"Colleges, banks in card deals that are costly to students" May 30, 2012
WASHINGTON — As many as 900 colleges are pushing students into using payment cards that carry hefty costs, sometimes even to get to their financial aid money, according to a report to be released Wednesday by a public interest group.
Colleges and banks rake in millions from the fees, often through secretive deals and sometimes in apparent violation of federal law, according to the report, an early copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press....
Oh, they are BREAKING the LAW, huh? Someone call the Justice Department.
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Hey, you are prepared to make sacrifices aren't you, kid?
"Debit cards tied to student aid can add up to trouble" June 03, 2012
Now comes word that college students get debit cards through their school’s partnerships with financial companies, and are paying numerous fees as a result. Sometimes these fees eat into their financial aid money....
So the BANKS are STEALING YOUR FINANCIAL AID MONEY and the COLLEGE is HELPING THEM, kids?
US PIRG said it has found almost 900 card partnerships between colleges and banks or other financial companies. Many of the schools have experienced major cutbacks in state funding, so the deals bring in needed funds.
So they can grow endowments and pay exorbitant executive salaries.
It can also help a school reduce the cost of distributing financial aid to students by outsourcing that service.
Why not give that job to the lazy American kid?
But the arrangements aren’t always in the best interest of students, said Rich Williams, coauthor of the report and higher education advocate for US PIRG....
No, it is -- ONCE AGAIN here in AmeriKa -- in the INTERE$T (literally) of BANKS!!!
Supporters of the fee structures on these campus card products insist fees are a natural consequence of electronic banking....
Translation: USURY has been made a LOT EASIER with ELECTRONICS!!!
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Just the way you want to start the vacation: with outraged anger.
Wait until you OPEN that TUITION BILL NEXT FALL, kiddo:
"Public college tuitions soaring; Average cost up 15%, study finds" by Christine Armario | Associated Press, June 13, 2012
When those college tuition bills come in, be prepared for sticker shock.
The average tuition at a four-year public university climbed 15 percent between 2008 and 2010, fueled by state budget cuts for higher education and increases of 40 percent and more at universities in states like Georgia, Arizona, and California.
The US Department of Education’s annual look at college affordability
also found significant price increases at the nation’s private
universities, including at for-profit institutions, where the net price
for some schools is now twice as high as Harvard.
At
Full Sail University, a film and art school in central Florida, the
average price of tuition, fees, books, and other expenses totals
$43,990, even when grants and scholarships are factored in.
Related: Romney's College Chum
Also see: Romney Gets Schooled By Ghetto Kids
The average
net price for an incoming Harvard student: $18,277, according to the
department. Net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship
aid.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said students need to be smart consumers, and states need to do their part by making higher education a priority in their budgets. Forty percent of states cut higher education spending last year, the most important factor in tuition increases.
“As a nation, we need more college graduates in order to stay competitive in the global economy,’’ Duncan said. “But if the costs keep on rising, especially at a time when family incomes are hurting, college will become increasingly unaffordable for the middle class.’’
What hot air when there are no jobs here and the middle class is being destroyed as a matter of policy.
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Zach Zimbler, who graduated from Penn State University this spring with a degree in information sciences, said many students don’t realize how much debt they’ve amassed until it comes time to pay.
“The students themselves don’t really know what they’re getting into,’’ he said.
Yes, they are well-intentioned but naive kids. I see 'em all the time. Problem is the college acting like a friend and getting you a debit card.
See: Sunday Globe Special: Student Loan Legacy
I hope that gives you an idea, kiddo.
Zimbler said he worked during school and feels confident about the value of the education he received, even though it came with a high price tag. He’s working on starting his own software business....
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are struggling against a July 1 deadline to avert a doubling of interest rates on new federal student loans.
They are just kicking you around for political purposes, kids.
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You kids stay out of trouble this summer, 'kay?
"Middleborough profanity ban touches a nerve" by Billy Baker | Globe Staff, June 13, 2012
MIDDLEBOROUGH - On the first morning that swearing in public became a civil offense in Middleborough, Corey Mills said he heard more swears than he has ever heard in his life. He was answering the telephone at the police station, where he is a sergeant.
You gotta be f***ing kidding!
This is a small town, but the calls were coming from far and wide, for the previous night at its annual town meeting, the residents had overwhelmingly voted to give police the opportunity to hand out $20 tickets for using profanity in public. One angry veteran came into the station to argue that he had fought to defend his right to swear; he had to be shown the door.
Yes, he did fight for that and the town and cops just disrespected that sacrifice.
On the recommendation of the police chief, who was looking for a set of tools to cope with crowds of unruly teenagers who gathered downtown at night, the citizens of Middleborough voted 183-50 to decriminalize a bylaw against profanity in public. The law had been on the books since 1968 but not used in years because it wasn’t considered worth prosecuting. Decriminalizing effectively revived the law, giving police power to hand out $20 tickets without worrying about bringing a criminal case to court.
Did you just catch a whiff of fascism, reader?
On the downtown drag of Centre Street the following afternoon, some of the youths who hang there, and who are a target of the ordinance, punctuated their feelings with vehement oaths. One thought it was [expletive]. Another thought it was [expletive expletive]. A car drove by and a young woman yelled out the window, “Is it illegal to say [expletive]?’’
It was a fair question, and one whose answer, according to freedom of speech specialists, is probably no.
David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, said he expects the constitutionality of the ordinance will be challenged, and that the law will be invalidated.
“Profanity is protected unless it is fighting words, true threats, or incitement to eminent lawless action. Those are narrow definitions,’’ he said. Otherwise, “one man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric.’’
:-)
Hudson said anti-profanity laws are common around the country but that most were enacted decades ago and now are rarely, if ever, enforced.
Middleborough police say they are fully expecting a challenge to the law - but that in the meantime it will be enforced....
Thanks for WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY in COURT, cops!
At a Cumberland Farms that has been mentioned again and again as a place where some mouths need to be rinsed with soap, Robert Guthrie, 62, said the law crosses “the fine line of independence.’’
Why? Did they tell lies that led to the mass-murder of millions in wars?
But he said he had voted for it just the same, because it was a town where the youths didn’t have a lot of places to go, and got very boisterous. The law gives police an opportunity to send a signal to such crowds without taking more drastic action, like arrests.
Here's a silent signal for you. Is that illegal, too?
Judy Croken said she has worked at the convenience store for 14 years and been called things “that I knew existed but I’d never heard vocalized.’’
“You hear it from kids in their 20s down to little kids so small you’re horrified listening to them,’’ she said.
Croken, however, did not see the threat of fines having any effect on the youth downtown. And the youth downtown agreed with her.
“Do they think this is going to stop us from swearing?’’ 19-year-old Arianna Menissian asked. “I think it would take me a couple hundred dollars.’’
She and her friends were planning to ask a police officer to name the words they weren’t allowed to say.
I'll bet I know which ones they are.
Many of the teens said that bicycle police were already following them when they were downtown. “I just moved here from Raynham, and I hate it,’’ said 16-year-old Betsy Hathaway. “They stalk us.’’
Must have no robberies or rapes to solve.
Just then, a 21-year-old man with dreadlocks named Jeremy Haber pulled up in a beat-up Mazda Miata convertible. He had another question.
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But don't you kids mind those looting [expletive] banks.
Related: Teen pushed Brookline bylaw raising tobacco-buying age
Also see: Brookline police find 36 guns, arrest man
Brookline votes yes to leave Norfolk County
Millis man facing child porn charges
Yeah, I can see why.
Hope you teachers have a good summer off, too:
"Massachusetts teachers union agrees to give up key rights on seniority" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff, June 08, 2012
In a sweeping concession, the state’s largest teachers union has agreed to give up significant seniority rights, which determine how teachers are promoted and placed in schools, in return for an education advocacy group’s agreement to drop a far more sweeping ballot initiative opposed by the state’s teaching ranks.
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Related:
Leading unions vow to fight deal to curb teachers’ seniority
Patrick backs plan to curb teachers’ seniority
I thought he was your friend.
Boston parents urge changes to teacher hiring process
"Roxbury college leader to step down; Oversight record prompted US audit; faculty defends Gomes’s leadership" by Mary Carmichael | Globe Staff, June 19, 2012
The president of Roxbury Community College, Terrence Gomes, said Monday that he would step down, a move that followed weeks of allegations — including underreported campus crime, financial mismanagement, and missed educational opportunities — that raised questions about his administration.
“After days of deliberation and careful consideration, I have decided that it is in the best interest of Roxbury Community College, my professional career, and my family to retire,’’ effective June 30, Gomes wrote in a campuswide e-mail, citing a number of milestones the school has reached over the last few years but adding, “There is still so much that needs to be accomplished.’’
Details of his severance package were not immediately available Monday. He made $196,749 a year as the college’s president.
Gomes’s departure had been expected, but it left many on campus wondering what could be next for the school, which is facing a wide-ranging audit by the US Department of Education.
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Also see: Parents of slain Northeastern student try to move on
Trip home from New Zealand begins for two BU students
Related: B.U. Memorial
Next Day Updates:
President’s severance from Roxbury college bars criticism
No fruition for Romney on major higher ed plans
To inspire students, principal goes a little gaga
Related: Globe Goes Gaga
