Whirlwind notes
Idiosyncratic comments of the week: I found out about a death in the family last week. Fortunately, everyone on that side of the family is sane, so we only have grieving and normal headaches involved. I am going to be even further behind than I had already anticipated. Or I’ll just have to put more […]
Health insurance reform and college completion
I have yet to see anyone discuss the obvious relationship I see between health-insurance reform and education policy: health-related financial crises and college completion problems. There are many reasons why students leave or switch colleges, but one of them is the financial fallout from health crises of students and their immediate family members. Over the […]
Bowling for senators, dominoes falling, or some other inapt metaphor
Alyson Klein is reporting that Chris Dodd is probably staying with the banking committee, which leaves the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) chair to either Tom Harkin or (if he doesn’t take it) Barbara Mikulski. While the rest of the world (rightly) worries about Max Baucus’s control of/chokehold on health insurance reform, the HELP […]
Rebuttal to the president and the extension of the silly season
One of my Chicago friends, author and professional smart aleck Adam Selzer, has the best rebuttal to the President’s school comments today. The theme? “Responsibility is for squares. Slack off, buster!” (taken from one of Adam’s FB notes–not in his rebuttal, but it captures the essence) In the nutty wing of the loyal opposition, the […]
Alterknit educashun polticks
In the alternate reality where pundits and talk-show hosts live, Barack Obama is not going to say Tuesday that students have a personal responsibility to work hard in school. Somehow this is indoctrination, or maybe unseemly politicking for all the 7-year-olds who will be voting in 2012. Though Richard Whitmire and many others are scratching […]