The president counterattacked on the economy in a speech in Michigan, and at the same time announced a plan to spend $12 billion to bolster community colleges.
Jill Biden Says Community Colleges Are a Key U.S. Export
As she wrapped up a visit to Europe on Tuesday, the wife of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said that the higher-education could become a tool to help economic recovery in the United States.
Segregation in schools fuelled by 'white flight', report warns
Schools in parts of England are becoming increasingly segregated, deserted by white parents if they find their children becoming outnumbered by pupils from ethnic minorities, a report by a thinktank set up to promote community cohesion has warned.
Councils should consider allocating school places using lotteries in some inner-city areas to tackle a growing phenomenon of "white flight" in the education system, the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) said.
Its study, which focused on 13 local areas including Bolton, Sunderland, Oldham, Hounslow and Bristol, concluded: "Many of the schools and colleges in the areas we have studied are segregated to a greater or lesser extent and the evidence available to us at a local level suggested that this was generally worsening over recent years.
"This reflects in part residential segregation, but it also reflects parental choice, despite the fact that most people we spoke to in focus groups wanted their children to have a mixed education. Parental choice tended to push people to what they saw as the safe option, where children with similar backgrounds went."
It added: "We heard strong evidence of 'white flight' in a number of areas."
ICoCo was set up in 2005 to research and promote community relations. Nick Johnson, its director of policy and author of the report, said: "'White flight' is certainly happening in specific areas of England. In the case of one school in Blackburn, once the number of non-white pupils got above 60%, white parents started saying they did not want their kids being the odd ones out." Segregation reduced the chance for young people to mix with their peers from different backgrounds, said the report.
Johnson added that councils should consider allocating school places by lottery, a scheme that has been trialled at some schools in Brighton. "If you did that in Blackburn or Bolton or Oldham, it would have a dramatic effect on the schools' composition ... if you accept the argument that all forms of segregation in education are bad, you do need to do something about it," he said.
The report found that less popular schools with spare places sometimes admitted large numbers of immigrant pupils in a short time. It cited the case of an unnamed school at which, at the end of 2005, 85% of pupils were white British. Over the next two terms, pupils from 15 to 20 Somali families were admitted.
"Many white parents reacted negatively, arguing that their children were being disadvantaged by large numbers of non-English speakers. By September 2006, 60 white children had been removed from the school ... and the percentage of black and minority ethnic pupils rose to 45%. But many white families stayed," the report said.
Researchers also found evidence of pupils of different ethnicities not mixing even when they were sharing classes and playgrounds.
L.A. Schools Budget Cut, 2,000 Teachers Gone
The Los Angeles Unified School Board has approved a budget that will trim nearly $1.6 billion over the next three years. More than 2,000 teachers will be laid off, as well as thousands of other school employees.
The Los Angeles Unified School Board has approved a budget that will trim nearly $1.6 billion over the next three years. More than 2,000 teachers will be laid off, as well as thousands of other school employees.
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Survey Shows Gap Between Scientists and the Public
On the whole, scientists believe American research leads the world, but only 17 percent of the public agree, a new survey has found.
Bleak Economy Squeezes Community Colleges
The depressed economy has students lined up to enroll at community colleges. At any other time, surging enrollment would be seen as a boon, but the spike comes as state and local governments are cutting financial support for the schools.
The depressed economy has students lined up to enroll at community colleges. At any other time, surging enrollment would be seen as a boon, but the spike comes as state and local governments are cutting financial support for the schools.
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Shortfall of nearly 50,000 university places
10% surge in applications fuelled by rising numbers of older people applying to do a degree in the recession
University applicants were yesterday told of an unprecedented squeeze on degree places with nearly 50,000 too few spaces available for this autumn, triggering warnings that Labour's decade-long drive to make higher education less elitist will be undermined unless more money is found to expand universities.
Applications to universities surged by nearly 10% in the past year, fuelled partly by rising numbers of older people applying to do a degree in the recession. There are 52,000 extra people attempting to get a full-time place at university this year but only 3,000 extra spaces in English institutions, after the government capped the number to avoid a cash crisis.
Ministers are now working on emergency plans to increase places by 10,000 to ease the looming crisis, but universities could veto the moves after they were told they may not get extra government funding for the students. Student leaders, vice-chancellors and the government's watchdog charged with ensuring fair access to universities all warned that some students could miss out in the squeeze this year.
The universities admissions service, Ucas, yesterday confirmed that there has been an increase in applications of 9.7% compared with the same point in the applications cycle last year. So far this year, 592,312 people have applied to universities to start courses this autumn, compared with 540,108 in July last year. The rate of growth in applications is higher among mature students than school leavers, with a 14.9% increase in the proportion of applicants aged 21 to 24, and an 18.8% increase from applicants over the age of 25.
There have been disproportionately high increases in applications to study nursing, hospitality, engineering and courses combining sciences and languages, indicating that students are now looking to gain hard skills at university. Applications to economics courses also increased by 13.8%.
Most university places will be filled when A-level results are announced, leaving very few places left for students to get through clearing, the system for allocating leftover places. Some universities are now warning there will be just 16,000 places in clearing, compared with 43,000 last year.
The cap on numbers was introduced to help ease a £200m black hole in the university budget discovered at the end of last year. Vice-chancellors were also told they face fines if they over-recruit. There are now concerns that admissions offices have been conservative in their offers to avoid incurring the fines, meaning they could in fact end up inadvertently under-recruiting, so even more would-be students miss out.
There are also fears that the competition could force out students from the poorest areas of the country, the very ones the government is trying to attract.
Sir Martin Harris, director of the Office for Fair Access (Offa), said: "It will be very important to ensure that applications from lower income families and other under-represented groups are not disproportionately affected by the increased demand for places this autumn."
He said the rise in applications resulted from the efforts of universities to encourage applications from lower income families, adding: "It would be an enormous waste if these efforts were set back just when they are starting to bear real fruit."
Wes Streeting, the NUS president, called on the government to fund more places. "We understand the current pressures on public finances, but the government must also make the right long-term decisions. It is surely better to bear the cost of increasing opportunities in education and training now than to shoulder the burden of long-term unemployment later."
David Lammy, the higher education minister, said: "There are record numbers of students currently in higher education – 300,000 more than in 1997. And this year we expect that there will be 40,000 more accepted applicants than just three years ago.
"Students who get the grades to meet their offer will secure a place at university this summer, but we will continue to work with the sector to support those who do not, and to manage increased demand."
Most popular subjects
(% increase since last year)
Journalism 27.20%
Nursing 24.00%
Mechanical engineering 19.10%
American studies 18.00%
Hospitality, leisure, tourism and transport 17.40%
Philosophy 16.70%
Politics 16.70%
Economics 13.80%
General Engineering 12.60%
Marketing 11.70%
Obama Administration Pushes Merit Pay
Last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan challenged the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, to drop its opposition to merit pay. The union's leadership says it's willing to talk, but most of its rank and file want no part of it. As more and more Democrats in Congress line up behind the idea, they may have no choice.
Last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan challenged the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, to drop its opposition to merit pay. The union's leadership says it's willing to talk, but most of its rank and file want no part of it. As more and more Democrats in Congress line up behind the idea, they may have no choice.
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Court Upholds Dismissal of Colorado Professor
Three months after a jury ruled he was wrongfully terminated for his political views, Ward L. Churchill was denied a bid to return to his teaching job.
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