workers saw their inflation-adjusted weekly wages fall 1.6 percent last year — the sharpest drop since 1990 — even as consumer prices rose only modestly. Slack pay and scarce job growth, along with tight credit and a rising savings rate, are holding back spending. That’s hindering the recovery.
For some families, the overall inflation rate last year — 2.7 percent — understates their burden. Many are struggling with surging costs for health care and college tuition, both of which have been galloping far above the overall inflation rate. Continue reading on The Denver Post >>
Students or Customers?
Room for Debate has a running commentary this month on whether or not business students should be treated as “customers”:
A recent article in The Chicago Tribune described a continuing debate in business schools over whether their enrollees should be regarded as “customers” rather than as traditional students. Should the students have more say over what they are taught and even how they are judged? What’s the risk of the student-consumer approach in M.B.A. programs? And does the issue reflect broader issues in higher education?
Half-Price Tuition! (in Dubai)
Tamar Lewin, of The New York Times, reports that university branches in Dubai are struggling:
The collapse of Dubai’s overheated economy has left the outposts of Michigan State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology in the United Arab Emirates struggling to attract enough qualified students to survive.
In the last five years, many American universities have rushed to open branches in the Persian Gulf, attracted by the combination of oil wealth and the area’s strong desire for help in creating a higher-education infrastructure. Education City in Qatar has brought in Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth.
Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that make up the U.A.E. and the one that controls most of its oil, is still flourishing. And it is still generous in its support for the most ambitious American educational effort in the area, New York University’s liberal-arts college, which is scheduled to open there next fall with a highly selective class of 100 young students from around the world.
In Dubai, however, the timing for Michigan State and the Rochester Institute of Technology could hardly have been worse…Continue reading on NYTimes.com >>
