Education

(Syndicated to Informed Comment) – Here in Appalachia’s Bible Belt, conservatives in the Legislature want to force all West Virginia public high schools to teach Bible classes, as occurs in several other Republican-controlled states. I wonder how such classes handle Bible topics like these: First, the Bible decrees that gay males must be killed. Leviticus […]

Education

With College Students Drowning in Debt, the Best Solution is Gov’t-Backed Free Tuition for All

John Buell

(Special to Informed Comment) – Some developments in this campaign have been predictable. Once Senators Sanders and Warren had expressed support for free post secondary education it was inevitable that other candidates would have to jump in. College costs have grown rapidly in recent years and the jobs that colleges promise—when available at all—have failed […]

Education

How the Education Department Is Ripping Off Defrauded Students

Jill Richardson

By Jill Richardson | – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is back in the news on a topic close to my heart: student loans. It’s close to my heart because I’m six years into a PhD program and six figures in debt right now. While my life has been immeasurably enriched by my education, I’m not […]

censorship

No Premature Burial for Academic Freedom: Speaking up in Ann Arbor

contributors

By Chandler Davis | – (Informed Comment) – Let me make a case for urgency of defense of academic freedom. I’m not addressing the whole University community. Surely there are some who don’t have any concern for academic freedom as the AAUP understands it. Some who think for example that it was honorable and right […]

Education

Trump v. Duke U.-UNC: Why the Study of Cultures is Essential to our National Security

The Conversation

By Nicholas Tampio | After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a commission formed to figure out why the attacks occurred. One of the culprits, according to the commission’s 9/11 report, was “lack of imagination.” With few exceptions, the report stated, government officials could not imagine that Osama bin Laden and his affiliates, hidden in […]

Education

De-Funding the Great American School System for the 1%

Belle Chesler

(Tomdispatch.com) – Three weeks ago, I sat in a cramped conference room in the large public high school where I teach in Beaverton, Oregon. I was listening to the principal deliver a scripted PowerPoint presentation on the $35 million budget deficit our district faces in the upcoming school year. Teachers and staff members slumped in […]

Featured

Trump’s Visa Ban, Rhetoric Scare off Foreign Students, Threatening 450K Jobs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “Open Doors” annual report of the Institute for International Education on the surface seems to contain good news. There are slightly more foreign students studying at American universities than last year, i.e. slightly over a million. This is good news because foreign students at US universities bring in $42 […]

Education

Who Made Our Students Into Debt Slaves?

contributors

By John Buell | (Informed Comment) | – – Periodically the so- called deficit hawks, a club whose membership includes prominent members of both parties, warn us of the dire consequences of burgeoning government debt. Many propose such harsh remedies as balanced budget amendments. Yet while these warnings and draconian responses are commonplace, one of […]

Education

Why do Red State Teachers need to Strike for a living Wage? It is about Class

contributors

By Steve Fraser | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Teachers in red-state America are hard at work teaching us all a lesson. The American mythos has always rested on a belief that this country was born out of a kind of immaculate conception, that the New World came into being and has forever after been […]