I remember how it was -- JR
Monday, August 22, 2022
Biden Administration Announces Cancellation of $3.9 Billion in Student Loan Debt
President Joe Biden is set to cancel $3.9 billion in student loans, announcing that the federal government will discharge all remaining federal student loans for students who attended the ITT Technical Institute.
The student loan borrowers who attended the now-defunct institute will receive a discharge through “borrower defense to repayment” according to Forbes and do not need to apply to have their loans canceled.
“It is time for student borrowers to stop shouldering the burden from ITT’s years of lies and false promises. The evidence shows that for years, ITT’s leaders intentionally misled students about the quality of their programs in order to profit off federal student loan programs, with no regard for the hardship this would cause,” Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona said.
“The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to stand up for borrowers who’ve been cheated by their colleges while working to strengthen oversight and enforcement to protect today’s students from similar deception and abuse.”
The ITT Technical Institute was a well-known private technical institute based in Indiana with approximately 140 satellite campuses all over the United States. The institute operated until announcing on Sept. 6, 2016, that it would “discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes permanently”.
Since taking the White House in 2021 Biden has canceled almost $32 billion in student loans, essentially subsidizing the educational expenses of a combined 1.8 million borrowers spread across “borrower defense to student loan repayment and school closures,” “public service loan forgiveness” and “total or permanent disability”.
Democrats continue to call for Biden to “#CancelStudentDebt“, a move that conservatives believe would obfuscate the transfer of debt from the individual borrowers to the American taxpayer.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jaypal of Washington urged Biden to cancel all student debt.
Representative Cori Bush of Missouri also joined the refrain.
Conversely, Republicans have heavily criticized student loan forgiveness.
“Expansive student loan forgiveness does nothing to solve the problems in higher education and exacerbates the economic disaster fueled by the President’s lack of fiscal responsibility,” Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina said according to Forbes.
“Time and again, President Biden operates as if he can issue any decree he wants on student loan forgiveness, even if it means exercising authority that he does not have.”
In an Op-Ed for Fox News, Foxx and Sen. Richard Burr, also of North Carolina, wrote, “By caving to progressives, President Biden is breaking his promise to over 100 million taxpayers without student debt who are subsidizing this boondoggle.”
They pointed the finger squarely at their Democrat colleagues in Congress, “Yet, when in the position to actually legislate, House and Senate Democrats are (un)surprisingly quiet on student loan debt. Rather than do their jobs, top Democrats are asking the president to do their dirty work for them, calling for an additional extension through the end of the year and debt forgiveness by executive fiat.”
The GOP legislators also voiced concerns that the proposed student loan cancelation would “easily push inflation above 9 percent” back in April when the piece was written.
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UK: North-South gap in A-level results fuels social mobility fears
A North-South regional divide has emerged in A-level results, as the first exam results since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic also showed a dip in top grades.
In a blow to Downing Street’s levelling up agenda, analysis has revealed a sharper decrease in A* and A grades handed out in the North East of England compared with the South East.
A social mobility charity said the government needed to do more to address disparities, while Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Students in the North East are no less capable, but after 12 years of Conservative governments they’re seeing their results go backwards compared to their peers across the South of England.”
Hundreds of thousands of pupils tore open their results envelopes on Thursday, after schools made a return to exams following two years of teacher-assessed grades during the pandemic.
Overall results showed A-level entries receiving A* and A in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were down 8.4 percentage points compared with last year, following a move to curb grade inflation – but the numbers were still higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Girls continued to outperform boys overall, with the proportion of A* to E grades standing at 98.7 per cent for girls compared with 98.1 per cent for boys – but the lead enjoyed by girls in the top grades has narrowed.
The divide between the state and private sectors in England was also brought into sharp focus, with 58 per cent of candidates at independent schools and city training colleges awarded A and above in all subjects, compared with 30.7 per cent at secondary comprehensive and middle schools. Pre-pandemic, in 2019, the figures were 44.7 per cent and 20.5 per cent.
University admissions also fell by 2 per cent compared with last year, but still represent the second highest on record. Figures from Ucas (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) showed that 425,830 students had had places confirmed. The number of students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to gain places on courses is 46,850 this year, up by 3,770 from 2019.
Analysis by Labour, based on Ofqual figures, showed that top grades dropped further in the North East of England compared with the South East over the past year. Figures showed that in the North East, the proportion of grades at A and A* fell from 39.2 per cent in 2021 to 30.8 per cent in 2022, compared with a fall from 47.1 per cent to 39.5 per cent in the South East.
“Students receiving their results have worked incredibly hard through unprecedented circumstances, but these inequalities reveal the Conservatives’ continued failure to enable all young people to thrive post-pandemic,” said Ms Phillipson.
The Sutton Trust also highlighted that the biggest gains since 2019 in grades at A or above were seen in London, where they were 12 percentage points higher, at 39 per cent. In comparison, the figure in the North East of England was 30.8 per cent, up less than 8 percentage points.
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chair of the Sutton Trust and chair of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “It’s great to see that many disadvantaged youngsters are gaining a place at university, and that there is a slight narrowing of the gap between the most and least advantaged.
“Universities have rightly prioritised widening participation in spite of an extremely competitive year. However, the gap is still wider than it was pre-pandemic, highlighting that there is more work to be done.
“This data also shows that there are regional disparities in attainment. The government must work to ensure that students from all backgrounds, in all areas of the country, have the opportunity to succeed.”
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said the overall pass rate, representing the proportion of entries graded A* to E, fell by 1.1 percentage points, from 99.5 per cent in 2021 to 98.4 per cent this year. It was up by 0.8 points since 2019, when it stood at 97.6 per cent.
Entries receiving the top grades of A* and A were down 8.4 points, from 44.8 per cent last year to 36.4 per cent – but up 11 percentage points from 25.4 per cent in 2019. The figure for the highest grade, A*, was down year-on-year from 19.1 per cent to 14.6 per cent, still remaining higher than in 2019, when it stood at 7.7 per cent.
The proportion of entries graded A* to C dropped from 88.5 per cent in 2021 to 82.6 per cent this year – but it was up from 75.9 per cent in 2019.
Sam Tuckett, senior researcher for post-16 education and skills at the Education Policy Institute, said: “The 2022 cohort of students should be proud of overcoming the substantial disruption they have faced, with many not having sat a formal exam ahead of this summer.
“Given Ofqual’s strategy to return to pre-pandemic styles of exams and grading, it’s no surprise that this year’s results sit between the lofty results students gained in 2021 and the last exam-based assessments of 2019.”
He continued: “This year’s return to pre-pandemic styles of assessment accompanied a continuation of several trends. Female students continue to outperform males in most subjects. However, the gap between female and male attainment narrowed and is likely a result of the return to exam-based assessments.
“This year’s results also indicate the preservation of a strong geographical divide between students, with those in southern regions, by and large, outperforming their peers in the North and the Midlands. Large grade increases of independent schools under teacher assessments in 2021 were considerably reversed this year.”
He added: “Focus should be given to investigating the impact educational disruption has had on the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers.”
Education secretary James Cleverly congratulated students and thanked teachers, adding: “These students have experienced unprecedented disruption over the last couple of years, and such excellent results are a testament to their resilience and hard work.”
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Fargo School Board Reinstates the Pledge of Allegiance After National Public Outcry
After criticism from conservative lawmakers and backlash from citizens nationwide, the Fargo Board of Education on Aug. 18 voted to reverse course on its previous week’s decision to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before its meetings.
On Aug. 9, seven of the board’s nine members, including four newcomers who took office in June, voted to cancel a previous board measure that was instituted in March before the election.
Board vice president Seth Holden said at the Aug. 9 meeting that the Pledge of Allegiance was contrary to the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.
“Given that the word ‘God’ in the text of the Pledge of Allegiance is capitalized, the text is clearly referring to the Judeo-Christian God, and therefore, it does not include any other faiths such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,” Holden said, adding that this made the pledge of allegiance a “non-inclusionary act.”
Reciting the pledge is a “non-inclusionary act” and there is text within the pledge that is “simply not true,” Holden added.
“The statement that we are ‘one nation under God’ is simply an untrue statement,” Holden said. “We are one nation under many or no gods.”
Tracie Newman, who is board president, recommended that a member recite “a shared statement of purpose that would bring us all together” at the start of the meetings instead of the pledge, adding that it would be “unifying.”
“I’m just not sure that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is a useful way to begin every one of our board meetings,” Newman said at the Aug. 9 meeting.
North Dakota’s Republican Party called the board’s Aug. 9 vote “laughable” and an “affront to our American values.”
Republican State Sen. Scott Meyer told North Dakota media outlets last week that he would start work on a school voucher bill draft to allow public money to pay for private school tuition.
“These positions like by the Fargo School Board just don’t align with North Dakota values,” he said. “The logical solution is to just give parents that option to help educate their kids.”
Robin Nelson was one of two board members who voted on Aug. 9 to keep the pledge.
“It was a very easy ‘no’ vote from me from the get-go. I knew right away it would be controversial,” Nelson told Fargo’s Valley News Live.
“Our focus should be on our great students and teachers and education, but this is going to detract from that and really shed more negative publicity on the Fargo school district, and quite frankly, we don’t need that.”
Nelson’s words were proved correct. The decision prompted an outcry across the country, which led the board to hold the Aug. 18 meeting to discuss reinstating the pledge.
“That is perpetuating Critical Race Theory, which is against the law in North Dakota,” Fargo parent Jake Schmitz told Fox & Friends last week following the initial vote to ban the Pledge of Allegiance.
“The next logical step in the progression is [they’ll] want to remove it from schools because it’s a non-inclusionary act which is a bunch of [expletive].”
At the special meeting on Aug. 18, the board discussed the volume of angry emails and voicemails directed at members.
Nyamal Dei, a refugee from war-torn Sudan, was among those who received messages from irate citizens.
Dei was one of the seven members who voted on Aug. 10 to eliminate the pledge. At the special meeting, she was the only board member to vote no on reinstatement.
“We won’t be rewarding our children or students in our district for acting in this way,” Dei said at the special meeting.
“But know that this moment will pass. Let’s get back to the work that we are elected to do and that is to find a solution to our teacher shortages, mental health issues, and academic achievement for our students.”
Greg Clark, who also serves on the board, said that less than 20 percent of the “angry messages” were from Fargo residents.
He admitted that his vote to reinstate the pledge was influenced by people who do not live in the district.
“But I hope you’ll forgive me because I truly believe it is in the best interest of our schools to do so,” Clark said.
“The disruptions and the threats must end so that we can have a successful start to our school year.”
Holden voted to bring back the pledge, but not before expressing reluctance.
“Do you concede the battle to win the war?” Holden said.
“I’m also concerned about what might happen to this board in the future because we’re going to have to probably be prepared to take more heat than we normally do for decisions that we make because that there may be a perception of success.”
David Paulson, a former board member who proposed that the pledge be recited before meetings in March when he was still in office, said that the current board members were “misinterpreting” what the words mean.
The March motion passed 6-2. Holden was one of the two who voted no.
“We are misinterpreting the Pledge of Allegiance,” Paulson said at the Aug. 9 meeting.
“The pledge isn’t a show of our patriotism; it’s an affirmation of our commitment and our loyalty to the greater cause, and that greater cause is freedom.”
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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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