tuition

In the not too distant past, your average college student could get a degree in four years and walk away with no debt from almost every public university.  Whatever the costs where, they could be offset with a summer job and maybe a few hundred bucks from the parents.  In …

[Note: Much of this analysis was written around the time of the 2012 Quebec Student Protests, but remains relevant given the Sanders campaign’s popular free-college-for-all platform in the ongoing US presidential election.] I think the system of higher education in Quebec provides a useful and interesting comparison to the situation in the …

Welcome to a slightly tardy edition of Required Readings. The dog didn’t eat my homework, but the computer did. An Oklahoma pre-K teacher, after allegedly making a 4-year-old leftie switch to using his right hand, sent an article home to his parents that called left-handedness “unlucky,” “evil,” and “sinister.” I thought …

Dogma-based practices insert themselves into the education system in a variety of ways. Sometimes, they present via proselytization, pregame prayers, or religious education. Within medical education, there is “The Scarcity of Abortion Training in America’s Medical Schools.” As states cut back on funding higher education, public universities are increasingly “Raising out-of-state tuition …

Welcome to a new day for Required Readings, which will henceforth be presented once a week, on Sundays. RR is a collection of news stories, opinion pieces, and education resources we hope you’ll find interesting and/or useful, particularly if you’re a skeptical educator of some sort. But we can’t do …

At the beginning of a new semester there is always a little bit of excitement in the air. Everyone looks fresh faced and ready to take on the subject at hand. I notice that as I pass out the syllabus and we go through it the students attentively listen with …

[Note: I originally published much of this analysis on another now-defunct blog during the 2012 Quebec Student Protests, but thought it relevant in light of our recent discussion of tuition and government funding.] I think the system of higher education in Quebec provides a useful and interesting comparison to the …

Our old pal Jordan Weissmann has published yet another completely wrong and easily disprovable blurb in the Atlantic (h/t miserlyoldman), this time making the claim that the US Federal government could make college tuition completely free for all students for what it is already spending in various aid programmes. If …

Good morning, teachers and learners! Today, we’ll join up with those clever school librarians to root out a “fake Blake”, soak in additional doomsaying on MOOCs, milk cows for tuition, and listen as a young girl, shot by the Taliban, continues to speak out. Free Online Courses Increase Accessibility To …

In a recent article for the Atlantic (linked yesterday on Skepchick), Jordan Weissmann makes the provocative argument that a number of colleges and universities have put in place financial aid systems that effectively bilk lower-income students while lavishing funds upon the already-wealthy. Those of you that have followed my writing …