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Six Rules for Paying for College
President Obama has declared that the U.S. should recapture its position as the number one nation producing college graduates by the year 2020. If we are to be globally competitive, he argues, we must have a highly skilled, 21st-century workforce — and that means more Americans with college degrees. Across the country, school systems are…
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Prepping Your Kids for College
I don’t quote Ronald Reagan often, but the annual sight of parents taking new freshmen to college always reminds me of one of his sayings. Negotiating arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union, Reagan said that his principle was, “Trust — but verify”: We wouldn’t sign a treaty with the Soviets if there weren’t a basic…
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Is D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's Loss a National Defeat for Education Reform?
Four years ago, Adrian Fenty faced a well-regarded chair of the D.C. City Council in the Democratic mayoral primary — the only primary that counts in this overwhelmingly Democratic city. He carried every electoral precinct in the city. This year he faced another well-regarded City Council chair in another mayoral primary. This time he lost.…
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Education Reform: What Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee Got Wrong
For three years, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee promoted the notion that education reform could happen only if she was totally in charge and everything was done her way. It was her way — or her way. She justified every policy, every action, by saying that it was all about the kids, not about…
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The Akron Mom and Me
Fifty years ago I was getting ready to start high school, headed ultimately for college. But school officials in Los Angeles, where my family lived, had other ideas. They put me on track to attend L.A.’s Manual Arts High School, which, as its name suggests, tracked most students into trades rather than to college. Fortunately,…
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The Big Payoff From Black Colleges
To a hammer, goes the saying, the world is a nail. Perhaps to an economics writer, even a distinguished one like David Leonhardt of the New York Times, the world is an economics equation. And perhaps that is what has led Leonhardt astray in a post to the Times’ Economix blog, “The Declining Payoff From…
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Your Take: HBCU Funds on Chopping Block
For weeks, HBCU presidents, students and supporters of historically black colleges and universities have been sounding the alarm, concerned that the deficit-reducing congressional “super committee” was targeting federal funding for HBCUs for drastic cuts. In the end, the super committee couldn’t agree on a list of cuts. Does that mean that HBCUs are home free?…
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Education Is the 21st-Century Liberator
(Special to The Root) — Continuing their historical practice of working together to address issues of concern to the African-American community, the NAACP, National Urban League, United Negro College Fund and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund are working cooperatively to improve educational opportunities for all students. This week we will run op-eds by the…
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Who Pays for the Student-Loan Crisis?
(Special to The Root) — The start of the 2012-2013 academic year brought a nasty surprise for thousands of parents of low-income college students. They had kept their sons and daughters in school thanks to a popular federal loan program called “Parent PLUS.” But when they applied for the loans, normally a routine transaction, they…
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Is My Child Cut Out for an HBCU?
(Special to The Root) —- “My daughter is a senior at a predominantly white private Catholic high school. I’m concerned that she won’t ‘fit in’ if she chooses to attend a HBCU. She has applied to a few. How do I prepare her for that transition?” —Javonna Askew You’re raising an important question. There will…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
