Category: Education

I have a new post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: By itself, this does not seem like a far fetched notion. Hands-on learning is valuable. I don’t think anyone would contest that. But if we are going to treat internships as an educational institution, then we have to ask ourselves whether they meet the standards we… Continue reading Policy Shop: Illegal Internship Season Is Upon Us

The College Board has figures for the median debt levels of people graduating college broken down by their family’s income. The full graphic with spreadsheet is at the College Board site, but here are two of them: The bars on the left are for graduating students with family incomes of less than $30k. Moving right,… Continue reading College price discrimination is impressively effective

I’ve already written my piece about the latest Fed report that showed all young people are taking out less car loans and mortgages in the wake of the recession. The report showed that youth with student debt reduced their mortgage and car debt by slightly more percentage points than youth without it. Extrapolating anything meaningful… Continue reading The debt dance

Check out this $3,675.00 MOOC offered by a company called Barbri, complete with recorded video lectures and everything. Law graduates sign up en masse for it to study for the legal bar exam. Barbri claims to have the highest pass rate of all bar preparation services. Someone should study its attrition rates and related quality… Continue reading MOOC of the day

Let’s say I am arguing with a right-winger about implementing a universal basic income (“UBI”). They say to me “I oppose it because 1) it wont actually make the lives of the poor better and 2) I think private charity is the correct institution for this kind of thing.” The right-winger’s reasoning is clear, but… Continue reading Argumentation 101