education
One in a Hundred
Hot tip: invest in the barbwire industry.
More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.
The ballooning prison population is largely the result of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been hit particularly hard: One in nine black men age 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women age 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group.
Environmental Awareness: Wednesday FP
**First off, just want to say that I'm sorry I've been absent this week. Stupid harddrive crashed and they're taking forever to fix it.. should have my laptop back tomorrow though**
For me, its a tough draw between whether pressing for improved education or pressing for environmental protections and changes is more important. I'm not even entirely sure why I constantly try to force myself to choose which is more important to me- they both are important and deeply concern me. However, I like having that one things that I'm truly passionate about and all for. Environmental awareness/conservation and education go hand in hand. Better education leaves greater chance for one to be environmentally concious, but without a healthy environment for future generations, education won't mean as much.
'Student Loan Overhaul Advances'
To make an understatement, this is good to see.
Democrats in Congress are pushing to overhaul the nation's student loan system with legislation that would cut federal subsidies to lending companies by as much as $19 billion, channel most of those savings to student aid and ease repayment rules for borrowers.
The Senate education committee overwhelmingly approved its version of the legislation yesterday, one week after the House education panel took similar action. Senior Democrats predicted that the bills would come to a vote by the end of next month and would be reconciled without significant difficulty.
If the rich get dumber, will they get poorer too?
I was browsing Craigslist and came across a post with the headline: Go surf! Give us your paper! You'll have it in time!
If you click through, you get a trashy banner ad. One of the paragraphs reads:
All work is original and is produced from research that is completed by our writers. Every paper or poem is fresh and has not been posted anywhere on the internet. Beware of those ready made term paper sites. Their papers can be caught in the anti-plagiarism software that schools and universities are now using. Meeting deadlines and maintaining excellence are priorities for the team at WriteItRightNow. Let us help you get the grades that you want.
And it just goes on like that. Kinda gross, yeah?
Candidates Should Mobilize Students for Education Reform
Cross posted to Future Majority John Edwards and Barack Obama released their education plans this week. Both are proposing solid first steps to reduce the burden that rising tuition places on students and eliminate some of the most egregious abuses of the government/corporate lending system. The plans are both good (and I'll post a head to head review of both plans later this week) but I'd like to see the candidates take it a step further. As Jonathan Singer and Peter Levine have both noted, Obama and Edwards are taking a somewhat original approach to organizing their campaigns. In addition to asking for traditional campaign support - volunteer hours, donations, and local organizing - these campaigns are asking their supporters to take action on specific policy issues. John Edwards has been doing this for months - indeed, his entire campaign is designed around the idea that he and his supporters need to be the change they want to see. That's the whole idea behind OneCorps, Edwards' dual community service/campaign organization. So far, OneCorps has asked members to support the troops by stopping the war and reduce their carbon footprint, among other actions. Barack Obama's campaign seems to be following suit. He recently asked his supporters to contact their Senators and Congressmen to end the war. In short, these candidates are organizing their followers to impact policy before they are elected to higher office as a way of campaigning to attain that office. Nobody's hit a home run with this type of organizing yet, but so far I like it. Seeing a candidate engage in direct action before attaining higher office can help defuse the initial skepticism of politicians and politics that many voters - particularly younger voters - feel. These action campaigns show voters that the candidates are about more than words. This isn't "trust what I say, not what I do." Rather than force voters to take it on faith that a candidate will live up to his/her rhetoric once they are in office, these campaigns are showing now how they would act on some of the major issues of the day for young voters. That's why, following on the release of their education plans, I'd like to see these - and all - candidates organize students to take action on two major policy proposals new before Congress: the Student Loan Sunshine Act and the renewal of the Higher Education Act (pdf). Here's what I think that would look like:
