Education

Fran McCall didn’t want to talk to anyone. When she started her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at the University of the District of Columbia at 44, she had no patience for the less-than-brilliant comments of her fellow students during class discussions. So after eight semesters–over the course of four years–she finally gave up and transferred to the University of Maryland-University College, where she hoped to learn from her professors without the distraction of empty-headed remarks. But instead of less conversation, she got more. And while the students at UMUC do like to talk, their comments on academic subjects such … Read More

Call it the “March on Washington to Subsidize Student Lenders.” In an effort to prevent the Senate from passing a reform bill that would make college affordable for all, the student loan industry has mounted a massive lobbying campaign to keep its vast government subsidies. Loan giant Sallie Mae alone currently has more than 20 lobbyists blanketing the Hill, trying to sink an effort to reduce college costs and take the middle man out of student lending. The Family Federal Educational Loan, which has been subsidizing private lenders for years, is at the center of the debate. Under the program, … Read More

If you read a lot of newspapers and magazines or happen to be acquainted with a particularly precocious child, you might assume that most American high schoolers spend their nights swilling coffee and propping open their eyelids to finish crushing amounts of homework. But Matt Hogan, a senior at Evanston Township High School in Illinois, does only 45 minutes of homework a night and still maintains a B average in honors-level classes. “Some of the classes really don’t give out homework,” he says. “The teachers are too lenient.” Maybe, but it turns out that Hogan’s workload is just about average. … Read More

You might think that the nation’s students are drowning in school work. Images of overworked students often grace the cover of parenting magazines, while well-heeled teenagers in Scarsdale, N.Y. and Beverly Hills, Calif. often complain that they have to work the hours of a Silicon Valley CEO to finish their science projects. But when we recently examined a federal survey of students in public schools around the country, we found just the opposite. In fact, many students were simply not being challenged by their schools. Our analysis of a national database found, for instance, that 37 percent of fourth graders … Read More

A few years ago, I sat on a jury for the trial of a young kid who had been charged with possession of a handgun. For the most part, the case was unremarkable, except for the fact that the judge fell asleep during some key testimony. The idea that a judge would snooze during a trial isn’t particularly shocking. Sadly, stories of judicial misconduct are pretty familiar. Public defenders who drink on the job. Prosecutors who force confessions. In her crusading book Ordinary Injustice, lawyer Amy Bach examines this trend and reveals the nation’s criminal justice system to be “so deeply … Read More