High School Graduation – Pay Now or Pay Later!!

Dear Commons Community,

On the heels of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday calling for improving high school graduation rates, Henry Levin (Teachers College) and Cecelia Rouse (Princeton) have an op-ed piece in the New York Times today providing further details on the issue.  President Obama proposed increasing the compulsory high school attendance rate to eighteen years old or until they  graduate.   While his proposal would surely help improve graduation rates, Levin and Rouse comment on the scope of the problem:

“In 1970, the United States had the world’s highest rate of high school and college graduation. Today, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, we’ve slipped to No. 21 in high school completion and No. 15 in college completion, as other countries surpassed us in the quality of their primary and secondary education.

Only 7 of 10 ninth graders today will get high school diplomas. A decade after the No Child Left Behind law mandated efforts to reduce the racial gap, about 80 percent of white and Asian students graduate from high school, compared with only 55 percent of blacks and Hispanics.”

Furthermore, they make the argument that as a country we can invest now in our high schoolers or pay later in the form of reduced wages or unemployment:

“If we could reduce the current number of dropouts by just half, we would yield almost 700,000 new graduates a year, and it would more than pay for itself. Studies show that the typical high school graduate will obtain higher employment and earnings — an astonishing 50 percent to 100 percent increase in lifetime income — and will be less likely to draw on public money for health care and welfare and less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system. Further, because of the increased income, the typical graduate will contribute more in tax revenues over his lifetime than if he’d dropped out.

When the costs of investment to produce a new graduate are taken into account, there is a return of $1.45 to $3.55 for every dollar of investment, depending upon the educational intervention strategy. Under this estimate, each new graduate confers a net benefit to taxpayers of about $127,000 over the graduate’s lifetime. This is a benefit to the public of nearly $90 billion for each year of success in reducing the number of high school dropouts by 700,000 — or something close to $1 trillion after 11 years. That’s real money — and a reason both liberals and conservatives should rally behind dropout prevention as an element of economic recovery, leaving aside the ethical dimensions of educating our young people.”

YES!!

Tony

 

 

President Obama – State of the Union!!

Dear Commons Community,

President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union speech last night.  He was on message and engaging but much of what he said sounded like he was campaigning.  There was a lot about the economy, jobs, the national debt, winding down the war in Afghanistan,  energy, etc.  He also talk a good deal more about education than I thought he would.  Workforce development, community colleges, stop teacher bashing, college costs, and instructional technology.  See excerpt below on education-related comments.   The full text of his speech is available at the Huffington Post.

A highlight of the evening was when President Obama and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords embraced just as he walked into the chamber.

Tony

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Excerpt from State of the Union

Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie’s tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant.

I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did. Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My Administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers — places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.

And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help they need. It’s time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.

These reforms will help people get jobs that are open today. But to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, our commitment to skills and education has to start earlier.

For less than one percent of what our Nation spends on education each year, we’ve convinced nearly every State in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning — the first time that’s happened in a generation.

But challenges remain. And we know how to solve them.

At a time when other countries are doubling down on education, tight budgets have forced States to lay off thousands of teachers. We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000. A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance. Every person in this chamber can point to a teacher who changed the trajectory of their lives. Most teachers work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies — just to make a difference.

Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.

We also know that when students aren’t allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid. We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who’ve done just that. Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly. Some use better technology. The point is, it’s possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can’t be a luxury — it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.

Comparison of Candidates’ Tax Returns

Dear Commons Community.

In the past couple of weeks, a lot has been made of the tax returns of the leading presidential candidates.  Above is a quick comparison chart. Click on the image to enlarge.

You can also go to the New York Times website and see the full tax return for each of the candidates.

Tony

Romney v. Gingrich – Influence Peddling and Tax Returns!

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday the Republican presidential primary centered on the debate in Florida, personal attacks of influence peddling, and income tax disclosures.  First, the debate (now down to four contenders) was interesting mainly because of the early and extensive attack of Newt Gingrich by Mitt Romney.  Romney portrayed Gingrich as a Washington insider with an office on K Street (metonym for the Washington lobbying industry) who makes millions of dollars peddling influence for clients.   He also referred to Gingrich as erratic and a failed leader who had to resign in disgrace.  Gingrich for his part was more careful in what he said and essentially accused Romney of distorting the truth if not in fact lying.

The second important issue was the disclosure of income tax returns.  The New York Times reported that Gingrich had already released his tax return from 2010 when he reported a total income of $3.16 million (including a tidy $76,200 Congressional pension). Most of Mr. Gingrich’s income has come from helping corporate clients gain access and solicitous treatment from Washington’s power elite. One of his consulting groups, the Center for Health Transformation, gave clients advice in reaching what it called “top transformational leadership across industry and government.”

Mitt Romney released tax records today indicating he paid $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $45.2 million in income over the years 2010 and 2011.  He paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010 and expects to pay a 15.4 percent rate when he  files his returns for 2011.  Romney’s tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments not wages.

Tony

 

 

Lawrence H. Summers – How Higher Education Will Change!

Dear Commons Community,

Lawrence H. Summers, former president of Harvard University and former secretary of the Treasury, had an essay yesterday in the New York Times based on a talk he gave at the Schools for Tomorrow conference.  I attended Dr. Lawrence’s talk and he was quite impressive as a speaker, standing in the middle of the stage, never referring to notes, and making a clear, precise presentation.  In essence, he speculated on how undergraduate education will change.  His comments were directed to all of higher education but they may be of particular interest at CUNY as we contemplate significant changes to our degree requirements.  Here are some excerpts.

He opened his talk:

“Part of universities’ function is to keep alive man’s greatest creations, passing them from generation to generation. Certainly anyone urging reform does well to remember that in higher education the United States remains an example to the world, and that American universities compete for foreign students more successfully than almost any other American industry competes for foreign customers.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to speculate: Suppose the educational system is drastically altered to reflect the structure of society and what we now understand about how people learn. How will what universities teach be different?”

He then presented six changes:

  1. Education will be more about how to process and use information and less about imparting it.
  2. An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion is that tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration.
  3. New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed. Electronic readers allow textbooks to be constantly revised, and to incorporate audio and visual effects.
  4.  As articulated by the  Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” we understand the processes of human thought much better than we once did. We are not rational calculating machines but collections of modules, each programmed to be adroit at a particular set of tasks. Not everyone learns most effectively in the same way.
  5. The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever before. This makes it essential that the educational experience breed cosmopolitanism — that students have international experiences, and classes in the social sciences draw on examples from around the world. It seems logical, too, that more in the way of language study be expected of students.
  6. Courses of study will place much more emphasis on the analysis of data…Of course, we’ll always learn from history…the capacity for analysis beyond simple reflection has greatly increased…

His conclusion:

A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could… the next quarter century will see more change in higher education than the last three combined.”

Tony

 

Made in the U.S.A. – Not at Apple!

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has a report on Apple and its overseas operations,   it is a well-done account of why many technology companies have moved their production work overseas.  Here is an excerpt:

“ When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.  Here is a brief excerpt:

But as Steven Jobs of Apple spoke,  President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.

However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.

Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.

“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option.”

Tony

 

Newt Gingrich Wins Big in South Carolina!

Dear Commons Community,

All of the media outlets are reporting that Newt Gingrich, scored a stunning victory over Mitt Romney in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary today. As soon as the polls closed at 7 p.m., the major TV networks called the race for Gingrich.  With about 76% of the precincts of the precincts reporting, Newt Gingrich had 40% of the vote to Romney’s 26%.  Rick Santorum had 17% and Ron Paul 13%.

The Huffington Post in an article commented that:

“Gingrich’s win in South Carolina capped off a remarkable week in politics that saw the former House Speaker from Georgia decimate Romney’s 10-point lead in the state in just five days”

However, not all Republicans are  enthralled with Gingrich’s showing.

“He is a ticking time bomb,” said Henry Barbour, a top Republican party fundraiser from Mississippi who moved his support to Romney from Texas Gov. Rick Perry after Perry dropped out on Thursday.  “He won’t last. He’s great for a cable news show, but when does he blow up?” Barbour told HuffPost.

“Romney has the plan, infrastructure and resources to win a quick or protracted campaign. Gingrich and Santorum will have a very hard time managing this as the pace quickens beyond their ability to execute in all the places they need to campaign. It’s a brutal process.”

Brutal indeed!

Tony

 

Secrets of Grand Central Terminal!

Dear Commons Community,

The Huffington Post has a short piece on the “Secrets of Grand Central Terminal”.   Actually it is more of a come-on for a walking tour.  Regardless I found an accompanying short video interesting (see below).  For instance, the basement of Grand Central goes down ten stories.  Franklin D. Roosevelt’s special train car can still be seen on one of the tracks.  The Terminal clock above the Information Booth may be worth as much as $20 million. And you can still see a couple of the original ceiling tiles that were left  when the new star/constellation ceiling was installed.

Tony

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nx3WxueAJY[/youtube]

 

 

 

Something Different: Robin Gibb of Bee Gees Composes the Titanic Requiem!

Dear Commons Community,

On April 15 this year, it’ll have been 100 years since the Titanic sank. Robin Gibb,  of Bee Gees fame, has composed a classical tribute to the tragedy, Titanic Requiem.  As a preview, one of the songs, Christmas Day,   is available at the Robin Gibb website, and is performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with soloist Isabelle Suckling.  It tells the story of a young girl on one of the lifeboats, singing about her father who perished on The Titanic. She sings of a light above her, a star in heaven that will always bear his name, but laments that every Christmas there will be an empty chair. It is a poignant example of the many personal tragedies that were sadly manifest in The Titanic’s short but illustrious voyage, ultimately concluding in the death of over 1,500 souls on board.

The website comments:  “This song is paramount in expressing the respect and admiration for those who bravely gave up their seats for the women and children, complete strangers as well as their own kin. Isabelle Suckling has made Christmas Day come to life. She has the right voice for the song and it was a pleasure working with her. Please enjoy”

It is quite beautiful.  Enjoy indeed!

Tony

 

 

http://www.robingibb.com/splash