The need for teacher pension reform. The debt incurred through teacher pension systems has reached $325 billion, hurting the financial health of states and putting teachers’ futures at risk, as detailed in a new report. Education Sector analysts have long worked on ways to improve pension systems, including this Legal Guide to State Pension Reform. (National Council on Teacher Quality)

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Where did all the money go? Fifty years ago, Colorado funded about 98 percent of higher education costs for its state universities; today, that number is around 30 percent—and dwindling. (Denver Post)

Education (barely) in the mix. This interactive graphic shows a breakdown of education mentions at both Democratic and Republican conventions. (New York Times)

Happy birthday. 20 yeaContinue Reading »

Inside the Beltway. A survey of Washington “insiders” this week shows that they don’t think too highly of the Race to the Top competition for districts; they see strong support for the Common Core State Standards; and Congress? Zero percent approved of the way it is handling education. (Education Week)

Dismal milestone. For the first time since the University of Louisville went public inContinue Reading »

Are the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives heading for a fight over higher ed earmarks in their 2010 appropriations bills? The earmark figures in both bills indicate yes. But don’t be fooled. The lack of overlap between funding priorities means the level of postsecondary pork is only likely to grow.

All told, the Senate bill (PDF) provided $85.6 million for the Fund for the IContinue Reading »

This week, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee followed on the heels of the House of Representatives by passing its version of a bill that sets funding levels for Department of Education programs in the 2010 fiscal year. Included within this legislation will be the first figures for earmarks given to specific colleges and universities within the Fund for Improvement of Postseondary EducatiContinue Reading »

A few years ago, while on vacation in Italy, my wife and I toured a winery in Tuscany and ended up spending an hour or so chatting with the in-house sommelier, a woman in her early thirties. After pouring a really terrific Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, she off-handedly mentioned that she had earned a law degree from a public university but had never practiced, deciding to pursue a career in winContinue Reading »

I’ll be on Rachel Maddow’s Air America radio show today at 1:15 6:00PM, talking about why college keeps getting more expensive. Rest assured, state legislatures will get their share of blame. But I’ll also be pointing the finger at people like SUNY-Buffalo president John Simpson, who apparently sees the current economic crisis as the perfect opportunity to raise student tuitioContinue Reading »

I went to an event at the Rayburn House Office Building yesterday morning which was keyed to the release of a new book from the College Board, titled College Success: What It Means and How to Make It Happen. It was well above average as such events go and I’m looking forward to reading the book, which was edited by two economists: Morton Schapiro, president of Williams College, and MichaeContinue Reading »

The National Governor’s Association released a report over the weekend calling on states to implement compacts with colleges and universities. It’s a growing trend in higher education, and it deserves a closer look.

The most innovative higher education funding scheme comes from Colorado. In 2005, the state began allocating higher education money baseContinue Reading »

This article in National Crosstalk is well worth reading, in that it illustrates what happens when the sensible, democratically-expressed desires of the citizenry to invest public resources in important things like higher education run up against mind-bendingly foolish, anti-democratic conservative tax policies like Colorado’s TABOR law. The result: a pointlessly complicated, Rube GoldberContinue Reading »