Campus Food Insecurity Matters Food insecurity among American college students is a significant problem. While outdated stereotypes of higher education presume that undergraduates live on campus, receive stipends from their … Continue reading “Pro/Con: Is Food Insecurity on Campus a Problem?”
With the rising number of student loan defaults, the federal government has reaped what it has sown. A government policy to give virtually any student a loan has pushed tens … Continue reading “Student Loan Defaults Reveal the True Cost of Student Loans”
Student loan debt has become a major concern for young people. In response, some Democratic candidates for president are offering “free college” proposals. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was the first … Continue reading “Louisiana Discovers the Always-Growing Costs of Free College”
Two facts about colleges stand out. First, they are largely (some argue almost entirely) a “private” good; that is to say, the benefits from college attendance accrue mainly to the … Continue reading “‘Free College:’ A Better Approach”
Tennessee legislators received a shock in 2012 when a study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce predicted that by 2020, 55 percent of Tennessee jobs would require … Continue reading “Free College Is Just Another Middle-Class Entitlement”
During last week’s hearings on President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, Senator Bernie Sanders asked her, “Will you work with me and others to make public colleges … Continue reading “Hillary Clinton Lost, But Her “Free” College Idea Lives On”
Hillary Clinton’s higher education policy ideas have been taking a lot of criticism. Here, for example, is an analysis by economics professor Gary Wolfram, published in May by the Pope Center. … Continue reading “No, the Clinton Plan Won’t “Fix College””
Seemingly, nothing now stands between Hillary Clinton and the Democratic nomination, so it’s worth looking anew at her proposals regarding higher education. Back in May, Professor Gary Wolfram critiqued the … Continue reading “Hillary Clinton’s New College “Reforms””
Looking back at all that happened in higher education this year is enough to make your head spin. One minute, state politicians are finally making good policies; the next, university officials are caving to irrational demands. At the other end of the spectrum, politicians are promoting policies of monumental stupidity, while the courts are making surprisingly good decisions (but not always). A majority of students favor putting extreme limits for political correctness on free speech, while an opposition is coalescing around protecting the First Amendment and due legal processes. And on and on it goes. To try to capture the spirit of 2015, the Pope Center staff identified ten of the year’s major trends and events.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama pitched his plan for making two years of community college as “free and universal in America as high school is today.” He thinks it would be a great thing. But at the community college where I taught English from 2007 to 2010, Georgia Perimeter College, the joke was that it was already an extension of high school.