I remember how it was -- JR
Biden admin to cancel $5.8B in school loans for former Corinthian College students
I am reasonably happy with this measure. The students were clearly defrauded and most of them were probably poor. Giving them relief could therefore be seen as justice
The Biden administration says it will cancel federal student loans for some 560,000 borrowers who attended the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain.
Under the new action, hundreds of thousands of students who attended the now-defunct chain will receive $5.8 billion in full loan discharges – the largest of its kind in the Department of Eduction's history.
"As of today, every student deceived, defrauded and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep."
Thousands of former Corinthian students were already eligible for debt cancellation, but they had to file paperwork and navigate an application process that advocates say is confusing and not widely known.
Those who have a remaining balance on their debt will also get refunds on payments they have already made, Education Department officials said. Students who have paid off their school loans will not be eligible.
At its peak, Corinthian was one of the nation's largest for-profit college companies, with more than 110,000 at 100 campuses across the country.
The company shut down in 2015 amid widespread findings of fraud. The Obama administration found that scores of campuses were falsifying data on the success of their graduates. In some cases, the schools reported that students had found jobs in their fields of study even though they were working at grocery stores or fast-food chains.
Hundreds of students told investigators they were pressured to enroll with promises of lucrative employment, only to end up with huge sums of debt and few job prospects. Federal officials also found that the company falsely told students their course credits could be transferred to other colleges.
The case inspired a federal crackdown and the Obama administration promised to forgive loans for Corinthian students whose programs lied about job placement rates. But an explosion in applications for debt forgiveness, along with political battles over the process, created a years-long backlog in the process, leaving many former Corinthian students still awaiting relief.
The Biden administration’s announcement comes as President Biden considers broader student loan forgiveness. On the campaign trail, Biden said he supported forgiving $10,000 in student loans for all borrowers. He later indicated that such action should come through Congress, but the White House has said he is considering whether to pursue it through executive action.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-cancel-school-loans-corinthian-college-students
**************************************************Rural Texas schools consider arming teachers in wake of Uvalde shooting
Rural Texas school districts are looking to arm staff and add school police officers to campuses in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
"Just watching the response from well over 50 plus agencies going to Uvalde … how long it took many of those agencies traveling maybe 80 miles from San Antonio," Natalia ISD Board President Eric Smith of Medina County told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "Anything of that capacity, you have to rely on outside agencies to assist. And I just feel like the more we can get folks already on our campus, just the better overall benefit it would make."
School district leaders in Medina County, located about 40 miles outside of San Antonio, are pitching county commissioners to fund six school resource officers (SROs) to be placed across the six districts in the county to help protect students from any potential violence or shooting.
"I’m just hoping our county commissioners get on board with this idea. I realize that’s going to be a cost. I realize it’s an extra expense," Smith said, according to KSAT.
Smith said his district is also considering implementing a guardian program, which would arm confidential staff. He explained to Fox News Digital that both Natalia and Lytle ISD will receive presentations on the guardian program, while three other schools in the district have already implemented the program.
La Vernia ISD in Wilson County, also located outside of San Antonio, already approved arming staff in early May and is interviewing employees to fill the roles, KSAT reported.
The districts looking into arming staff are taking guidance from Nixon-Smiley CISD, which launched a guardian program in 2018. Staff in the guardian program at Nixon-Smiley are required to pass state training, undergo psychological evaluations, and be approved by the administration and board members.
"As far as the safety of our students, the guardian program seems to meet our needs," Nixon-Smiley CISD Superintendent Jeff Vanauken in Gonzales County said, according to KSAT. "They are being trained specifically for the active shooter situation. So I feel very confident about our training program for them."
The executive director for the Texas Association of School Resource Officers told the outlet that rural schools need to consider implementing a school guardian or marshal officer on campus or adding an SRO, citing how quickly school shootings can take lives.
"We know that a lot of deaths occur in those first few minutes," Lynelle Sparks said.
The comments come after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, last Tuesday. The shooting has ignited calls from local leaders to increase security at schools with more SROs and other measures.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-school-increase-police-arm-teachers
*************************************************Georgetown Law Reinstates Ilya Shapiro
Well, there it is. After four months of “investigation,” Georgetown law professor Ilya Shapiro has finally been reinstated.
In case you haven’t been following Shapiro’s saga, here’s the rundown.
Shapiro, a constitutional scholar who previously worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, was put on indefinite administrative leave in January for a tweet in which he condemned the practice of selecting Supreme Court judges based on race. This was before President Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Because Biden said he’d only consider black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term,” Shapiro wrote in his first Tweet.
And here is the one he was put on leave for: “Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get a lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”
Shapiro then wrote on Twitter that the nominee would always have an asterisk attached and that it was fitting the Supreme Court would soon be deciding an affirmative action case.
The now-reinstated law professor later apologized for how the tweet was worded: “I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.”
The tweet created a full-blown crisis at Georgetown Law School. First, a journalist drew attention to the tweet, then student activists went on the warpath to get Shapiro fired. They conducted “sit ins” on campus and protests.
The school quickly put Shapiro on administrative leave and launched an investigation of the tweets, which apparently took four months to complete. Was the school really spending all those months analyzing the tweets or was it just waiting for the mob to quiet down and the offended students to graduate?
John Malcolm, the vice president vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government at The Heritage Foundation, said in a statement to The Daily Signal that it’s good Shapiro was reinstated:
I am glad to see that justice delayed is not always justice denied. It is absurd that it took months to ‘investigate’ a hastily drafted and ill-considered tweet. Ilya is an outstanding scholar who will contribute to a robust exchange of ideas, assuming that is still welcome at Georgetown Law School.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/06/02/georgetown-law-reinstates-ilya-shapiro
**************************************************Texas Governor Orders Random School Inspections in Bid to Ensure ‘Culture of Constant Vigilance’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has instructed state officials to start carrying out random inspections at schools in the state.
The Republican governor directed the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) to coordinate with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to “develop and implement a plan to conduct random inspections to assess access control measures of Texas school districts.”
“Among other reviews, your team should begin conducting in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts,” Abbott said in a letter (pdf) to the state’s school security officials.
“Staff should approach campuses to find weak points and how quickly they can penetrate buildings without being stopped,” he said.
“This will help determine if schools are prepared to implement and follow the [Emergency Operations Plans] they have already submitted to the state,” he added. “This will improve accountability and ensure school districts are following the plans they create.”
The order comes after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old shooter had entered the school via a back door that was unlocked, according to the latest account of the situation by officials.
In his letter to Kathy Martinez-Prather, the director of the TxSSC, Abbott said more needs to be done after the tragic massacre. He also outlined several measures to “ensure that a culture of constant vigilance is engrained in every campus and in every school district employee across the state.”
State law requires school districts to create school security committees that are required to meet three times a year. Abbott asked Martinez-Prather to contact every school district to let them know they are expected to meet once this coming summer and to carry out several safety measures before the start of the 2022-2023 school year—specifically by Sept. 1, 2022, and report to the TxSSC by Sept. 9, 2022.
The measures include ensuring their security committee reviews their plans in cases of emergency and active threats. It also includes ensuring that all staff and substitute teachers are trained on the safety procedures of their specific campus and that all drills are scheduled before the start of the next school year.
Furthermore, the officials must also carry out “an assessment of their access control procedures, such as single access points, locked instruction room doors, visitor check-in procedures, exterior door locks, etc.”
A TxSSC spokesperson told the Texas Tribune that it is “designing a program and action items to specifically address the governor’s directives within the prescribed timelines.”
On the same day, Abbott sent a letter (pdf) to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dade Phelan requesting them to each convene a special legislative committee to review a series of topics in order to prevent future school shootings: school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety. The committees would make recommendations to the state’s legislature and the executive branch over what meaningful actions can be taken.
Abbott also said in his letter to Martinez-Prather that the TxSSC should “immediately begin” working with his office and the state legislature on recommendations to improve current school security systems and decide on the funding needed to continue that work.
“This issue will no doubt be at the forefront of the next Legislative Session. You have my full support to make recommendations for consideration by the Legislature,” Abbott wrote
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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