Dear Commons Community,

The law school of Washington University in St. Louis  announced yesterday that it would offer, entirely online, a master’s degree in United States law intended for lawyers practicing overseas, in partnership with 2tor, an education technology company. The significance of this is that law schools have been slow to move to online classes, and the new master’s program is perhaps the earliest partnership between a top-tier law school and a commercial enterprise.  The New York Times is reporting that:

“Washington University will share the revenues from the $48,000 program — the same tuition paid by students at the St. Louis campus — with 2tor, which will provide marketing, the Web platform and technical support, including a staff member to monitor each live class and deal with any technical problems that arise.

2tor, a four-year-old company based in Maryland, has partnerships in place with the University of Southern California, Georgetown and the University of North Carolina for online graduate degree programs in education, business, public administration and nursing.

Largely because of American Bar Association rules, however — under which approved law schools may not count more than 12 credits of distance education toward a Juris Doctor degree — legal education has been slow to shift to online classes. Students who earn a J.D. from a bar association-approved law school are automatically eligible to take the bar exam nationwide.

But beyond that, each state sets its rules on who can take the bar exam. California, for example, is the only state that allows graduates of Concord Law School — which is not approved by the bar association, but offers a fully online Juris Doctor — to take its bar exam.

The bar association does not approve master’s programs, beyond certifying that a new one at an approved law school will not detract from the J.D. program.

About a dozen states allow some Master of Law holders to qualify for the bar exam, but in New York, those with master’s degrees are not eligible if they earned the degree online.”

Another online education barrier broken!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Senate Republicans today blocked a bill that would have frozen  student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent before they are set to double on July 1, 2012.  In a partisan vote of 52 to 45, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to begin debate on the Democratic bill.

The Huffington Post is quoting Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and a former U.S. Secretary of Education:

“In a show of just how much politics is driving the debate, Alexander repeatedly said that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports keeping the interest rate on student loans at 3.4 percent.  “We agree with President Obama, we agree with Gov. Romney, we agree with the House of Representatives that it should stay at 3.4 percent,” he said. “The only difference is how we pay for it. They want to raise taxes on people who are creating jobs, while we’re still in the midst of the greatest recession since the Great Depression.”

How Sad!  Millionaires First – Needy Students Second!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

David Brooks in his column in today’s New York Times promotes correcting  the structural problems with the American economy.  The essence of his argument is that the American economy no longer can sustain itself with quick or short-term fixes.  He comments that the economy is not simply in a downturn or in a down cycle  that will recover if and when good times return (cyclicalist view) but has major structural problems including a growing and eventually devastating amount of debt ($1 trillion per year).

Brooks makes a number of other important observations about globalization, education, and employment opportunities.

He concludes:

“In the United States, there are almost no politicians willing to embrace the cyclicalist agenda, which would mean much larger deficits. Structuralists don’t have a perfect champion either. President Obama is too minimalist. He doesn’t seem to believe America’s structural problems are that big, making his reform ideas small. Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan understand the size of the structural problems, but their reform plans are constrained by the Republican Party’s single-minded devotion to tax cuts.”

Sobering commentary!

Tony

http://www.hulu.com/watch/358340/saturday-night-live-cold-opening-fox-and-friends

Dear Commons Community,

Here is an hilarious spoof of Fox News’ Fox and Friends morning show by the SNL crew.   Unfortunately you have to listen to a brief ad before the actual clip plays but it is worth the wait especially the part on Rupert Murdoch.

Enjoy!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Huffington Post has a brief piece on Hilary Clinton and her hopes for an American woman president someday and it won’t be her.  She also stated:

“…she [Hilary] has no desire to make another run for the White House but hopes to see an American woman president in her lifetime.

Politely turning aside questions about her political intentions at a town hall event in Kolkata, [India] Clinton said she really wanted to see “that final glass ceiling” broken.

Clinton, who sought the Democratic nomination four years ago and barely lost to Barack Obama, noted that the American political process is difficult and heavily dependent on fund raising, which makes it hard for any candidate to succeed.

Still, she told her audience, “I think that there will be an election that will elect a woman.”

As for herself, she says she is done with the political high wire and looks forward to life as a private citizen.

“I would like to come back to India and just wander around without the streets being closed,” she said. “I just want to get back to taking some deep breaths, feeling that there are other ways i can continue to serve.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Kevin Sheekey, Mayor. Blooomberg’s main political adviser, was quoted over the weekend as saying that Michael Bloomberg  stood to become more powerful after leaving government.  To quote:  “Mike Bloomberg has the ability to be the best parts of Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates all rolled up into one.”  This needs some examination.

Michael Bloomberg has made a good deal of money and people respect him for it.  He has and continues to use his money well to wield power and influence  others mainly by silencing critics and opposition by donating to their political and social organizations.

I see nothing of Bill Clinton in Michael Bloomberg.  Clinton’s greatest asset was and is his personality and ability to speak and act close to people.  Mike Bloomberg is the opposite and  is stiff around people and is seen as an aloof billionaire.

As for Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch, they were both ruthless businessmen.  Not that I would know personally but Bloomberg does not come across as “ruthless”.   Presently, Bill Gates is trying to clean up his legacy through his foundation work which has not gone as well as he would like especially in education.   Rupert Murdoch’s legacy is well established and after his recent troubles with his newspapers and bribery scandals in the United Kingdom, his and his family’s reputation is gone.  As of right now, I see Bloomberg as better than either of these two.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

In an interview on CNN today, Warren Buffett when asked who he preferred for president, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, without any hesitation indicated his preference was Obama.  He added that Obama was best able to lead the country back to economic stability.

In response to another question on the influence of super PACs, he indicated that he was totally against them and if left unchecked would lead to America becoming a plutocracy.

Thank you Mr. Buffett for your wisdom and straightforwardness.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week. And Tuesday, May 8^th, is National Teacher Appreciation Day.  The United States Department of Education is hoping that people will take to Facebook and Twitter to thank a teacher who has made a difference in their lives.

Charles Blow in his New York Times column tells of his mother who was dedicated teacher who taught him many of life’s lessons.She worked in her local school system for 34 years before retiring. Then she volunteered at a school in her district until, at age 67, she won a seat on her local school board. Education is in her blood.

“Through her I saw up close that teaching is one of those jobs you do with the whole of you — trying to break through to a young mind can break your heart. My mother cared about her students like they were her own children. I guess that’s why so many of them dispensed with “Mrs. Blow” and just called her Mama.

She wasn’t just teaching school lessons but life lessons. For her, it was about more than facts and figures. It was about the love of learning and the love of self. It was the great entangle, education in the grandest frame, what sticks with you when all else falls away. As Albert Einstein once said: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

She showed me what a great teacher looked like: proud, exhausted, underpaid and overjoyed. For great teachers, the job is less a career than a calling. You don’t become a teacher to make a world of money. You become a teacher to make a world of difference. But hard work deserves a fair wage.”

Mr. Blow’s message is sorely needed as a balance to the so-called “education reformers” and their corporate partners who relish in bashing teachers at the same time that they are trying to turn education and children into profit centers.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As reported in the New York Times, a new study released Thursday by the University of California, Irvine, which was co-written with United States Army researchers, found that people who do not look at e-mail on a regular basis at work are less stressed and more productive.

The study, “A Pace Not Dictated by Electrons: An Empirical Study of Work Without Email,” looked at 13 workers in a typical office setting and asked them to discontinue e-mail for five days. The results were that during the e-mail hiatus, these people spent longer periods of time focusing on a single task at work and shifted between computer windows much less than those who were slaves to their in-box.  The New York Times reported that:

“The researchers also tested people’s stress levels by attaching wearable heart rate monitors and found that their stress levels were much lower when not checking e-mail on a regular basis.

“The fact that we found that people are less stressed when they don’t have e-mail shows that there are ways to change the way we use e-mail in the work setting,” explained Gloria Mark, an informatics professor who has been studying the effects of e-mail in the workplace since 2004. “We suggest doing what we call batching e-mails, where organizations send e-mails once or twice a day, rather than continually, so employees know not to check their e-mail every 10 minutes.”

Ms. Mark also suggests taking “e-mail vacations” where people take a few days away from their in-box.

This sounds like a variation of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times editorial  today calls out New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for cutting funding to needy children.  Specifically:

“Michael Bloomberg this week put out his revised proposal for the next city budget — a $68.7 billion plan that spares teachers, police and firefighters but slashes vital programs for needy children. That is not the way to balance a budget.

New York’s Children Shouldn’t Pay the Price