Category: Education

In my last post, I wrote about how education reformers basically dodge the poverty question altogether. Here is a more technical way to think about that discussion. Thus far the entire education reform debate has been centered on arguing for and against this claim: poverty reduction is a necessary condition for improving educational achievement among… Continue reading Necessary and sufficient conditions for improving educational achievement of poor kids

Joe Nocera has a new piece out in the NY Times titled Addressing Poverty in Schools, outlining the work of Dr. Pamela Cantor, a psychiatrist. Cantor has come to realize what other research has shown already: poverty imposes significant stress on poor kids, and makes it difficult for them to do well in school. According… Continue reading The disgusting and depressing poverty dodge

A great number of students in the United States take on debt when they attend university. This upsets many, and so ideas about how to eliminate student debt altogether have proliferated. Here I summarize the main ones, argue in favor of a universal income-based repayment scheme, and raise some objections to equity financing schemes. 1.… Continue reading A survey of student debt elimination ideas

In the popular imagination, college students are people who attend public or non-profit four year institutions. That is how the press depicts students, and those students are the primary constituency of student groups and movements. While it is true that these kinds of students are the majority, there are around 9 million students in other… Continue reading The nearly invisible 44 percent of students

Education Sector, a DC think tank, released a report last month detailing the dropout rates among student borrowers. The flashing headline was that nearly 30 percent of freshmen who borrow for school drop out prior to achieving a degree. The report also includes information about the increase in student borrowing from 2001 to 2009. The… Continue reading Student borrowing increase largely driven by for-profit schools