Students Balk, Lawyers Talk

Currently, students at 25 different universities are suing for fees and tuition refunds. Students’ sentiments can generally be summized in the language of the Cornell students’ lawsuit:  Students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback, and critique. The remote learning options are in no way the equivalent of the in-person education the Plaintiff and…

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Middle Class Wealth Erosion Set to Continue

The above chart depicts that the wealthiest and upper middle class have not only regained their wealth previous to the 2008 recession, but gained greater wealth, at the expense of the middle class and poorest classes. And, now, middle class and poorer families are facing an even greater economic downturn that has yet to be even defined in scope, though…

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Imagine

A Renaissance in the Midst of COVID-19

Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as:  …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the person that propelled the achievements,…

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More Economic Difficulties for Gen Z and Millennials

Graph courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Current college students, many who find themselves at home though would rather be finishing their school year on college campuses around the country, will be confronting along with their older colleagues who graduated college in 2019, 2018, a possibly more complicated problem that of protracted unemployment. In addition, the long term economic outlook…

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Academic Meritocracy In Peril

Dear The College Board CEO David Coleman: After viewing your live cast on Daily Homeroom with Sal [Khan of Khan Academy], I respectfully request responses to my questions regarding the 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, as well as my concerns about your replies regarding current high school students’ and their families’ worries. In stating that students should not be concerned…

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The State of A College Education: How Golden Is The Golden Ticket? Part 3

In Parts 1 and 2, sentiment amongst college students and prospective college students may already be declining, which could be exacerbated even further, as we weather the current global pandemic with closed college campuses and students dispersed to their childhood homes. Additionally, the last of the Millennials are now college graduates, but experiencing a current 41% underemployment rate, meaning they…

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The State of A College Education, Part 2: The (Un)Fulfilled Promise of a College Degree

As I posited in Part 1, although an exact date is impossible to state, sentiment amongst college graduates is set to decline (as seen in the graph above), testing and possibly exceeding the 2009 lows. As the last of the Millenials graduate college this year (2019), many are disgruntled that the financial prosperty promised by previous generations is not their…

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The State of College Affairs, Part 1

In the chart above, the confidence amongst college graduates has steadily increased during the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. Yet, as said sentiment drops with each recession and economists now predict recession within the next twelve months, I’d posit that sentiment amongst college graduates is rolling over and will revisit the 2009 lows. I will argue over the next…

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Summertime, Summertime…

Summer vacation traditionally meant “lazy days “—time to rest and regroup. Yet, for Gen Z’ers and even the preceeding Millenials, summer has become “organized play” and “scheduled interest investigation”, packed into camps, summer school, club sports, and summer reading assignments. But, today’s kids are no different than us as kids—the people who learned from youthful mistakes—only our adult perception of…

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Paying for College…Before College

Parents, no matter their net worth, readily take risks, if they believe their children will benefit. And, the risks parents will take know no bounds—as seen in those facing federal prison trying to guarantee a college admissions to those who go into debt to pay for extra-curricular activities. However, why are parents so willing to take such risks for their children?…

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