Getting a Subprime Education in America Registration Energy’s

 Getting a Subprime Education in America Registration Energy’s

Getting a Subprime Education in America

going to college increasingly means heading for the nearest pawn shop or loan shark to hock your valuables. Based on a recent spate of figures, it looks as if we'll soon need to find a replacement term for the “public” in public higher education. After all, the cost of a public college education is rising at a startling clip. Tuitions at four-year universities have gone up by 15% between 2008 and 2010 (and are still on the upswing). Since 2001, in fact, tuition and fees have climbed at a 5.6% rate annually. In some states, it’s far worse. At six Georgia public universities, for instance, costs jumped by more than 40%. In Arizona, California, and Washington, it was 16% to 21% last year alone.  Meanwhile, for the 2011-2012 school year, state funding of higher education nationwide plunged by 7.5%. At the moment, tuition increases at public colleges are almost double those at private ones

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 So this shouldn’t shock you either: according to the Department of Education, school loan defaults have risen for the fifth straight year. “Public school borrowers defaulted at a rate of 8.3%, up from 5.9% just four years ago.” In other words, “public” higher education is on a path toward the grimmest sort of privatization.  Increasingly, if you don't have the money, there's a sign on the door of the local college classroom saying “no access,” which is another way of saying no access to a decent future. In the economic meltdown of 2007-2008, millions of homeowners went “underwater” thanks to subprime mortgages. Now, as TomDispatch associate editor and Mother Jones  reporter Andy Kroll makes clear in his new piece “ Back to $chool ,” in the process of hollowing itself out and crippling its future, this country is hell-bent on producing subprime educations as well

It shouldn’t surprise you, then, to discover that “public” education is increasingly becoming a very private nightmare. A recent analysis by the Pew Research Center found that student debt is soaring, with a record 22.4 million American households -- nearly one in five -- carrying it. In 2010, the average debt burden of those households was $26,682 (“more than double the share two decades earlier”) and 10% of them owed more than $61,894. Though this debt burden falls on every sector of society, perhaps this won’t surprise you either that the poorest and youngest households are in the worst trouble. Student debt is eating up nearly a quarter of their household income. As the Pew study puts it , “[T]he relative burden of student loan debt is greatest for households in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum, even though members of such households are less likely than those in other groups to attend college in the first place.”

 

Registration Open For Department Of Energy’s National Science Bowl

Registration Open For Department Of Energy’s National Science Bowl

Teams of high school and middle school students across the country can now register to compete in the 24th annual Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl. Thousands of students compete in the contest annually; it has grown into one of the largest academic math and science competitions in the country.

The top two high school teams nationwide win educational adventure trips; the top middle and high school teams win money for their schools’ science departments.

During the regional and national competitions, students participate in a fast-paced verbal forum to solve technical problems and answer questions from all branches of science and math. Each team is composed of four or five students and a teacher who serves as a coach. Teams can find sample questions on the National Science Bowl website to prepare for the competitions.

The winning team from each qualifying regional competition will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to compete in the National Finals held in Washington, D.C., from April 24 to April 28, 2014. The national events include several days of science activities, sightseeing, and competitions. As part of the National Finals, middle school students design and race lithium ion-battery-powered model cars. High school students compete in team science challenges in addition to participating in the academic competition.

“Participating in the National Science Bowl both regionally and at the national championships encourages student involvement in math and science activities, which is of importance to the Department of Energy and the nation,” said Patricia M. Dehmer, acting director of the DOE Office of Science, which manages the National Science Bowl and sponsors the NSB finals competition. “These students represent our nation’s future science leaders. We wish them success in their efforts to reach the National Finals in Washington, D.C.”

Teams of students can sign up to participate in the competition by registering with the coordinator for their local competition. Visit the National Science Bowl website at http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/ to find each local coordinator. Separate competitions are held for high school and middle school. Regional competitions for each area typically last one or two days and take place throughout the country between January and March.
The prizes for the top two high school teams for the 2014 NSB will be announced at a later date. Last year, about 14,000 high school and middle school students from 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico competed.