Archive for the ‘ Politics ’ Category

Obama’s Possible Choices For Secretary of Education

There’s a huge pile of work awaiting the next Secretary of Education. There’s the No Child Left Behind act to be dealt with, charter school issues, under-performing teacher improvement, accountability, a universal pre-K system, etc. It would be great if higher education were a priority on that to-do list, but historically, nearly all of the [ READ MORE ]

Education Advice for the Next President

The Peabody Award-winning production company Learning Matters has an awesome podcast project going on as we speak (or, as I write—you know what I mean). The series is called “Education Advice to the Next American President.” Students, parents, educators and policy makers were asked what they thought the next president should do to fix the [ READ MORE ]

Democracy Is Good

If you haven’t already, please embrace the fact that we live in a democratic country and go vote. Democracy and America are important enough to me that I even extend this suggestion/invitation/order to those of you who may not be voting for my guy. Vote because you can, vote because you should. If you don’t [ READ MORE ]

Real Education

I can’t stop re-reading this interview in the NY Times Magazine. Deborah Solomon interviews Charles Murray about his new book, “Real Education,” and it’s like some morbidly funny train wreck and I can’t not look. Some choice excerpts: Although attending college has long been a staple of the American dream, you argue in your new [ READ MORE ]

Sen. Obama’s Education Reform Speech

The Chicago Sun-Times has the transcripts from the speech Obama gave today on education reform. As a sentient being and as a parent, I have always categorized the No Child Left Behind Act as something that clearly belongs in the fubar pile. There’s a good reason (probably several, even) why Barrack Obama is a politician [ READ MORE ]

Honorary College Degree

I came across this stunning article about the daughter of West Virginia’s Governor, Joe Manchin III, being given an honorary ‘executive master of business administration degree.’ Heather Bresch was awarded the angry-crowd-inducing college degree from West Virginia University. What!? Why? I’m confused—I was under the impression that anyone having an honorary college degree bestowed upon [ READ MORE ]

Special Forces or Law School

There are several points in every person’s life in which a major, life-changing decision must be made. I myself have never had to decide whether to work toward my Special Forces qualification or to go to law school, but I’ve always wondered how that thought process would go…My major life decisions were more along the [ READ MORE ]

Unique Perspective on the GI Bill

Dr. Julie-Ann McFann over at Around the Academy wrote a beautiful post about the new GI Bill issue. She writes from the perspective of not only the daughter-in-law of a WWII veteran who benefited greatly from the GI Bill, but also as an educator who has taught students that enlisted in the military because it [ READ MORE ]

New GI Bill

Author’s note: In this post we get to watch Alexa (that is me) attempt to maintain some degree of composure, dignity and professional distance with regards to the subject matter: The newest version of the GI Bill. Not to ruin the ending, but I fail miserably. Attempt #1 I had a hard damn time writing [ READ MORE ]