Free Republic

Central Pennsylvania school districts received millions of dollars in federal stimulus funding and were advised to use the money for one-time expenses, since it will last for only two years. But with the tight economy, many districts are using the money to fill gaps that otherwise may have had to be handled by cuts or tax increases. In addition to using the money for operating expenses, Harris said many districts are using the funding for small purchases rather than large-scale projects. Though districts were advised by federal officials on how to use the money, they were not restricted in its...

It happened at least once a year, every year. In a roomful of a dozen Harvard University financial officials, Jack Meyer, the hugely successful head of Harvard’s endowment, and Lawrence Summers, then the school’s president, would face off in a heated debate. The topic: cash and how the university was managing - or mismanaging - its basic operating funds. Through the first half of this decade, Meyer repeatedly warned Summers and other Harvard officials that the school was being too aggressive with billions of dollars in cash, according to people present for the discussions, investing almost all of it with...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Students aren't the only ones benefiting from the billions of new dollars Washington is spending on college aid for the poor. An Associated Press analysis shows surging proportions of both low-income students and the recently boosted government money that follows them are ending up at for-profit schools, from local career colleges to giant publicly traded chains such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan and Devry.

Title IX Expansions Bethany Stotts, November 20, 2009 During a November 10 press call on “Women Scientists and American Competitiveness,” speakers suggested that Title IX should be used to focus on “educational equity” and not just athletic equity. One speaker stressed, in particular, the importance of reaching out to federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy (DOE) for additional grant money. (Predoctoral women received 63% of the NIH’s awards in 2007, but only 25% of “competitive faculty grants” that same year, reports...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Kent County educators Friday the state's school financing system "clearly is not working" and said lawmakers must agree to both a short-term fix as well as long-term changes by the end of the year. But the gathering of superintendents and school board members also gave Granholm an earful, especially after she said lawmakers are "battle weary." "If elected people are weary, my level of sympathy for them is zilch," Catherine Mueller, Grand Rapids school board president, told Granholm. "They ran for these jobs and put themselves in this situation." Granholm appeared before educators...

Harvard University’s failed bet that interest rates would rise cost the school at least $500 million in payments to escape derivatives that backfired, reports Bloomberg. Harvard paid $497.6 million to investment banks during the fiscal year ended June 30 to get out of $1.1 billion of interest-rate swaps intended to hedge variable-rate debt for capital projects, the school’s annual report said. Harvard said it also agreed to pay $425 million over 30 to 40 years to offset an additional $764 million in swaps. The transactions began losing value last year as central banks slashed benchmark lending rates, forcing the university...

How Harvard Nearly Went Bankrupt After A Rogue Interest Rate Swap Went Very Sour Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2009 17:45 -0500 The school that epitomizes the dangers of groupthink (especially by very intelligent people) and tends to get caught in both the virtues and vices of its own ingeniosity, saw just how expensive hubris can be in 2009. Harvard's endowment dropped 27.3% in 2009 to $27 after hitting roughly $10 billion higher the year before. /snip Yet most notable in the entire report is an interesting story for all those who claim that representing the $200 or so trillion...

Verbotten. story here.

A skirmish between powerful teachers’ unions and President Barack Obama over nearly $5 billion in education spending is shaping up as a preview of the battle to come over No Child Left Behind in Congress early next year. But the tables are turned: now the unions are worried that Obama, a Democratic ally, is going to be just as tough on them as President George W. Bush, a longtime foe.

Harvard University last year lost nearly $2 billion in the cash account it uses to pay for daily operations, by investing the money with its endowment fund instead of keeping it in safer, bank-like accounts. The loss, disclosed today in the university's annual financial report, resulted from Harvard financial executives taking the unusual step of placing a large mount of the university's cash with Harvard Management Co., the entity that runs the school's endowment and invests in stocks, hedge funds and other risky assets. Typically, companies and institutions manage their cash accounts conservatively in order to have funds readily available,...

The debate over No Child Left Behind re-authorization is upon us. Except it isn’t. In his recent speech kicking off the discussion, education secretary Arne Duncan asked not whether the central federal education law should be reauthorized, he merely asked how. Let’s step back a bit, and examine why we should end federal intervention in (and spending on) our nation’s schools… in one thousand words or less:

Tucked away in an $87 billion higher education bill that passed the House last week was a broad new federal initiative aimed not at benefiting college students, but at raising quality in the early learning and care programs that serve children from birth through age 5. The initiative, the Early Learning Challenge Fund, would channel $8 billion over eight years to states with plans to improve standards, training and oversight of programs serving infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation this fall, giving President Obama, who proposed the Challenge Fund during the presidential campaign, a...

Harvard’s endowment tumbled 27.3 percent in its latest fiscal year, largely because of problems with its private equity and hedge fund portfolios, lopping off $10 billion and shrinking its portfolio to $26 billion. The loss is the biggest percentage decline at Harvard in 40 years and has prompted a review of how it manages its money and allocates assets. Jane Mendillo, who took over the endowment on July 1, 2008, intends to manage more of the school’s assets directly instead of using outside money managers and to hire additional people to oversee the management by outsiders. In her letter describing...

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 Students Borrow More Than Ever for College Heavy Debt Loads Mean Many Young People Can't Live Life They Expected By ANNE MARIE CHAKER Students are borrowing dramatically more to pay for college, accelerating a trend that has wide-ranging implications for a generation of young people. New numbers from the U.S. Education Department show that federal student-loan disbursements—the total amount borrowed by students and received by schools—in the 2008-09 academic year grew about 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. The amount of money students borrow has long been on the rise. But last year far surpassed...

Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised the federal economic recovery package Wednesday, saying it had saved more than 1,600 jobs in Orange County's public school system alone and 26,000 education jobs across Florida. Speaking at Jackson Middle in Orlando, the two called public school teachers the key to improving the country's economic situation and said many already do excellent work. But they also said that President Barack Obama's administration isn't interested in maintaining the status quo but instead wants to use the unprecedented resources now available as part of the recovery act -- some...

Indiana 1 Of 3 States With Public School Textbook Rental Fees INDIANAPOLIS -- In the midst of back-to-school season, expenses for clothing, supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes and the like are expected, but some costs catch parents off guard -- such as rental fees for textbooks. Indiana is one of just three states in which parents of public school students pay textbook rental fees, which typically run from about $100 to $400 each year, depending on the school district, 6News' Dan Spehler reported. The additional expense is something that people who move into the area may not be prepared for. Many parents...

August 10, 2009 Dear xxxx: Today's Virginian-Pilot included a helpful editorial on the support cap issue: http://hamptonroads.com/print/519013 Please read and distribute this editorial. VEA is sponsoring a rally on this issue on August 19th, at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square, at 1 p.m. Some of you may have received messages from others stating that the time of the rally is 1:30. That is not correct. The time is 1 p.m. Thank you, Robley Jones VEA GR

Item: California may not get to participate in President Obama’s Race to the Top education grant system because the state bars school districts from using student testing data in teacher evaluations:

At Harvard University, they have lowered thermostats during the winter months from 72 degrees to 68 degrees. Hot breakfasts are no longer served on weekdays at undergraduate residential houses. Instead of bacon, poached eggs, and waffles, students have to get by on cold ham, cottage cheese, cereal, and fruit. These are just some steps Harvard is taking to battle serious financial problems. Part of the blame belongs to President Obama's top economic adviser Larry Summers. In a story for Vanity Fair, Nina Munk details the crisis. Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering...

Another Obama goodie. Beck had a guest on who explained that Obama is having legislation created that will outlaw any government-insured college loans from private banks and other organizations. Government insurance on the loan will be restricted to education loans from Obama's people. The student, upon graduation, can have the loan forgiven if he/she works for the government for at least ten years. IOW, Obama is using his power to control who goes to college, what they study, and then makes them work for the government after graduation. Speechless.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Kevin O’Shea, 50, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud, theft from a federally funded program, and filing a false tax return, stemming from his role in defrauding the Philadelphia Academy Charter School (“PACS”), announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. O’Shea admitted to stealing between $400,000 and $1 million from PACS by: (1) using approximately $710,000 in PACS’ funds to purchase a building in the name of his purported non-profit business; (2) demanding kickbacks from PACS vendors; (3) submitting for reimbursement at least $40,000 in fraudulent invoices for personal meals, entertainment, home improvements, and gas and telephone...

Foiled by a dispute over education funding, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders remain at odds over how to close California's $26.3 billion budget shortfall. After hours of talks with the Republicans and the governor, Democrats said late Wednesday that talks were stalled over how to repay California schools $11 billion once the economy bounces back. Lawmakers intended to return to closed-door talks Thursday, although they had not set a time. "When times get better, we want to guarantee that education and kids get paid back the money that they are owed," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg,...

(CNN) -- Community colleges are only two-year institutions, but the Obama administration says they could play a key role in helping boost the ailing economy for years to come. "Instead of lining the pockets of special interests, it's time this money went toward the interest of higher education in America," he said

Obama Wants $12 Billion For 2-Year Colleges By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, July 14, 2009 President Barack Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation's community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for "the jobs of the future." Obama was outlining his four-part program in a speech Tuesday afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. Under the initiative, schools could qualify for "challenge grants" so they'll have money to try new programs, or expand training and counseling. Dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to...

This afternoon in Michigan, President Obama will announce a new $12 billion, ten-year initiative to improve the nation's community college success and graduation rate. That hefty price tag is sure to stoke some anger on the Hill. Deputy Undersecretary of Education Bob Shireman explains the financing this way, "This would be fiscal year [20]10 money and, assuming that congress does this in the reconciliation bill that will be considered over the next few months, it would be in the first six months of next calendar year." Shireman adds, "Our hope is to include it in a balanced piece of legislation...

Youth hit hard by lack of jobs, school grants Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, July 12, 2009 Jordan Atkinson had all the trappings of a typical Marin County childhood. He lived in a big house in Novato, played Pop Warner football, spent weekends with friends listening to hip-hop. Now, three years out of San Marin High School, Atkinson is homeless, a casualty of the recession. "I was spoiled. I had a lot of things easy," Atkinson said recently while drinking a smoothie at a Novato cafe, taking a break from job applications and college forms. "Now, unless someone physically...

California delayed a $4 billion payment to its Department of Education system on Friday as the state continues to struggle with a budget shortfall of more than $25 billion. The payment, known as the Principal Apportionment, is the largest annual payment of state funds to California's public education system. The money goes to schools to pay for a wide range of things including salaries. The payment was scheduled for today, which is the last payment for the 2008-09 fiscal year, but will instead be issued on July 30, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and State Controller John Chiang...

A small, private college in North Carolina is asking creditors to be patient as it tries to raise money to pay nearly $1 million in past-due bills. Greensboro College, with 1,300 students,already has cut salaries 20 percent and a week ago was told to pay an $8,000 electric bill or lose power, The News & Record of Greensboro reported Sunday. Next, a sheriff's deputy brought a summons to small claims court to the college telling officials to appear because of an overdue office supply bill of $1,245. The 161-year-old liberal arts college also owed $136,889 for cafeteria service, $13,388 for...

... [Bloomberg has] overseen a large expansion in annual school spending, to $22 billion from $13 billion, with the additional money pumped in from Mr. Bloomberg’s budget and from the state. And that has allowed them to reshape the system to reflect the central elements of the mayor’s philosophy: smaller schools, relentless assessments of progress, and higher salaries for administrators to attract top talent. A New York Times analysis of seven years of education spending has found a number of changes in how dollars are allocated. There are now 1,075 more principals and assistant principals, even as overall student enrollment...

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...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard University announced 275 job cuts on Tuesday, the latest cost-cutting measure at the world's richest university after the financial crisis triggered big losses in its multibillion-dollar endowment. The Ivy League school took the action to meet budget constraints caused by an estimated 30 percent fall in its endowment for its 2009 fiscal year, ending June 30.

Harvard University announced this morning that it plans to lay off 275 staff members as the college grapples with budget pressures caused by a precipitous endowment decline.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue will hold "Save Education" rallies in Wilmington and Greenville Monday to press lawmakers to find additional revenue for education as they struggle to fill a projected $4.6 budget gap. "I've been so troubled by the proposed cuts to public education," Perdue said at a rally in Raleigh last Wednesday. "We cannot increase class size. We cannot lay off teachers. We will not sacrifice North Carolina's economic future." The rally at Minnie Evans Art Center in Wilmington was sponsored by the North Carolina Association of Educators. The governor has asked lawmakers negotiating the state's two-year...

The budget cuts will be especially painful for struggling schools such as Richmond High School, where more than half of its 1,700 students are English learners and three-quarters are considered poor. The East Bay area school has failed to meet academic standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act for more than four years.

California voters said no, but Democratic lawmakers are pushing to do it anyhow. The issue involves billions of dollars and a ballot measure so important to schools that the California Teachers Association spent more than $7 million in a failed attempt to pass Proposition 1B. One month after the initiative died, Democrats are proposing to pay schools the same $7.9 billion that was the heart of the measure and to begin payments the same year, 2011-2012. snip- The dispute over $7.9 billion stems from complex provisions of Proposition 98, approved by voters more than two decades ago to ensure a...

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color.

Surrounded by elementary students from the Green School in Baltimore and charming critters – including an armadillo, cheetah and an Asian Toddy Cat – Democrats declared that the introduction of the “No Child Left Inside Act of 2009” was “historic” legislation that would connect children with nature. Some critics, however, said it is a way to spread environmental propaganda in the public schools.

Joe Biden addresses students at Bellevue Elementary School in New York on May 10th: BIDEN: How many of you kids want to go to college? Well, guess what? Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to make sure that every single one you who qualify are going to get to go to college even if you don't have the money in your family to go. We're going to make sure you get there.

Like Caesar's Gaul, President Obama's plan for higher education is divided into three parts: 1) Every American should have postsecondary educational training, and within a few years we should again lead the world in the proportion of young graduates with bachelor's degrees; 2) Federal financial assistance to pay for college should become an entitlement like Social Security or Medicare, available to all in need; 3) The private provision of loans to students should end and the Federal Government should become the provider of student loans. The American higher education establishment has mostly endorsed this sweeping proposal. As is so often...

President Obama is engineering a federal takeover of the college-loan industry. This new entitlement will cost taxpayers billions and never go away. Mr. Obama's plan to fully nationalize an already government-dependent sector adds another expensive burden to the already overwhelmed federal budget. It is also likely to result in a loss of tens of thousands of jobs, limit loan options for students and substantially increase the deficit. It's up to Congress to resist this public-sector capture of private-sector profit and instead embrace less costly reforms.

As Cornell University faces greater need for donations in the current recession, it also faces having to get more funds with less money as a result of the economic crisis. In order to better focus its fundraising efforts to meet its needs and in response to the university cutting its budget by 5 percent, Cornell’s Department of Alumni Affairs and Development recently laid off 41 employees, around 10 percent of the department’s workforce. Richard Banks, associate vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell, said the positions were cut based on which positions were least crucial. He said Cornell...

The superstars at Harvard defied markets for years-- until now. Here's the inside story of how they finally tripped up.Stocks were tumbling last fall as the new school year began, but at Harvard University it was as if the boom had never ended. Workers were digging across the river from Harvard's Cambridge, Mass. home, the start of a grand expansion that was to eventually almost double the size of the university. Budgets were plump, and students from middle-class families were getting big tuition breaks under an ambitious new financial aid program. The lavish spending was made possible by the earnings...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - If it seems like a nightmare now, it started with a dream come true. Anna Viviano got into one of the best schools in the country, and as an ROTC recruit, she didn't have to pay a penny. "I talked to a couple recruiters and they were just like you can go to Vanderbilt for free," she recalled. And for two and a-half years, Viviano thrived -- second in her ROTC class and a near-perfect GPA. "I thought everything was going swimmingly -- was right on track to do what I wanted," she said. Then came...

Flood of U.S. aid doesn't always match schools' needs By Sam Dillon Published: March 22, 2009 RANDOLPH, Utah: Dale Lamborn, the superintendent of a somewhat threadbare rural school district, feels the pain of Utah's economic crisis every day as he tinkers with his shrinking budget, struggling to avoid laying off teachers or cutting classes. Just across the border in Wyoming, a state awash in oil and gas money, James Bailey runs a wealthier district. It has a new elementary school and gives every child an Apple laptop. But under the Obama administration's education stimulus package, Mr. Lamborn, who needs every...

A push to obtain federal stimulus dollars for Nevada without strings attached could ultimately hurt the state college system, higher education officials say. Gov. Jim Gibbons this week asked the Obama administration to waive a requirement that the state put up more of its money to get stimulus funding for education. Assembly Democrats and Nevada’s three U.S. House representatives supported the request. But higher education officials, including Chancellor Jim Rogers, want that federal requirement to remain. If it is removed, they contend, the state could underfund the college system, creating a problem that will remain long after the federal money...

To no one’s surprise, President Obama plans to ask Congress to spend billions of dollars on public education. As he stated in his presidential agenda on education, the country cannot afford four more years of neglect and indifference. This neglect and indifference, according to the president, occurred despite the fact that in the last four years, the federal government and the states have spent more money on public education than at any other time in the history of our nation. What is surprising about Mr. Obama’s education initiative is his priority on early childhood education. His “Zero to Five Plan”...

This Morris County community [Rockaway Borough] of 6,000 residents and two schools has been among a growing number of suburban districts in New Jersey expanding into public preschool, seeing the benefits of starting early to teach children learning and social skills. Now, more programs may be on the horizon, under an ambitious — some say overly ambitious — plan approved by Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the State Legislature in last year’s new school funding formula. Modeled after court-required preschools in the state’s urban districts, the far-reaching law calls on virtually every district to start providing all-day programs for their...

Renewing a battle waged during the Clinton administration, President Barack Obama proposed to eliminate private lenders from the student-loan market and have the federal government make all such loans directly. In his spending blueprint for fiscal 2010, Mr. Obama said the shift to the Department of Education's so-called direct-lending program would save more than $4 billion a year in subsidies paid to private lenders and eliminate uncertainty for students "because of turmoil in the financial markets." Direct loans only accounted for about 20% of the $68.2 billion in new federal loans during for the 2007-2008 school year, but interest in...

The superstars at Harvard defied markets for years-- until now. Here's the inside story of how they finally tripped up. Stocks were tumbling last fall as the new school year began, but at Harvard University it was as if the boom had never ended. Workers were digging across the river from Harvard's Cambridge, Mass. home, the start of a grand expansion that was to eventually almost double the size of the university. Budgets were plump, and students from middle-class families were getting big tuition breaks under an ambitious new financial aid program. The lavish spending was made possible by the...

Government Spending: Did anyone really think $787 billion would be enough to quench the Democratic Congress' thirst for play money from the taxpayers? Now they want $410 billion more.In addition to solar water heaters for rural Puerto Rico and the Raul Alvarez Golf Course in Austin, Texas, Obama administration sources say the U.S. is also planning to relieve taxpayers of $900 million for Gaza, much of which can be expected to land in the pockets of the terrorist group Hamas, which runs the region. To a family being foreclosed on, or a businesswoman forced by tough times to close up...