Category: Education

I am not a fan of Teach for America, as regular readers probably know by now. I don’t think they have properly diagnosed the cause of the gap between rich and poor students, and I wish they’d rename their organization Give Poor People Money for America, and go from there. For the most part, TFA… Continue reading Teach for America’s poverty safari

I was watching a school voucher debate on an old episode of the The Firing Line. One of the opponents of moving to the voucher system made an interesting point. It’s a point I have heard quite often actually, but one I have never put much thought into. It goes like this: switching to a… Continue reading A fascinating argument against primary education vouchers

I don’t have any strong opinions on MOOCs one way or another really. On first glance, the idea has appeal to me personally. I learn better on my own at my own pace. I never got anything out of class discussion. Efficiencies of scale seem pretty cool and are capable of delivering much higher quality… Continue reading Anti-MOOC advocacy

Although you hardly hear anyone talk about it, our country does have an income-based repayment option for federal student loans. Graduates can elect to pay 10% of their discretionary income for 10 years (if in a public service job) or 25 years (if in another kind of job). After that time, their remaining balances are… Continue reading The problems with income-based repayment

I have been trying to find good info for a while now on this. And here it is courtesy of Bailey-Dynarski research and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. This graph represents the class composition of individuals born between 1979 and 1982 who completed a bachelor’s degree by age 25. So this is a solid… Continue reading The class composition of college graduates