Student Loan Debt: To Forgive and Forget

You’d have to be made of stone not to feel for these students,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said as he announced an Obama administration decision to forgive as many as 350,000 loans taken out by students of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges. “Some of these schools have brought the ethics of payday lending into higher education.”

I do feel for any adults who took out loans to pay for college courses that they expected to help land them jobs — but didn’t. If the government forgives their debts, then they still never will get back their time or restore their hopes.

But also, I feel for taxpayers, for whom the Corinthian forgiveness tab could reach as high as $3.5 billion. David A. Bergeron of the Center for American Progress told the New York Times he expects the tab to be less than $1 billion, but I wonder whether it could grow, given the administration’s decision to expand the new debt forgiveness terms to debtors from other schools. Question: If Washington can forgive loans for bad schools, why leave out students who went to good schools?

Supporters note that the federal student loan program does turn a profit — enough to absorb the cost of forgiving Corinthian debt. Federal law affords students a shot at debt relief if their school shutters. Last week, the Obama administration expanded forgiveness eligibility to former Corinthian students who took certain programs from 2010 to 2014 and can show that their former schools defrauded them under state law. There is a fast track for those who attended a Heald College in California.

Via: American Spectator

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Arne Duncan's war on women and Children

I’m not going to let Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s attack on moms and their kids who oppose Common Core just fade away. His fauxpology is meaningless. His defenders are clueless. No wonder Moms Against Duncan is swelling on Facebook. My syndicated column today reiterates and amplifies Monday’s blog post on Duncan’s bigotry and arrogance.

Keep speaking up, uppity moms of all colors!

Arne Duncan’s war on women and children
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2013

Just when you thought the Obama administration couldn’t antagonize America any further, along comes Education Secretary Arne Duncan. He didn’t just attack “white suburban moms” and children over their criticism of the Common Core “standards”/testing/data-mining program. The feds’ top educrat also managed to insult every one of the nation’s minority families and educators who oppose Fed Ed’s threat to academic excellence, local control and student privacy.

On Friday, while defending the beleaguered Common Core program in a meeting with state school superintendents, Duncan unleashed a brazen race and class warfare attack on grassroots foes. As The Washington Post reported, Duncan sneered that he found it “fascinating” that the revolt came from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

As a brown-skinned suburban mom opposed to Common Core, I can tell you I’ve personally met moms and dads of all races, ethnicities, backgrounds and parts of the country over the past year who have sacrificed to get their kids into the best schools possible. They are outraged that dumbed-down, untested federal “standards” pose an existential threat to their excellent educational arrangements — be they public, private, religious or homeschooling.

Via: Michelle Malkin

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U. S. Education Secretary: ‘White Suburban Moms’ Upset Common Core Shows Their Kids Aren’t ‘Brilliant’

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! IS HE SERIOUS WITH THIS CRAP?

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

 

Yes, he really said that. But he has said similar things before. What, exactly, is he talking about?

In his cheerleading for the controversial Common Core State Standards — which were approved by 45 states and the District of Columbia and are now being implemented across the country (though some states are reconsidering) — Duncan has repeatedly noted that the standards and the standardized testing that goes along with them are more difficult than students in most states have confronted.

The Common Core was designed to elevate teaching and learning. Supporters say it does that; critics say it doesn’t and that some of the standards, especially for young children, are not developmentally appropriate. Whichever side you fall on regarding the Core’s academic value, there is no question that their implementation in many areas has been miserable — so miserable that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a Core supporter, recently compared it to another particularly troubled rollout:

You think the Obamacare implementation is bad? The implementation of the Common Core is far worse.

Via: Washington Post

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