There will be no posting for a little bit. See you again soon.

For modest earners, relief repaying student loans

Repaying a student loan could soon be a little less painful.

Starting this week, anyone with a federal student loan can apply for a program, run by the Department of Education, that caps monthly payments based on income, and forgives remaining balances after 25 years. Those choosing to work in public service could have their loans forgiven after just 10 years.

Eligibility for income-based repayment (IBR) is determined by a person's income and loan size. A calculator at http://www.ibrinfo.org can help borrowers determine their eligibility for the plan, which becomes available Wednesday.

"It's a way to borrow for college without going to the poor house," said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, a California-based nonprofit that runs the Project on Student Debt.

The program stems from the Education Department's College Cost Reduction and Access Act, signed in 2007, which authorized the creation of a new income-based repayment plan for both Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and Direct Loan borrowers on all Stafford and graduate PLUS loans.

Monthly payments would amount to less than 10 percent of income for most of the estimated 1 million people expected to enroll, experts say. Payments would never exceed 15 percent of any income above about $16,000 a year (or 150 percent of the poverty level).

Those who earn less than $16,000 would not have to make any monthly payments.

The new payment option is intended to provide relief for those who earn modest salaries and struggle under the weight of student loans for years on end. By stretching repayment over a longer period, monthly payments are kept at a reasonable portion of income, though most people would not see any savings on the total cost of the loan.

IBR "can lower costs and provides light at the end of the tunnel" for such borrowers, said Asher of the Institute for College Access & Success. That gives borrowers greater financial flexibility to save for retirement, buy a home or even pay for their own children's education, she said.

The program isn't for everyone, however.

In some cases, accruing interest could push the cost of the loan higher. And since loans are likely to be paid off within 25 years, the loan forgiveness aspect of the program won't apply to most people. To save on interest costs, those who could afford to would be better served paying off loans faster, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, which tracks the college financial aid industry.

If a salary jump eventually disqualifies a borrower for the capped monthly payments, they would still be responsible for the cost of the loan and the interest that accrued up to that point. Monthly payments still couldn't exceed what they would be under a standard 10-year repayment plan. Of course, borrowers could opt to pay off debts faster if they chose.

There are already some options for those who can't afford big monthly payments, such as long-term payment plans spanning up to 30 years. But eligibility requirements are stricter, and monthly payments can still be high.

The government also offers a program similar to IBR called the income-contingent repayment plan. That plan is not as lenient as the new one, however, with payments capped at 20 percent of income beyond 100 percent of the poverty level. And it's also only available for direct federal loans.

The new program will be available for direct federal loans, as well as federal loans administered through private lenders. Most of those enrolled in the income-contingent plan are expected to switch over to the new program.

Parent PLUS loans, the federal loans parents can take out to pay for their children's education, are not eligible for either payment plan.

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Court says public must pay for private special ed

The Supreme Court has ruled that parents of special education students who opt for private school instead of trying the public system cannot be barred from seeking public reimbursement for their tuition costs.

The court ruled 6-3 Monday in favor of a teenage boy from Oregon whose parents sought to force their local public school district to pay the $5,200 a month it cost to send their son to a private school.

Federal law calls for school districts to reimburse students or their families for education costs when public schools do not have services that address or fulfill the students' needs. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the nation's special education students are entitled to a "free and appropriate public education."

Schools have argued that the law says parents of special education students must give public special education programs a chance before seeking reimbursement for private school tuition.
But advocacy groups and parents of some special education students contend that forcing them to try public schools first could force children, especially poor ones, to spend time in an undesirable situation before getting the help they need.

Justice John Paul Stevens said in his majority opinion that the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires a school district to pay for private special ed services if the public school doesn't have appropriate services.

"We conclude that IDEA authorizes reimbursement for the cost of special education services when a school district fails to provide a FAPE and the private-school placement is appropriate, regardless of whether the child previously received special education or related services through the public school," Stevens said.

In the case before the Supreme Court, the family of a teenage Oregon boy diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — who was identified only as T.A. — sued the school district, saying the school did not properly address the student's learning problems. The family is seeking reimbursement for the student's tuition, which cost $5,200 a month. The family paid a total of $65,000 in private tuition.

In its appeal, the Forest Grove School District said students should be forced to at least give public special education programs a try before seeking reimbursement for private tuition. If not, parents would bypass public schools and go directly to private school — and then ask for reimbursement from school systems already burdened by ever-increasing costs.

The court's decision does not require reimbursement, but Stevens said school officials "must consider all relevant factors, including the notice provided by parents and the school district's opportunities for evaluating the child, in determining whether reimbursement for some or all of the cost of the child's private school education is warranted."

Justice David Souter, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

"Given the burden of private school placement, it makes good sense to require parents to try to devise a satisfactory alternative within the public schools," Souter said in the dissent.

This is the court's second attempt at resolving this issue. The high court split 4-4 on a similar case from New York City two years ago. Justice Anthony Kennedy recused himself in the New York case but was among those who ruled on the Oregon case.

Nationwide, the number of special education students placed in private schools at public expense has not changed significantly over the last two decades, Justice Department lawyers said, citing statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. Just under 67,000 pupils were in private placements in 2007 — just 1.1 percent of the country's nearly 6 million special education students.

The case is Forest Grove School District v. T.A., 08-305.

Sebelius says kids may get swine flu shots first

Schools are being put on notice

Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.

"If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place," Sebelius told The Associated Press.

No decision has been made yet on whether and how to vaccinate millions of Americans against the new flu strain that the World Health Organization last week formally dubbed a pandemic, meaning it now is circulating the globe unchecked. But the U.S. is pouring money into development of a vaccine in anticipation of giving at least some people the shots.

While swine flu doesn't yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, scientists fear it may morph into a more dangerous type. Even in its current form, the WHO says about half of the more than 160 people worldwide killed by swine flu so far were previously young and healthy.

If that trend continues, "the target may be school-age children as a first priority" for vaccination, Sebelius said Tuesday. "That's being watched carefully."

Schools do occasionally team up with local health officials for special flu vaccination clinics but it's not common. More than 140 schools around the country scheduled flu vaccination days last fall, some providing free vaccine. Some vaccinated only students bearing parent consent forms; others opened their doors to entire families.

In a wide-ranging interview, Sebelius said it could take several years to meet President Barack Obama's top healthcare priority — covering the uninsured — even if Congress manages to pass legislation this fall.

"Will something probably be phased in? You bet," Sebelius told The AP. It could take until 2011 or 2012 to set up new programs, time that would help spread out a cost that by some estimates would be $1 trillion over 10 years.

Among the aims of the administration's planned overhaul is to help eliminate health disparities between minority groups and whites, "which frankly is unconscionable," Sebelius said.

Hispanics and blacks are more likely to lack health insurance, and also have higher rates of a host of illnesses. But Sebelius said some of the most severe disparities are found with American Indians, and pledged a multiyear effort to reverse "a historic failure of the government." The U.S. is obligated to provide free health care on reservations, but the troubled Indian Health Service has only about half the money it needs.

More immediately, Sebelius faces the looming question of whether to push forward with swine flu vaccinations this fall, on top of the regular winter flu vaccine that will be distributed as usual. A key challenge would be making people understand who needs which, or both, vaccines, decisions that will be made in part based on how swine flu behaves in the Southern Hemisphere this summer, where flu season is just beginning.

Sebelius soon will call together the nation's governors to be sure "these months between now and the fall aren't used as vacation months" but in getting ready.

"We can always sort of back off" if the new flu fades away, she said, "but we can't wait til October hits and say, 'Oh my heavens, what are we going to do?'"

Companies are on track to provide pilot doses for testing later this summer, Sebelius said. Those government-led studies will check if the vaccine seems to work, if one dose or two will be needed, and most important if it's safe. The last mass vaccination against a different swine flu, in the U.S. in 1976, was marred by reports of a paralyzing side effect — for a feared outbreak that never happened.

So the Food and Drug Administration will closely track vaccine safety, Sebelius said.

The secretary said: "The worst of all worlds is to have the vaccine cause more damage than the flu potential."

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*Note 'national' and 'international' - emphasis within article is mine.

Education Chief Hopes Stimulus Will Push Standards

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering federal cash incentives to achieve one of his priorities: developing national standards for reading and math.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering federal cash incentives to achieve one of his priorities: developing national standards for reading and math to replace a current hodgepodge of benchmarks in the states.

Duncan said Sunday that the efforts of 46 states to develop common, internationally measured standards for student achievement would be bolstered by up to $350 million in federal funds to help them develop tests to assess those standards.

Duncan made the announcement Sunday in suburban Cary at a conference for education experts and 20 governors hosted by the National Governors Association and the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy.

Education decisions generally are controlled by the states, and the federal government cannot mandate national standards. That makes for wide variation from state to state. Students and schools deemed failing in one state might get passing grades in another.

It will be up to states to adopt the new standards. But Duncan has been using his bully pulpit to push the effort -- and now he's using Washington's checkbook, too. He said spending up to $350 million to support state efforts to craft assessments would be Washington's largest-ever investment in encouraging a set of common standards.

The money will come from the federal Education Department's $5 billion fund to reward states that adopt innovations the Obama administration supports.

"Historically, this was a third rail. You couldn't even talk about (standards)," Duncan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "What you've seen over the past couple years is a growing recognition from political leaders, educators, unions, nonprofits -- literally every sector -- coming to realize that 50 states doing their own thing doesn't make sense."

Every state except Alaska, South Carolina, Missouri and Texas has signed on to an effort to develop standards by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. But getting the states to adopt whatever emerges will be politically difficult.

"Resources are important, but resources are actually a small piece of this puzzle," Duncan told the AP. "What's really needed here is political courage. We need governors to continue to invest their energy and political capital."

Any tests developed for the new standards would likely replace existing ones. Asked to explain the money's focus on developing more tests, Duncan said developing the standards themselves would be relatively inexpensive.

Developing assessments, by contrast, is a "very heavy lift financially," Duncan said, expressing concern that the project could stall without federal backing.

"Having real high standards is important, but behind that, I think in this country we have too many bad tests," Duncan said. "If we're going to have world-class international standards, we need to have world-class evaluations behind them."

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Photo via Reuters

New, superheavy element to enter periodic table

A new, superheavy chemical element numbered 112 will soon be officially included in the periodic table, German researchers said.

A team in the southwest German city of Darmstadt first produced 112 in 1996 by firing charged zinc atoms through a 120-meter-long particle accelerator to hit a lead target.

"The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table," the scientists at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The zinc and lead nuclei were fused to form the nucleus of the new element, also known as Ununbium, Latin for 112.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), confirmed the discovery of 112 by the team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Helmholtz Center. IUPAC has asked for an official name for the element to be submitted.

John Jost, executive director of IUPAC in North Carolina, told Reuters that creating new elements helped researchers to understand how nuclear power plants and atomic bombs function.

The atomic number 112 refers to the sum of the atomic numbers of zinc, which has 30, and lead, which has 82. Atomic numbers denote how many protons are found in the atom's nucleus.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Center have discovered six chemical elements, numbered 107-112, since 1981. The remaining five elements have already been recognized and named.

In 1925, scientists discovered the last naturally occurring element on the periodic table. Since then researchers have sought to create new, heavier elements.

Proving the existence of atoms with such a high mass, the so-called superheavy elements, is a complex procedure because they exist for only tiny fractions of a second and then decay radioactively into other elements.

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--------------------------

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HOME-SCHOOLING: No debating the success of college

Homeschooling and the public library, part 1

Homeschooling and the public library, part 2

Homeschooling styles and methods: traditional textbook

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_____________________

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Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S. students ranked 25th of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science. McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science, US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By age 15 these rankings drop to the bottom half. In other words, American students are farthest behind just as they are about to enter higher education or the workforce." That's a sobering thought. The longer kids are in school and the more money we spend on them, the further behind they get.

While the academic performance of white students is grossly inferior, that of black and Latino students is a national disgrace. The McKinsey report says, "On average, black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind white students of the same age. This racial gap exists regardless of how it is measured, including both achievement (e.g., test score) and attainment (e.g., graduation rate) measures. Taking the average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for math and reading across the fourth and eighth grades, for example, 48 percent of blacks and 43 percent of Latinos are 'below basic,' while only 17 percent of whites are, and this gap exists in every state. A more pronounced racial achievement gap exists in most large urban school districts." Below basic is the category the NAEP uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.

The teaching establishment and politicians have hoodwinked taxpayers into believing that more money is needed to improve education. The Washington, D.C., school budget is about the nation's costliest, spending about $15,000 per pupil. Its student/teacher ratio, at 15.2 to 1, is lower than the nation's average. Yet student achievement is just about the lowest in the nation. What's so callous about the Washington situation is about 1,700 children in kindergarten through 12th grade receive the $7,500 annual scholarships in order to escape rotten D.C. public schools, and four times as many apply for the scholarships, yet Congress, beholden to the education establishment, will end funding the school voucher program.

Any long-term solution to our education problems requires the decentralization that can come from competition. Centralization has been massive. In 1930, there were 119,000 school districts across the U.S; today, there are less than 15,000. Control has moved from local communities to the school district, to the state, and to the federal government. Public education has become a highly centralized government-backed monopoly and we shouldn't be surprised by the results. It's a no-brainer that the areas of our lives with the greatest innovation, tailoring of services to individual wants and falling prices are the areas where there is ruthless competition such as computers, food, telephone and clothing industries, and delivery companies such as UPS, Federal Express and electronic bill payments that have begun to undermine the postal monopoly in first-class mail.

At a Washington press conference launching the McKinsey report, Al Sharpton called school reform the civil rights challenge of our time. He said that the enemy of opportunity for blacks in the U.S. was once Jim Crow; today, in a slap at the educational establishment, he said it was "Professor James Crow." Sharpton is only partly correct. School reform is not solely a racial issue; it's a vital issue for the entire nation.

Interactive: Campus stress - So much for carefree college days. Most students are stressed.

More college grads join Teach for America

When school starts next fall, Teach for America will send an unprecedented number of college graduates to teach in poor communities across the country — but not as many as the group would like.

Teach for America this year chose 4,100 recruits from more than 35,000 applications. While the group has never accepted every applicant, this was the first time it had to turn down people who met all its rigorous criteria.

"For the last nine years, really the only constraint on our growth has been recruits, just finding enough people who we really believe are ready for this," said Wendy Kopp, the group's founder and chief executive.

"This is the first year when we've had to turn away people who would have met our admission bar in any previous year," Kopp said.

The constraint is the economy. Tighter budgets have forced some school districts to cut back on hiring, though overall 500 more spots for Teach for America are available this year. Also, those who give to nonprofits like Teach for America are either holding the line or cutting back on their charitable giving, which pays for training and professional development for the recruits.

Despite the belt-tightening, some communities expect an influx of new teachers from the program, especially in rural areas. South Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta will have more than double the number of recruits this year.

In Mississippi, state schools chief Hank Bounds asked Teach for America for at least 200 new teachers. Bounds believes the program's high-achieving graduates will play an important role in turning around his state's struggling schools.

Children suffer from poverty in Mississippi at a greater rate than the national average. And fourth-graders there trail the nation and region in reading and math, though they have made gains since 2003, according to the Southern Regional Education Board.

The South holds particular interest for some recruits. Yale graduate David DeAngelis asked specifically for assignment to the Delta, and he spent the past year teaching music in tiny Marianna, Ark., near the west bank of the Mississippi.

"You become part of the community almost immediately, part of the lives of students, of students' families," DeAngelis said. "It's a very rich and powerful experience, from the very beginning."

Urban schools are also asking for more. In Baltimore, school officials asked Teach for America to send 150 new teachers, twice the number of last year's recruits. However, Teach for America still needs to raise $500,000 to pay for the increase.

In all, more than 7,300 first- and second-year Teach for America recruits will teach in more than 100 school districts in 27 states and Washington, D.C., in the coming school year.

Interest in becoming a teacher has soared amid the recession, especially in programs that get people quickly into the classroom.

Teach for America, for example, provides five weeks of intensive summer training before the school year begins and requires a two-year commitment from its recruits.

Other programs help people switch from other careers into teaching. One of the largest is the New Teacher Project, which has seen a surge in applications like that of Teach for America.

Teach for America has endured its share of criticism. Recruits are less likely to stay in the classroom than those who come from traditional colleges of education, although supporters point out that the low-income schools where they work have much higher turnover anyway.

Still, after their two-year commitment, two-thirds of Teach for America alumni are still working in education, according to the organization. About one-third are working as classroom teachers, and others are in administrative jobs such as principal or school superintendent.

Opponents have also questioned the effectiveness of TFA teachers, although a growing body of research suggests they are as effective or more effective than teachers who followed more traditional routes to the classroom.

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___________________________
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Outsourced Classes

Kansas school stirs debate over outsourced classes

Just how much can a college outsource and still be a college?

The question is no longer just academic at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. Under a novel arrangement, the school will accept credits from a private company that runs introductory courses in subjects like economics and English composition — listing them on transcripts under the Fort Hays State name.

To some on campus, that sounds like a restaurant ordering takeout from a rival and serving it up as home cooking.

"It could really damage our academic reputation," said Topher Rome, a graduate student who helped start a Facebook group with 147 members opposing the arrangement.

But the public university notes the arrangement isn't for current students there — it's mostly a recruiting tool. Fort Hays State hopes to drum up business amid declining state funding and a dwindling local population, encouraging those who sign up for the online courses to continue their education through the university.

It's the latest chapter in an evolving debate about the place of innovation in higher education. Is outsourcing teaching — especially for huge and often poorly run introductory courses — a way for colleges to catch up with other industries and rein in out-of-control costs? Or does it mean gutting what makes universities special?

Versions of that debate are popping up on more and more campuses. University of Toledo faculty have protested negotiations between the university and a company called Higher Ed Holdings, which had proposed helping deliver master's degree programs in exchange for a share of tuition revenue. The company works with a handful of other universities, including Arkansas State, where some faculty have protested, according to the web publication Inside Higher Ed.

But Higher Ed Holdings claims it merely helps deliver the courses and university faculty are still in charge.

The company working with Fort Hays State, StraighterLine, runs its own courses, which are designed by experts but aren't led by a professor. Nonetheless, the credits earned would be indistinguishable from those taught by professors at Fort Hays State.

Given how many students fall through the cracks of giant general education courses, StraighterLine founder Burck Smith says for-profit alternatives deserve a chance to prove themselves.

In his courses, students work at their own pace, following online lessons developed in conjunction with education publisher McGraw-Hill, reading assignments and taking exams.

Students can access up to 10 hours of individual, online tutoring — in some cases 24 hours a day. The model, Smith says, reduces the inefficiency of a class where everyone moves at a different pace.

The company — an offshoot of an online tutoring company called SmartThinking that Smith also founded — lets students purchase a single course for $399 (they have six months to complete it). Alternatively, they can pay $99 per month and take as many courses as they can finish in the required sequence.

Four other nontraditional or for-profit institutions have similar partnerships with StraighterLine, but Fort Hays State is the only traditional university. Students can try to persuade other institutions to take the credits, but there's no guarantee.

Barbara Solvig, a 50-year-old Chicago mother of three who resolved to get a college degree after she was recently laid off, wanted an online degree because she didn't think she could be in a classroom with kids. But she was floored by the cost of other options.

"Honestly, I could have gone to Northwestern for what they were charging," she said.

Solvig finished StraighterLine courses in composition, accounting, algebra and macroeconomics, and said the work was tough. With other credits collected elsewhere, she's about 20 credits short of a degree at Charter Oak State College, a nonprofit college specializing in alternative and online learning that also accepts StraighterLine courses.

Fort Hays' financial goal is recruiting more students. State funding covers about half the portion of the budget it once did, Provost Larry Gould said, and the area's population has been declining for more than a century. It's responded with a huge online program that enrolls more students off-campus (6,800) than there are on-campus (4,500).

"Our first job is to provide education services to the citizens of western Kansas," Gould said, but the university can't do that without generating new revenues.

So far, Fort Hays has credentialed coursework for about 64 StraighterLine students since the agreement with the school in May 2008, but so far none have formally transferred into the university.

Gould acknowledged some faculty are worried but says they shouldn't be. Once students transfer into FHSU, all courses would be taught by university faculty; if more transfer in, there's more work. He also notes the university knows more about StraighterLine's courses than other forms of outsourced credit such as community colleges, for-profit universities and Advanced Placement exams.

"Yes, there is concern," said Ron Sandstrom, chair of the department of math and computer science. "We're interested about the jobs, but we're really interested in the quality."

Academic departments have been able to review the courses before approval. Sandstrom says if he concludes the courses are strong, he won't object.

Universities like Fort Hays State have broad leeway to accept whatever credits it chooses. But Rome, the graduate student, compares StraighterLine's arrangement with FHSU to "money-laundering but with credit" — essentially borrowing the university's own accreditation to give its courses legitimacy.

The federally designated accrediting agencies give their seals of approval to institutions, not courses, so StraighterLine, which has just 10 courses, isn't eligible, though it says one accrediting agency has said its courses meet standards.

For some education reformers, the experiment at FHSU is an example of how universities can move beyond one-size-fits-all economic models and streamline their introductory courses.

"There is simply not enough money to sustain higher education in its current format," said Carol Twigg, president and CEO of the National Center for Academic Transformation, which works with universities to redesign their own introductory courses. "There will always be a Harvard and people willing to pay ... whatever it's going to cost for four years, but for all other students we really need alternative models."

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