They're trying to cement partnerships with Chinese universities to grant American degrees with little time, if any, spent in the United States. In addition to recruiting Chinese students to their faraway campuses, some are putting together highly profitable online courses that Chinese students can take in their own homes.

All with one key requirement for prospective students: "As long as they can pay," said Michael Alexander, president of Lasell College in Newton, who made his first exploratory trip to China last month. "Hopefully," he said, "they pay the full freight."

In the calculus of American educators, virtually everyone in China can benefit from their involvement. Parents in the burgeoning middle class can take pride in sending their children to New England for college.

While AMERICANS have to FORGO such things!!! And you wonder why I curse here, huh?

Students who didn't score high enough on a national college entrance exam to earn a spot in a Chinese university can take solace in an American education.

While American kids are dumbed-down and fed full of psychotropic drugs!!!

Chinese universities, under pressure to serve more students, can partner with American schools to offer new degrees and academic programs, even profiting themselves from the affiliations....

Yup, the ONLY ONES NOT PROFITING from all of this are the AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!!

--more--"

NEW YORK - Stocks are down, down, down. But student interest in economics appears to be trending upward.

The financial crisis has made the subject more relevant and immediate to many high school and college students, and they are suddenly paying closer attention in class.

"Now we can actually see the examples while they happen, instead of relying on history. It's been the most engaging class ever," said New York University junior George Schwartz, who dropped macroeconomics the first time he took it, but is so fascinated this time that he has decided to major in economics.  Instructors are delighted by the opportunity to use the dramatic events on Wall Street to explain concepts students might otherwise find dry, such as liquidity and Federal Reserve monetary policy.

"It is a great time to be in this business," said Jonathan Peters, a College of Staten Island professor. "It's a tremendous opportunity. It's a teachable moment. It's a chance to explain these topics in a very direct way."  Instead of simply discussing the theory surrounding a recession, Peters can show students a real one, step by step. While usually he has to fight to convince them that regulation is useful, that has become very easy nowadays, he said. 

Oh, that's JUST GREAT!!!

At the High School of Economics & Finance in New York's financial district, computer science teacher Aristedes Lourdas is also finding it easy to engage students.  Last year, his students were so unenthusiastic about analyzing the financial markets that Lourdas assigned his class to chart NBA players' salaries and statistics.

No wonder our kids are so frikkin' stoo-pid!!!!

But this year, "I haven't had to use the NBA at all," he said. Now they are each following the performance of three stocks of their own choosing. 

The LOOTING of the whole system has always turned me off to economics; that's why I became a historian instead.

Ultimately, Lourdas said, the students are more interested because they are realizing that the dealings a few blocks away on Wall Street do affect their lives. The downturn has some worried they may not be able to afford college. 

But you SURE are getting an EJERKASHEN there, kids!!

"The inner-city kids were kind of indifferent," Lourdas said. But now "all of a sudden, you see it's clicking. They're getting it. Last year, it was more like feeding them the information."

At Plano West Senior High School in a prosperous Dallas suburb, Advanced Placement economics teacher Sally Meek said her students keep veering off into politics and policy, debating the presidential candidates' plans during the election and grappling with questions of how big a role government should take in trying to turn around the economy.

The Arizona Council on Economic Education is helping teachers design classes based on the current financial crisis. Senior program adviser John Morton said that in one lesson he is designing, students will create a market bubble and watch it pop.

How about designing a syatem that DOESN'T BUBBLE UP since that is the REASON for this MESS?!!!!!

In other lessons, students will try to apply lessons from the Great Depression to the current crisis.  Eric Branting was months away from graduating from NYU when Wall Street's troubles hit. Immersed in his first economics course, he decided to switch gears and major in the subject, delaying his graduation by a year.

"I think it's a great time to be getting into economics," the 21-year-old said. His macroeconomics professor, Branting said, is "throwing out three or four chapters of the textbook and desperately rewriting them and rethinking how he's teaching the class.  People like me who are getting this education right now are learning a whole different way of looking at things. It's exciting."

Yup, a DEPRESSION is "exciting" to the stoo-pid snot-nose here!!  Maybe I should just stop posting education stories; obviously, the kids don't give a shit or appreciate us older folk working on their behalf.  When you get caught up in the DRAFT, kiddo, don't wipe your nose on my shirt!!!!

But Hong Man Lam, an 18-year-old high school senior in New York who once hoped to become a stock trader, is starting to think that becoming an English teacher is looking more appealing.  "This is the exact opposite of what I expected," he said a few blocks from the New York Stock Exchange. "I don't want to be part of this big mess."

My faith in the youth has been redeemed!

--more--"  

More classes, kids:

"New fears arise in Mich., where hard times began years ago" by Susan Saulny and Monica Davey, New York Times  |  November 23, 2008

FENNVILLE, Mich. - ....   As a result of the steady job losses that began in the summer of 2000, 1.82 million Michigan residents, or close to 20 percent of the population, are now on some form of public assistance, including food stamps and home heating credits, a record for the state....  Around the state, home foreclosures are commonplace, the trust fund that pays unemployment benefits is millions of dollars in debt, food banks are struggling, and health agencies are reporting an uptick in people with symptoms like anxiety and depression. Suicides were up in recent years, although officials caution against drawing any direct links between deaths and the economy.... 

Yeah, you don't want to link the SUICIDES to the economy, heavens, no!!! 

And NEVER MIND the TRILLIONS we PISSED AWAY in IRAQ!! The WAR LOOTERS MADE OUT FINE!!!!!

--more--"

"In turbulent economy, boat owners abandoning thousands of crafts; Vessels long a barometer of consumer calm" by Malia Wollan, Associated Press  |  November 23, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - From Southern California to Maine, the foundering economy, high fuel prices and poor fishing have driven boat owners to abandon perhaps thousands of vessels on the waterfront, where they are beginning to break up and sink, leaking oil and other pollutants. Boats have long been a barometer of consumer confidence, disposable income, and the overall state of the economy. Now, marina and harbor officials are reporting a sudden increase in the past year in the number of deserted pleasure boats and working vessels.... 

High fuel prices and several disastrous years in the nation's fishing industry have led fishermen to desert salmon boats in Washington state, crab boats in Maryland, trawlers in Oregon, and lobster boats in Florida....    It's not just barnacle-laden junkers that are being abandoned. More powerboat and sailboat owners have been failing to pay their slip fees, according to Randy Short, chief executive of Almar Management Inc., a company with 16 luxury marinas in California and Hawaii. 

Who really gives a fuck about the wealthy (or those brown-nosing shits who thought they were) and their yachts?  I DON'T!!!!!!!

--more--"

"Trouble engulfs University of Iowa; Suicides, assault charges cast pall" by Dirk Johnson, New York Times  |  November 23, 2008

IOWA CITY - ....   All the while, the university, with an enrollment of 30,000, is struggling to recover from this summer's devastating floods, which caused $230 million in damage and left some buildings in ruin. Art students, for example, are taking classes in an old Menards store. Some houses near the campus sit unoccupied, and some parks are a muddy mess. 

Yup, they STILL HAVEN'T CLEANED UP IOWA, still haven't cleaned up Katrina, haven't cleaned up Ike, and yet all those places have been FORGOTTEN by the SHIT-PUSHING, AGENDA-PROMOTING, AmeriKan MSM!!!   That is SOP for them, folks, and YEAH, I am TIRED OF IT!!!!!!!

--more--"

NEW YORK - A New York school has already been renamed in honor of Barack Obama before he even takes office. The former Ludlum Elementary School, in Long Island's Hempstead Union Free School District, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday, effective immediately. The new name is the Barack Obama Elementary School. --more--"

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. - .... Because of the economic downturn, the homecoming dance, that rite of passage that has become increasingly extravagant in recent years, is being scaled back at many high schools nationwide. Teens accustomed to spending hundreds of dollars on dresses and suits, a pricey dinner and limousine ride are now making their own decorations, soliciting donations for food and gowns and, in some cases, reconsidering the ritzy ballroom in favor of the gym....

The girls were at a South Florida flea market, where the charity Becca's Closet gives used and new gowns to high school students unable to afford their own. One mother said her hours as a nurse's aide had been cut. Another whose mortgage payment had increased said she felt humiliated to ask for help....

"We're seeing people who, you know, wouldn't typically be needing help," said Pam Kirtman, who runs the group with her husband in memory of their daughter, who was killed in a 2003 car accident when she was 16.

Oh, you mean like this beautiful young lady here?

Desiree Banton, 16, modeled the dress she'll wear to the homecoming dance. Many high schools are scaling back. (Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)

Emily Petway, a high school band director who runs a Becca's Closet chapter outside Atlanta: "When a dress costs $150 and you're having to choose between sending your senior daughter to prom and groceries, it's really hard."

*************

The budget squeezing comes at a time when homecoming dances have been growing, and teen parties in general - from proms to sweet sixteens - are more elaborate: Recent homecomings were held in hotels instead of school gyms, and ticket prices have hit $50.

Yeah, and rich aren't living in squalid splendor. The kids have come to EXPECT TOO MUCH! That's the problem. WHY SHOULDN'T THEY? Why shouldn't we treat our kids well until we SEND THEM OFF TO WAR?!!

"Homecoming is definitely growing each year," said Jacquie Downey, a business director at Stumps Spirit, an Indiana-based party supply company. Rather than just a football game and dance, the entire community is becoming involved, and the school has special activities every day of the week. --more--"

The Education Department will spend as much as $6.5 billion to buy federally guaranteed loans offered by private lenders to ensure students will have aid during the credit crisis....

************

The global financial crisis has extended beyond banks, and the markets for student loans, auto loans, and credit cards are currently in distress, Neel Kashkari, the Treasury Departments assistant secretary in charge of a $700 billion rescue plan for banks, said last week. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in the statement that she was using authority granted by Congress. The action will protect students and their families and ensure lenders continue to disburse student loans, she said....

Yeah, the government is looking out for you, sure. Then what is with all the lying and deceptions?

--more--"

by Chris Hedges
11-19-8

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality- based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

The illiterate rarely vote, and when they do vote they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. American political campaigns, which have learned to speak in the comforting epistemology of images, eschew real ideas and policy for cheap slogans and reassuring personal narratives. Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology....

WASHINGTON - The government sought yesterday to dismiss concerns that it might try to delay rollout of the new GI Bill, pledging to be ready to handle growing claims in veterans education benefits after abandoning plans to hire a contractor.  Testifying before a House panel, officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged the potential for glitches as they scramble to upgrade government IT systems before the new legislation providing millions of dollars in new GI benefits takes effect next August. 

I don't wanna frikkin' hear it!  THEY DIDN'T DELAY THEIR SERVICE!!!!!!!!!

But the VA contended it was on track to implement an IT system "in-house" just one month after abruptly scrapping plans to hire an IT contractor that the government previously contended was critical to get a system up and running on time.  "We have the resources. We have the working functionality," said Keith Wilson, the VA's director of the Office of Education Service, reversing course from earlier comments made by the VA.... 

Must the government CONSTANTLY LIE?

At least 520,000 veterans are expected to take advantage come next fall, up from about 250,000 who are currently attending colleges and universities on the GI Bill....  --more--"

Why did the image of campus shootings just flash through my head.  Think there are not a couple of PTSDs in the mix?

SOMERVILLE - Senior state education leaders are considering expanding the state MCAS exams to include science experiments, group projects, and oral presentations in an attempt to inject more critical thinking into the widely criticized tests.

They are kidding, right?  If not, why did they spend so much time dumbing-down the kids?

The recommendations, which were unveiled yesterday, respond to growing concerns that the state's high school graduates are entering college or the workplace lacking the sophisticated skills needed to succeed, such as the ability to solve problems, communicate, or work in teams. 

Translation: Our public schools suck!

The state originally emphasized these "21st Century skills" after passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, but many schools stopped teaching them as the state ramped up the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which placed a higher premium on content knowledge.... 

Thanks, NCLB!

************

The prospect of moving beyond a paper-and-pencil test to evaluate students immediately prompted harsh criticism from some conservative education policy groups that the state was backing away from high standards. But state Education Secretary Paul Reville emphasized at the start of the meeting that the changes would complement, not replace, the 10-year-old MCAS tests. 

Yeah, HEAP MORE on the kids -- as if they weren't contending with enough already!

"Our employers are telling us, more urgently with each passing year, that we are not preparing enough of our students to do the jobs of the present and future," said Reville, reading from prepared remarks in the auditorium at Somerville High School. "They tell us too few can make coherent oral presentations, solve complex problems using either creativity or technology . . . and too few have the motivation and work ethic needed for success." 

Oh, that's what school is about, huh?  Getting you ready for EMPLOYMENT!!!  Silly me, I thought it was to LEARN THINGS!!!  I guess that's why this state needs the H1B's and the illegals, huh? 

And I don't know; Bush reached the highest office in the land.

Gary Gottlieb, a task force member and president of Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Boston Private Industry Council, told the board "even highly educated people are not able to express themselves and convey the knowledge they have."  The recommendations, which can be approved by the board without legislative review, could take up to 10 years to implement, Reville said. They would require a massive overhaul of teacher training programs to include the new skills, as well as revising the state's academic standards so the new skills are emphasized in each subject tested by MCAS, officials said....  

Yeah, I guess we will need more foreign workers then, huh?  Sigh.

The task force did not project how much the changes would cost, and officials acknowledge the state's fiscal crisis may mean they will have to turn to nonprofits for financial support....  Since its inception, the MCAS has been ensnared in controversy with groups, such as Pioneer, favoring MCAS as a graduation requirement, while teacher unions, many local school administrators, parents, and school boards have opposed it.

That is just about EVERYONE that is AGAINST IT -- except for the test-makers, of course!!! 

My feeling on the matter?  This is where I feel Ron Paul is correct when it comes to schools: LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL!!!!!

A growing number of higher education officials have also faulted the exam as a poor indicator of students' readiness for college.

Obviously!

The proposed changes somewhat appeased some MCAS critics yesterday, although they would like the board to drop MCAS as a graduation requirement, a change that the state board does not support.  "It's a step in the right direction," said Paul Toner, vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, who oversaw the task force's research on assessment and accountability. "We don't think a child's future should be determined by a paper-and-pencil test. . . . We have to have kids do things, as opposed to just sitting and studying things." 

We do have them do things: they GO FIGHT WARS for us!!!!

And if they are sitting and studying, rest assured, it is tv or the video game, not school work.  Maybe

Leaders of the state's superintendent and school board associations voiced their support, especially of changes to science and US history tests. Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said it will allow history teachers to move teaching beyond just facts and allow students to develop and argue their political interpretations, not only in class discussions, but in essays and projects. 

Yeah, SURE IT WILL!!  You gonna allow the kids their OWN INTREPRETATIONS about 9/11?!! That's one reason I didn't want to get into teaching: I don't want to have to tell the kids LIES!!  See: Kevin Barrett Leaving UW

Revamping the MCAS comes after a report released Monday that showed that two-thirds of Boston public school graduates who enrolled in college after receiving diplomas in 2000 failed to graduate from college seven years later. The report, sponsored by the Boston public schools and the Private Industry Council, have raised concerns that the city's schools and the higher education system are failing to adequately prepare students for more sophisticated jobs. 

Sort of plays right into the globalists hands, doesn't it?  Dumb-down the kids, say they are stoo-pid, and then infer they can't do the jobs.  All the more reason to outsource, offshore, and hire illegals, huh?

Another report, released last month by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, found that the majority of high school graduates and many college graduates lacked critical job skills, such as teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. --more--"

Like they would want us to have critical thinking skills!! I got my grades by regurgitating what the prof wanted to hear.

Here's an experiment, kids:  Bring up 9/11 and the unanswered questions regarding its inside job nature (controlled demolitions, NORAD stand-down) and see how far that "critical thinking" gets you in the halls of indoctrination, I mean, er, ejerkashen!!

"Neither of us could believe it," Santana, a Roslindale native, said yesterday morning on the Beacon Hill campus. "The highest in the country, here at Suffolk? It doesn't make much sense."

Many Suffolk students, staff, and faculty voiced similar skepticism yesterday over David J. Sargent's hefty pay package, which topped The Chronicle of Higher Education's latest survey of college presidents' wages and benefits. While one-time payments, deferred until Sargent retires, make up a substantial majority of his earnings, many students criticized the bonuses as irresponsible and extravagant.

"That would explain our tuition," said Joe Curley, a sophomore from New Jersey who is paying the private university almost $26,000 in tuition, 7 percent more than last year. "My parents are not happy about this, not happy at all."

Nor would I be!

Higher education specialists said the scope of the compensation was nearly unprecedented, even if - as school officials contend - the salary was just a one-time boost designed to compensate for below-average compensation in the past.

"Two million is just out of whack, I don't care if he had been underpaid for 30 or 40 years," said Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. "Why should a university receive a tax deduction to fund a $2 million payout to its president?"

Suffolk officials vigorously defended the decision to award Sargent nearly $2 million in deferred compensation, which trustees approved unanimously as part of a five-year contract reached in 2006. The bonus was designed to rectify years of paying Sargent less than his peers and to honor his five decades of service to the university as faculty member, administrator, and president. His base salary is $436,000, which is typical for university presidents.

"He was embarrassingly underpaid for a half-century, and this is a one-time correction to that situation," said John Nucci, the university's vice president for external affairs. A report from an outside specialist on presidential salaries concluded that Sargent's salary and benefits had lagged behind his counterparts.

Overall, pay and benefits for presidents at 184 public universities rose more than 7 percent last year, according to the Chronicle study. Nearly one-third of presidents at public research institutions make more than $500,000, and the number receiving more than $700,000 rose from eight to 15.

Leaders of public research universities drew a median salary and benefits of $427,400. Pay for presidents at private research universities in 2007 remained steady at $527,000, while salaries for those at smaller private universities rose 6 percent during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Vedder said lucrative payouts like Suffolk's, coupled with the overall national increase in presidential salaries, undercut the arguments colleges use to defend frequent tuition increases. "We are currently paying college presidents way above any historic norm," he said.

It's called LOOTING!

Nucci said trustees also believed a lucrative package was necessary to prevent Sargent, now 77, from retiring. Nucci said Sargent, who was unavailable for comment, did not seek the increase and was not involved in negotiations.

Let him RETIRE THEN!!!

**************

As the news of Sargent's lucrative payday became the leading topic of campus conversation yesterday, many said no college president could be worth such a sum. Students said news of the windfall was especially galling during a financial crisis that for many families will probably put college costs further out of reach. Education specialists say college presidents' rising salaries are likely to receive more scrutiny amid growing frustration over rising tuition costs.

"Colleges keep saying they are nonprofits, but then they act like corporations," said Nicholas Priday, a Suffolk freshman. "The money would be much better spent on the students." Other students questioned why Suffolk had paid its leader substantially more than the leaders of more prestigious institutions. "Other schools' presidents must be mad," quipped Josiana DeCarvalho, a sophomore from Boston.

Yet some students said Sargent deserved the financial boon for spearheading the university's transformation from a mediocre commuter school to a more selective, prestigious university. "I think it's a tribute to his whole career at Suffolk, to everything he's done for the university and the city," said Courtney Madden, a second-year law student from Quincy. "A lot of people are getting a great education, and he deserves a lot of the credit." --more--"

Fine, throw a DINNER FOR HIM then!!!

"Freshmen will get an intense new program; NU plan to aid Boston students" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | November 18, 2008

Northeastern University will establish a special one-year program for Boston public high school graduates who are not ready for college, as part of a city initiative to boost the low rate of local students who earn higher degrees. The program aims to address a problem that higher education officials know too well: Many students who ultimately quit college stumble during their freshman year, when students begin self-exploration and experimentation while facing more academic rigor than in their high school classes. --more--"

MALDEN - ....  At a time of increased emphasis on improving student achievement, especially in inner-city schools, education specialists are raising serious concerns that male flight from classrooms could be hindering boys' ability to learn.  A study by an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College, which has been gaining national attention in the debate over single-gender classes, found that boys learned better in reading - a subject in which they typically struggle - when teamed with a male teacher. Similarly, girls did better in math and science with a female teacher.

Even more eyebrow-raising, the research questioned whether a predominantly female teaching force is causing more boys to be labeled as behavior problems because women may struggle in handling the sometimes rambunctious nature of boys. It also questioned whether boys may respond better to a coachlike sternness found in some male teachers.

Of course, if you even suggest anything like that, you are a sexist!

*************

Education specialists say that low pay and a lack of respect for teachers are primary reasons men stay away, and those issues emerge as well in efforts to recruit more minorities.  Yet the shrinking number of men can be chalked up to another reason: Some men worry that overly protective parents might falsely accuse them of being pedophiles because teaching, especially in the lower grades, is still largely perceived as a woman's job, requiring a nurturing personality that supposedly is not common among men. In other words, something must be wrong with the guy who likes working with children. 

Another casualty of false tyranny. Also see: Government-Hosted Porn and Porn On the Web

"If a woman can drive a tank in Baghdad, why can't a guy change a diaper at an early childhood education center?" said Kitt Cox, coordinator at the Birth to Three Family Center in Ipswich and one of the few men in the early education field. "We should be showing kids there are different things they can be when they grow up, and it shouldn't be defined by gender." 

We all know what is behind that agenda: The Role of Feminism in the New World Order

The same scenario is playing out across the state and the nation, where the number of male teachers is dwindling....  Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, supports efforts to bolster the number of male teachers, but she stressed that the best way to achieve that goal is by increasing salaries for all teachers and improving working conditions.  The average starting pay for a teacher in Massachusetts was $35,832 two years ago, while the average for all teachers in the state was $58,257, according to the association's most recent data. 

Gee, that's not much at all, considering how many billions are lavished around for banks, wars, and Israel.

Want a real kick in the choppers? Go see which denominations, I mean schools, are shutting down.

Interesting, no?

Of course, look at what is SURVIVING IN TACT:

"Suffolk's Sargent tops pay scale for college presidents" by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | November 17, 2008

College presidents' earnings continue to climb, and a new survey put Suffolk University's David J. Sargent at the top, as the most lavishly paid leader at any US institution.

Sargent's compensation in 2006-2007 totaled $2.8 million, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey, released today. Overall, pay and benefits for presidents at 184 public universities rose more than 7 percent. Nearly one-third of presidents at public research institutions make over $500,000, and the number receiving more than $700,000 rose from eight to 15.

No wonder the cost of education is going through the roof and colleges are closing; these guys are robbing parents blind!!

Leaders of public research universities drew a median salary and benefits of $427,400. Pay for presidents at private research universities in 2007 remained steady at $527,000, while salaries for those at smaller private universities rose 6 percent

The wage increases drew criticism as excessive during a slumping economy that has made it harder for families to afford rising tuition costs. A host of colleges, including wealthy institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, and Dartmouth, have announced cost-cutting measures in recent days to offset steep declines in their endowments.

"In these hard economic times, apparently belt-tightening is for families and students, not university presidents," Charles Grassley, chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement....

Or war looters, banks, big pharma, Israel, et al, etc.

Sargent, 77, has worked at the Beacon Hill university since 1956, the last 19 years as president. He will earn a $1.1 million bonus for never taking a sabbatical over that time. In addition to $436,000 in base pay, he received a $436,000 longevity bonus, $555,667 in deferred pay, and a performance bonus of $87,200.

I just think of all the kids who are hurting, or the families being foreclosed on, etc, etc. This guy is already making six figures? WTF? Rewarded for doing his job? Where is my reward (for when I had a job)?

Other presidents' salaries included: $901,692 for Robert A. Brown at Boston University; $808,698 for Susan Hockfield at MIT; $572,571 for Lawrence Bacow at Tufts; and $589,663 for Joseph Aoun at Northeastern. Boston College president, the Rev. William P. Leahy, whose salary was not disclosed in the survey, donated his compensation to his religious order. Among leaders of public universities, last year University of Massachusetts president Jack M. Wilson earned $473,200; UMass Lowell chancellor Martin T. Meehan earned $351,900; UMass Boston chancellor J. Keith Motley earned $318,300; and interim UMass Amherst chancellor Thomas W. Cole Jr. earned $367,500. --more--"

Look, I don't want to rob these guys of all their dough; however, where does the greed stop? If not with the academicians, where?

Also see: Best-paid college presidents

Meanwhile, what about all those kids at the schools? How are they doing?

"Hub grads come up short in college; Most from class of 2000 have failed to earn degrees" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | November 17, 2008

Uh-oh.

About two-thirds of the city's high school graduates in 2000 who enrolled in college have failed to earn degrees, according to a first-of-its-kind study being released today.

The findings represent a major setback for a city school system that made significant strides in recent years with percentages of graduates enrolling in college consistently higher than national averages, according to the report by the Boston Private Industry Council and the School Department. However, the study shows that the number who went on to graduate is lower than the national average.

The low number of students who were able to earn college degrees or post-secondary certificates in a city known as a center of American higher education points to the enormous barriers facing urban high school graduates - many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. While the study did not address reasons for the low graduation rates, these students often have financial problems, some are raising children, and others are held back by a need to retake high school courses in college because they lack basic skills.

Then HOW did they GRADUATE the STATE HIGH SCHOOL?

The students' failure to complete college could exacerbate the fiscal problems in the state's economy, which requires a highly skilled workforce, say business leaders and educators. While tens of thousands of students around the globe flock to the region's colleges each fall, many of them leave once receiving their degrees....

Maybe it is boring, maybe the school sucks, or maybe the kids just don't like being lied to. The global warming thing has to be doing numbers on their little, bundled-up brains. Or maybe the looting adminstrators are gutting the experience for them. Or maybe they are stoo-pid; however, whose fault is that?

Of course, I keep hearing about this great economy around here but I'm nort seeing it.

The Boston Foundation... financed the study along with the Carnegie Corporation of New York.... Boston schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, in an interview Friday at City Hall.... proposed creating a "newcomers academy" for new immigrant students." --more--"

MILFORD - The number of inmates in Massachusetts prisons is projected to reach about 12,000 next year for the first time, prompting the head of the prison system to call for sentencing changes that ease overcrowding and to proceed with a controversial plan to double-bunk inmates at a maximum-security facility.  About two weeks short of his one-year anniversary as commissioner of the Department of Correction, Harold W. Clarke said last week that he hopes Governor Deval Patrick reintroduces legislation to reform "mandatory minimum" sentences, which Clarke said have led to a surge in inmates, many with no history of violence.... 

The main reason for the surge is mandatory-minimum sentences passed by Massachusetts since the 1980s. Many of the laws were approved as part of a harsh nationwide crackdown on drug offenses, but a growing number of judges, defense lawyers, prison administrators, and advocates for prisoners say they often do more harm than good....

But that didn't stop the state and MSM from hammering the pro Question 2 people.  I'm so sick of s*** MSM, folks!!!!

Patrick filed legislation last year that would have let drug offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences participate in work-release programs, but the bill did not win passage. He has refiled it for the new legislative session. The Patrick administration is also scheduled to complete a master plan in December that will discuss construction projects that could relieve overcrowding, said a spokesman for the governor.  In the meantime, Clarke is moving forward with a plan to double-bunk some inmates at a maximum-security prison.... 

Yeah, aren't "liberals" great?! All those prisons built during the 1990s (my community got one) and they still don't have enough room, huh?  Meet the PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!

************

The plan to put two inmates in a cell at the 10-year-old Souza-Baranowski has drawn fire from prisoner rights activists and the union that represents correction officers.  Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said that double-bunking at Souza-Baranowski - where prisoners spend scant time outside their cells - would probably lead to violence.

"You're taking two prisoners that the department has deemed of maximum-security dangerousness and you're locking them together in a cell for over 20 hours a day," she said. "I think it's a very risky measure that should be taken only in desperation." 

That's risky for ANY ONE, never mind prisoners! Ah, who cares if they kill each other, right?

Her comments reflect a rare agreement with Steve Kenneway, the president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. He told the Globe last month that putting two inmates in the same cell would provoke fights, stabbings, and killings.  "There are some inmates out there who are going to make a choice whether to accept a roommate or kill their roommate," he said. "That's not an exaggeration."

But Clarke, who headed the prison systems of Nebraska and then Washington State before Patrick appointed him last November, said prisoners already share cells or dorms in the state's 16 medium- and minimum-security prisons. He said many other states double-bunk prisoners, as does the federal Bureau of Prisons. And Souza-Baranowski cells were originally designed to house two inmates, he said.

"We don't have many options - one, releasing offenders, and two, building more capacity - and I'm not sure that either of those are now palatable," he said.  In another matter, Clarke and Walker said in separate interviews that they hoped a federal suit filed last year by the Disability Law Center against the Department of Correction over treatment of mentally ill inmates will be settled soon.

The center, a nonprofit advocacy group that provides legal help for the disabled, alleged in a March 2007 suit that hundreds of seriously mentally ill prisoners were held in cells 23 hours a day in inhumane conditions, leading to self-mutilation, the swallowing of razor blades, and at least seven suicides since November 2004. The group, which has been assisted by Walker's organization, urged the creation of special treatment units similar to those in at least six other states. 

Yeah, save everybody the trouble: just kill yourself.

Clarke said last week that settlement talks have been under way for a year and that soon "we're hoping to be able to say, 'We don't have to go to court, we can avoid litigation,' which I'm certain will serve all parties best," he said.  --more--"

That would be an END to the DRUG WAR, guy. 

That's it!!!Of course, you can forget about help from the school, kiddo:

"Emerson lays down the law about marijuana" by Tracy Jan and Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | November 16, 2008

Lest college students think otherwise, smoking, growing, and selling pot is still illegal on campuses. It seems that the recent passage of Question 2, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, caused confusion (and perhaps raised hopes?) among some students at Emerson College.

No wonder our kids are so stoo-pid!  F***ing get your snout out of the bong, kiddos, before you end up in Iraq!

Dean of Students Ron Ludman, saying "some individuals have inquired if [Question 2's] passage will impact college policy," felt compelled to send a campuswide e-mail to set the record straight. He reminded students of the school's code of conduct. Those found guilty are subject to a $75 fine, a letter home to parents, and suspension.

And the charge going on your permanent record -- with a corresponding loss in financial aid and job prospects, kiddo!!!!

"Possession is still unlawful in Massachusetts and the College is still subject to the federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act," he wrote. "That law conditions the College's receipt of federal funds on its enforcement of standards of conduct that clearly prohibit unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs."

Translation: The feds extort the college for their fascist goals.

Lesson of the day: The law is the law. 

So ACCEPT that TYRANNY and smartly SIG HEIL, kiddies!!!! 

LAWRENCE, Mass. -- Thousands of low-income Massachusetts residents will soon lose their free legal help....   may soon find it much tougher to get a lawyer....  That means area legal aid groups will have to decide which battered woman, which evicted family fighting foreclosure, or which worker seeking back pay will have to go without legal assistance....  --more--" 

Yup, but we got TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS and can cut taxpayer checks to Hollywood, but NO LEGAL AID for the POOR!!

Isn't that UNCONSTITUTIONAL?!!!!!

Dartmouth's move follows similar cutbacks by Harvard, Columbia, Boston University, and other institutions that are facing steep declines in endowments. Dartmouth's endowment dropped $220 million from July through September to $3.4 billion.

Dartmouth College president James Wright, who is stepping down in June, also called for freezing new hires and deferring some construction projects. Several other projects, including a life sciences center, a business school complex, and a baseball park, will proceed as planned. --more--" 

Yeah, the IMPORTANT STUFF will go ahead:  pharmaceuticals, business, and baseball!!!!!!

Even the world's richest university is feeling the pinch from the economic downturn.

Harvard's president, Drew Faust, said yesterday that the university is looking for ways to reduce spending across the campus, raising the specter of cuts to programs and compensation, as Harvard's endowment plummets.....

A Harvard official familiar with its financial picture said the university is considering imposing a wage freeze for administrators and faculty, as well as a budget freeze on all programs. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard's largest faculty, is confronting a loss of roughly $4.5 billion in the market value of its endowment, which would translate to a net loss of $225 million from its budget, the official said on condition of anonymity because the plans are not final....

**********

Harvard's endowment before the economic crisis was $36.9 billion. The money funded more than a third of the university's annual $3.5 billion operating budget.... Harvard's move follows a range of belt-tightening at colleges and universities across the country. --more--"

Sigh.  What are you to make of an article that leads with a deceptive headline? I'm getting tired and unhappy with the lying AmeriKan MSM and its s***-shoveling lies.

CAMBRIDGE - Williams College recruiter Elizabeth Tilley touted the elite liberal arts school's scenic campus and small classes, many of which are no bigger than the group of nine high school students gathered around a table at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School to hear her pitch.

But before long, Tilley turned to the elephant in the room: On a whiteboard, she wrote the price of a year at Williams - $50,000. Several students winced and groaned.  "Right, I see it on everyone's face. How are we supposed to pay for that," said Tilley, the college's assistant admissions director. "But with financial aid, it's possible." For students from low- and moderate-income families, she said, Williams waives nearly the entire cost.  "Duuude," senior Julian Baynes said, as a disbelieving smile crossed his face.

Tilley's recent visit to Prospect Hill, where two-thirds of the students qualify for free and reduced-cost school lunches, illustrates a growing push by top-tier colleges to recruit economically disadvantaged students. Using socioeconomic data to target promising candidates and flying in prospective students for campus visits, colleges say they are redoubling efforts to let students like Baynes know they can attend virtually for free.  Yet a host of education specialists question elite colleges' commitment to economic diversity, citing evidence that top colleges are becoming increasingly stratified by income. While they applaud colleges for expanding financial aid policies, even allowing students to attend without taking out loans, they say colleges must do more to puncture the perception that expensive private colleges are reserved for the wealthy. 

Yeah, save THAT for the TURN-IN!!!!

"All the financial aid in the world doesn't do any good if the students aren't admitted," said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy institute based in New York. In a 2004 study, it found that three-quarters of students at top-tier colleges came from the wealthiest socioeconomic quarter, but just 3 percent from the bottom quarter.

That's REACHING OUT to the poor, 'eh?

Demographic shifts are raising the stakes around college recruiting. The ranks of high school graduates are expected to thin in the coming years and become more racially diverse, making it critical for colleges to create pipelines of talented minority students. But economic disparities on college campuses appear to be deepening.

Just like the SOCIETY as a whole, imagine that!

********

Critics say such a statistic raises questions about the top colleges' nonprofit mission and their role as springboards for social mobility. "It hollows out the American promise in so many ways," said Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, a national group working to improve college access for poor and minority students. 

Sure that isn't what it is all designed to do?  Of course, trillions for wars and banks, billions for... awww, forget it!

*******

Low-income students often attend mediocre schools and score substantially lower on standardized tests, making it hard for even the brightest to match the admissions' qualifications of middle- and upper-class suburban students, they say.... 

College administrators defend their recruiting and admissions practices. They say that finding qualified students from low-income backgrounds is difficult and that persuading them to enroll, given sharp competition among colleges, is harder still. Recruitment efforts take years to show gains, they add, and the perception of top colleges as hopelessly expensive is hard to shake.

"It's one of the great challenges we all face," said William Fitzsimmons, dean of admission and financial aid at Harvard University. "It's very tough sledding, because the opportunity structures for students are so different."

This is the same guy who is offering free scholarships to Chinese students?  Sigh!

Harvard, along with Williams and Amherst College, is taking part in a College Board pilot program that provides detailed socioeconomic data to help colleges target prospective students from low-income neighborhoods.  Fitzsimmons said that financial aid policies and recruitment have nearly doubled the percentage of Harvard students receiving Pell Grants over the past four years, and that 60 percent of this year's freshman class is receiving grant aid, surpassing the previous record of 53 percent.

Still, almost three-quarters of the class comes from families making at least $80,000 a year.  "The danger is that you could have the best schools in the country increasingly populated by those who have the advantages," Fitzsimmons said. "It was pretty clear that Harvard and many of the top institutions in the country were beginning to become, rather than engines of opportunity, impediments to opportunity."

Is that how the globalists view themselves?

*******

"How many of those schools are truly options to the masses?" asked Bob Giannino-Racine, executive director of ACCESS, a Boston nonprofit that provides financial aid counseling and scholarships to Boston students....  As the financial crisis causes their endowments to drop, some colleges may be more inclined to reduce financial aid awards and steer that money toward wealthier students as an incentive to attend, many educators said.

Endowments aren't hurting at Harvard or Yale, though.

"Students who have done well enough to get into schools like Williams have lots of options," said Theresa Urist, who directs college counseling at Prospect Hill. "But for students in the next level down, this is going to have a hideous ripple effect."  Urist said counselors tell students throughout high school that college is manageable with financial assistance and not to "shudder at the sticker price." But the cost still makes low-income students worry they'll be out of place.

--more--"

I went to shitty little state schools, so I never had to worry about being out of place.

Remember those two SAS men caught planting bombs in Iraq?

"For the last couple months we keep hearing how all the IEDs used in Iraq are coming from Iran, and now we have indications they actually come from Britain." -- Mike Rivero of What Really Happened

Occupation Iraq: America's Roadside Bombs

The bizarre case of Zapata Engineering, murdered U.S. Marines and Iraqi IED's

Are we clear?

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - In cluttered labs in the University of Rhode Island's chemistry department, Jimmie Oxley and her students are lighting fires, mixing chemicals, and trying to see what they can and cannot blow up.

And the government not only knows about it, it is paying them to do it.  In an effort to stay one step ahead of would-be terrorist bombers, the federal government awarded the school a grant to study better ways to sniff out traces of an explosive substance, protect household chemicals from being converted into bombs, and strengthen buildings to lessen the devastation of an exploding bomb....

The initiative, called the Center of Excellence for Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response, is intended to equip federal investigators with additional tools to thwart would-be terrorist bombers, both within and outside America's borders.  Oxley and scientists at Northeastern University in Boston, which is co-directing the new center, have received $5.15 million from the Department of Homeland Security to run experiments in three main areas of research: making blasts less damaging by upgrading building materials, taking the bite out of common, commercial ingredients that people use to make bombs at home, and improving ways to detect homemade bombs and bomb makers.

How about not training and employing them in the first place?  And that is YOUR TAX MONEY being spent on a LIE, America!

--more--"

Police, prosecutors and school officials in Salem, N.H., are warning students they could get in big trouble for circulating nude and semi-nude photos of at least two female classmates on their cell phones. A prosecutor and police held an assembly to caution students that taking, possessing and distributing explicit pictures of children is a crime. They plan a meeting with parents Monday evening. Police say they have identified two girls in the photos as Salem High students. At least one is younger than 16. Police also are trying to identify several other young women -- some completely nude -- in the photos. Police talked about the possibility of arrest, but Rockingham County Attorney James Reams said criminal charges are unlikely (AP)  --more--"   

Good Lord!  Imagine if one of them was pregnant!  Where did they get the god-damn phones anyway?

Two weeks after a Brighton woman led police to the door of her alleged rapist this summer, he remained free on the streets - and allegedly raped again.  Despite the help of the first victim, who submitted to a medical exam and identified where he lived, Boston police said they lacked enough evidence to arrest the man. They knocked on his door, but left when he did not answer, according to a prosecutor. A Boston police spokeswoman declined to give any details about the investigation, including whether they ever returned, monitored the white apartment building where he lives, researched his extensive criminal record, or even learned the man's name, before the second attack allegedly occurred....

But the Boston cops got time to cruise the strip, bust brothels, hang out in bars and buy drugs, as well as pose as panhandlers!

"Earlier this month, police wrapped up a 30-day sting involving plainclothes officers mimicking tourists and other pedestrians. Once they were panhandled, they essentially became victims guaranteed to show up for a trial."

Seems like the only crimes they don't solve are rapes, robberies, and murders -- including their own.

Whatever happened to that case? Need I even say it about the MSM?

BEIJING - ....  Eager to cultivate generations of students in this new frontier, admissions officers from premier American universities are scouring China to recruit top high school students....  even promising full scholarships. 

Yeah, the only ones who can't get those are American kids.

"There are no quotas, no limits on the number of Chinese students we might take," William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's admissions dean, told a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 students during a visit to Beijing No. 4 High School. "We know there are very good students from China not applying now. I hope to get them into the pool to compete."

That message is disconcerting for American students toiling to land a coveted spot in Harvard's 1,660-student freshman class - and controversial among some educators. But Fitzsimmons and others say they had better get used to the idea. Applications from China have exploded in recent years as the Communist country opens up to the world, and they're only going to increase. 

Look, it is not like I want to hold the Chinese or anyone back; however, this shows you the globalist nature of the rulers right here.  They are interested in indoctrinating people who they can then send back as rulers or bureaucrats for their New World Order.

Even fifth-graders in Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, who as adults will face international competition for jobs, should begin beefing up their academic résumés if they want a shot at an Ivy League education, Fitzsimmons said.  "We're trying to send a message to young people, as young as primary school, to make the most of their studies," he said, "because they'll be competing with students around the world later on." 

Then how come our schools are being gutted and teach such s***?

The competition served as a vivid reminder of how the global economy is hitting college admissions, much like it's hitting US corporations.....   While he supports international admissions, Harry Lewis, a computer science professor, worries that Harvard is making it harder for American students to get in.  "There's a real tension here," said Lewis, former dean of Harvard College who sits on the admissions committee. "We get tax exemptions not so we can help build the economy of China, but so we can help contribute to the economy of the United States."  That being said, Lewis acknowledged that "we're not alarmed enough in this country about the lack of interest and motivation we're giving to math education here." 

And on top of that, we teach them lies.  Did I mention I was a history major? 

Am I bitter about it?  Yeah.  Costs me a lot of money for a worthless piece of paper.

The rest of the article focuses on the Chinese and how great this is -- which is exactly what I would expect from an agenda-pushing War Daily.

The government revealed plans yesterday to expand purchases of the student loans it backs to head off a potential shortfall going into the next school year. The fear that has caused financing costs to spike for mortgage and auto loans has also plagued student loans, a normally safe corner of the market.  Student loans are considered among the most secure assets - especially ones that carry government guarantees.

Congress has authorized the Education Department to buy back loans made from 2003 to 2010, although the agency has not made full use of the authority. The government hopes that by serving as a buyer of last resort for student loans, it will attract investors to the business. A private company, assured of a fallback buyer, could buy the loans and borrow from private investors to keep operating.  --more--" 

What are they WAITING FOR?  And why must the TAXPAYER be on the HOOK for EVERYTHING?

A "private company, assured of a fallback buyer?" 

That's the GOVERNMENT and that means YOU, taxpayers! 

Need a final kick in the head?

"The private loans... will be variable, changing monthly or quarterly as the nation's interest rates rise and fall.... If interest rates rise, payments could jump - causing the same kind of trouble homeowners have been grappling with as variable mortgage rates rose.... The biggest question is whether borrowers are willing to gamble on a variable-rate loan"

CAMBRIDGE - Nearly two-dozen members of the Harvard faculty - some of whom have known Obama since he arrived at Harvard Law School two decades ago - played a central role in shaping the policy views of the next president, as either formal advisers or informal consultants, from legal affairs and climate change to foreign affairs and the economy....

Harvard has a long history of advising both Democratic and Republican presidents....

POSTED September 18, 2008 | 7:30 AM

(Above: Rosita and Meryl Chertoff)