University of Kentucky Launches State’s First Finance Master’s Degree Tuesday, Aug 22 2017 

Education and Finance and higher education and University of Kentucky Roxanne Scott 5:42 pm

Some students at the University of Kentucky will have a chance to manage a portion of the school’s endowment.

The program is part of the university’s new Master’s in Science in Finance. Nineteen students are enrolled in the program and the degree is the only one of its kind in the state. Undergraduate degrees in finance exist in Kentucky but not at the graduate level.

Brad Jordan, chairman of the Department of Finance and Quantitative Methods at UK, says a key feature of the program is students managing $5 million of the school’s money.

“If they make good decisions, we prosper and if we make bad decisions we don’t,” he says.

Jordan says there were definitely concerns about hiring students to manage a portion of the school’s finances. But he says the university has a smaller, similar program that’s been in place for 20 years.

“And in fact, that helped when we approached the trustees of the University of Kentucky with a proposal for 23-year-old students to manage $5 million,” he says. “That raised some eyebrows.”

UK’s endowment is more than $1 billion — the largest of all colleges and universities in the state.

Kentucky is not a hub for finance jobs – many students in the program will most likely leave the state after graduation. But Jordan says the benefit of attending the program for Kentuckians is the cheaper tuition compared to schools in financial hubs such as New York or Boston. The tuition and fees for a Kentucky resident to attend the 10-month program is approximately $26,000.

The program was designed for students who majored in a different field — the sciences or humanities, for example, and realize they want a career in money management.

More than half of the students enrolled in the program are from other countries, mainly China. And most of UK’s international students are from China as well.

“They’re students who are mostly already here at the University of Kentucky and are thinking about finance careers in their home countries,” says Jordan.

Classes begin Wednesday, August 23.

 

How LouisvilleKY’s American Printing House for the Blind celebrated Monday’s Eclipse Tuesday, Aug 22 2017 

American Printing House for the Blind and Eclipse 2017 and Education and Graphiti and Louisville and Non-Profits and Parenting JackieBentley 5:23 pm

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — For the first time in known history, people who are blind experienced the solar eclipse, as it happened, thanks to a developing technology that allowed them to feel a real time, changing image.

Employees of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), the co-inventor of the Graphiti™, and students of the Kentucky School for the Blind gathered together to “touch” the sun and experienced this historic event with their friends, family, and co-workers.

Graphiti, a device being developed by APH and Orbit Research, combines an array of 2400 movable pins with image software to create a tactile representation. A camera provided the eclipse image, and the shape of the moon and sun crossing paths refreshed every 10 seconds.

Graphiti American Printing House for the Blind

For people who are blind, the experience of “touching” the sun, in real time, was a thrill. It also gave participants the opportunity to share in a worldwide event.

“No one was sitting on the sidelines today,” said APH President Craig Meador. “Learning equality is not just about providing the same information that people who are sighted have. It’s about providing the same social, historical and other experiences that everyone else is enjoying.”

The prototype Graphiti used at the eclipse viewing is currently the only one in existence, but APH hopes to have them ready for sale next year. “Ideally we would have had units for everyone around the world today,” said Larry Skutchan, one of the Graphiti’s developers. “We are excited to see how Graphiti will be used in science classrooms, business workplaces, museums …  the possibilities are endless. Just imagine where this technology will be by the time of the next eclipse!”

Learn more about Graphiti and the work of the American Printing House for the Blind at: www.aph.org.

About APH – The American Printing House for the Blind
The American Printing House for the Blind, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in, Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s largest company devoted solely to creating educational, workplace, and independent living products and services for people who are blind and visually impaired.

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University of Louisville athletics program looks to new year Thursday, Aug 17 2017 

ACC and Cardinals and CBS Sports and Education and Learfield Sports and Louisville and Tom Jurich and University of Louisville JackieBentley 10:32 am

Louisville, KY., – Last season, the University of Louisville finished 26th nationally in the Learfield Sports Director’s Cup national all-sports standings, its highest ever.  CBS Sports has recognized the UofL Athletics program among the top seven nationally in its annual “Best in College Sports” review in four of the last five years, including a No. 7 ranking in the 2016-17 season.  The Cardinals have been successful in their new home in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  In its three years in the ACC, Louisville has a combined 333-106 record in the four sports of baseball, football and men’s and women’s basketball, a .759 winning percentage that is the best in the league.  A comprehensive look at last season is available online at this link:  http://stats.gocards.com/review/2016-17/index.html

This year, we have plans to do even better.

As a new season is about to unfold, there is optimism surrounding all of the Cardinals’ 23 sports programs.  But in addition to the competitions, UofL Athletics has significant plans for the 2017-18 season to continue to enhance the experience of its student-athletes and beloved Cardinal fans.

“UofL has a great record of achievements of which to be proud,” said Athletics Director Tom Jurich. “But I’m never satisfied with where we’ve been. We have big plans for where we’re going. Innovation is our expectation.  To take the future, we have to make it. My job is to make our students successful in college and in life and that is why we’re going to relentlessly focus on high-impact initiatives.”

 

There is a focus on improvements across three main areas: our students, our university and our community, as noted below.

UofL Cards

Our Students

1. Improve Graduation Rates: We will strive to improve graduation rates for student-athletes to achieve UofL’s highest figures ever for federal graduation rates and NCAA Graduation Success Rates, surpassing national averages.  Over the last 13 years, graduation rates for UofL student-athletes have risen 17 percent, improving from 48 percent for the freshman class who entered UofL in 1997-98 to a 65 percent graduation rate in the most recent 2009-10 figures released last year.  UofL student-athletes achieved a record 83 percent graduation rate in the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) Report, which accounts for transfers into the university who graduate and those who leave in good academic standing.  The Cardinals’ GSR, most recently reported for freshmen who entered in the 2009-10 academic year, has risen 17 percent since the reporting began 12 years ago.

2. Increased Focus on Academics:  We will expand programming and usage of the Thornton’s Academic Center of Excellence.  Opened in August 2016, the over 40,000-square-foot center features tutorial areas, a high-performance training table to feed student-athletes, computer laboratories, and office and classroom space that serve over 750 student-athletes across the Cardinals’ 23 sports on a daily basis.  Programmatic use and scheduling will include additional team meetings, NCAA Coaches Examinations, forums, orientation and graduation activities.  Two new backdrops and an expanded video and audio system installed this year in the more than 200-seat auditorium will provide additional opportunities for large gatherings.

3. Provide the Best Support For Student-Athletes:  We will maximize the L-Care comprehensive student support system, providing programming that encourages enhancements academically, athletically and emotionally.  From athletic trainers, nutritionists, sports performance coaches, physicians and nurses to  learning specialists, counselors, psychologists, athletic department administrators, Louisville athletes will have the best available. Bar none.

4. Ensure the Best Nutrition:  We will enhance food and beverage benefits for student-athletes, with a focus on nutrition.  Gatorade fueling stations have been installed in athletic training facilities at six locations and will be enhanced with satellite stations in other facilities to provide pre- and post-workout snacks, recovery beverages, shakes, vitamins, fruits, yogurt, jerky and smoothies made fresh by the Cardinals’ nutrition staff. By providing the optimal nutrition regimen for our student-athletes, they can perform at their best on the field and in the classroom.

5. Attention to Injury Prevention:  We will use advanced technology to provide injury prevention and maximize practice time. UofL has expanded its Performance Analytics Division with the use of over 100 devices that student-athletes wear during practice sessions to analyze data, particularly with the Cardinals’ Olympic field sports and women’s basketball team.

6. Jobs for Graduates:  We will strengthen student-athlete career services by collaborating with the University of Louisville campus career centers to operate the most successful joint job fair for current students and alumni of the university.

7. Increased Opportunities for Women:  We will expand UofL’s Women of Influence program that provides mentoring and networking opportunities for UofL female student-athletes with professional women in the Louisville community. Two events are planned for the fall. We will also continue to invest in gender equity programming and women’s sports to ensure that female athletes are provided optimal support.

8. Increased student involvement with the NCAA:  UofL’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will increase its engagement with athletics staff regarding evaluation and feedback of new and proposed NCAA rules.  Specifically, the NCAA’s new Time Management Plan regulations that are in place for the coming season will need valued input from the student-athletes they are meant to aid.

Our Community

9. Give Back To the City of Louisville:  We will increase participation in community service and community engagement.  UofL has ranked among the top five in the nation in the NCAA Team Works Challenge, which measures community service hours each of the last two years, including last year when Cardinal student-athletes amassed over 11,000 service hours through its CardsCARE community outreach program.  This year, student-athletes will further develop their relationship with community partners through volunteering their time, specifically with Metro Parks Adapted Sports and Recreation, Norton Children’s Hospital and JCPS Elementary Schools in the Louie’s Fit Friends program.

10. Close the “Coming Full Circle” Campaign:  We will complete the state-of-the-art football expansion project by the opening game of the 2018 season.  UofL’s “Coming Full Circle” expansion includes 10,000 new seats in the north end zone of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium with club seats, premium boxes, field level suites and mid-level and field-level clubs. This new design will provide the best “in the huddle” experience in college football and we cannot wait to share that excitement with our fans. The student-athlete will also have a best-in-class facility. The Schnellenberger football complex will add an additional 100,000 square feet of training and meeting space.  Construction will continue throughout the upcoming football season.

11. Continue to Provide Best-in-Class Facilities: In the last 20 years, athletics has made over $300M in capital improvements. In addition to the PJCS expansion, we will expand the volleyball arena and baseball stadium.  We will complete a renovation of our volleyball home facility and prepare a strategy for a major baseball stadium expansion.  UofL chose to move its volleyball matches back to campus and a renovation of Cardinal Arena will provide an enhanced home court with new seating and two new balconies to create an electrified home atmosphere.  The Cardinals reached their fourth College World Series in the last 10 years last season.  New and unique seating opportunities will be explored in the expansion project for Jim Patterson Stadium.  UofL will introduce reserved chairback seating at Jim Patterson Stadium for the first time starting with the 2018 season, with season ticket options being offered soon.  UofL is in the process of building a television control room and studio for the 2019 launch of the ACC Network.

12. Listen To Our Fans:  We will continue to be attentive to the needs of our fans. We have surveyed and gained their thoughts on how we can be better.  This season, we are launching a new and improved fan-friendly app that will allow mobile ticket transfer with ease.  Additionally, the CardsMobile app will provide direct access to UofL Athletics information, photos, videos, convenient ticketing options, event participation opportunities and other features (get it here for iOS or Android).  This is just the first of many updates that will occur to ensure our fans are served at the highest level.

Our University

13. Continue to Invest in our Institution: Athletics brings over $30M in tuition, room, board and books into the university annually for student-athletes and participants in athletics groups such as band and spirit. We will continue to be a conduit for growth for our faculty, staff and students. Many competing schools have tuition waivers, but we are committed to the future of this university.

14. Leverage Our Partnerships: Since entering the ACC in 2014, UofL Athletics continues to focus on harnessing the value of its accomplishments by delivering those benefits to the university overall. Future partnerships and activation with adidas, Learfield and the ACC will be no different. It is our intention to bring the best to our athletes and trend-setting opportunities for our students and our faculty.

“Our ultimate goal is to be the preeminent program, the model of how things should be done. Here, we can go beyond greatness together to be better all the time, every time.” – Tom Jurich

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LouisvilleKY’s IdeaFestival 2017 Releases Full Agenda Thursday, Aug 17 2017 

Business and Culture and Delta Dental and Education and Events and ideafestival and Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts and Louisville and Non-Profits JackieBentley 10:26 am

Presenters include CNN’s John King, play expert Peter Gray, social entrepreneur Anshu Gupta, musician psychiatrist Richard Kogan, WIRED’s Emily Dreyfuss and more

LOUISVILLE, Ky.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IdeaFestival® 2017, a leading celebration for creative thinkers and the intellectually curious, releases this year’s full agenda and announces Delta Dental as this year’s Presenting Sponsor. The Festival boasts over 20 presenters who will inspire, entertain and promote disruptive idea creation and innovation from Sept. 26th – Sept. 28th, at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Festival Passes are currently on sale for $249. Festival Pass pricing will increase and Day Passes will be available on September 5th.

The Festival kicks off on Sept. 26th with Thrivals 10.0, led by Dr. Nat Irvin, professor at the UofL College of Business. IdeaFestival programming runs Sept. 27th through Sept. 28th.

  • 2015-09-29 14.24.44Polarization: A View from the Front Lines, with John King – CNN National Correspondent and anchor of Inside Politics.
  • Unleashing the Power of Play – Peter Gray, American psychologist and professor at Boston College who explores how play makes children happier, more self-reliant and better learners for life. In partnership with Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest.
  • The Trash-Based Economy of the Future – Anshu Gupta, 2017 Curry-Stone Design Prize Social Change Circle Honoree, Indian social entrepreneur and founder of Goonj, a Delhi-based non-governmental organization.
  • The Age of Disruption, with Emily Dreyfuss – Senior Writer at WIRED who covers the intersection of technology, society and culture.
  • The Art of Food as Medicine – Timothy Harlan, physician, chef and director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University.
  • Visual and Transmedia Artist Lars Jan – Founder of a genre-bending performance + art lab which explores emerging technologies, live audiences and unclassifiable experience. In partnership with artwithoutwalls.
  • Humans and the Planet: An Unnatural History – Scott Hotaling, biologist studying the effects of global climate change.
  • The Mind and Music of Chopin – Richard Kogan, Julliard-trained concert pianist and Harvard Medical School psychiatrist.
  • The Cyberpunk Future is Coming for You – Rudy Rucker, mathematician, computer scientist and founder of the cyberpunk science fiction movement.
  • The Science and Engineering of Whiskey – Eric Simanek, Chemistry and Biochemistry professor studying the science of whiskey.
  • Beyond Pain and Horror: Rebuilding a Future – William Kellibrew, international advocate against violence and for civil, human, women, children and victims’ rights.
  • To Innovate: Start at Crazy – The Rise Group, high-energy team that focuses on high speed innovation, execution and the mechanics of big ideas.
  • Ideas On The Edge – Artists Ann Carlson and John Ewing, Carmen Montoya and Christopher Robbins of Ghana ThinkTank. In partnership with Creative Capital.
  • Taste: The Culinary Artists of the Region – IdeaFestival’s signature food and networking experience will be held Sept. 27th at Copper & Kings.

Delta Dental of Kentucky’s Chief Operating Officer, Tammy York Day, shared “We are very excited to be the Presenting Sponsor of IdeaFestival again this year. IF shares our core values of innovation, community and integrity, and this is a great opportunity to partner with an event that promotes innovative thinking that can position us to take our organizations to the next level of relevance.”

idea festival

Visit ideafestival.com to learn more about 2017 confirmed presenters and to purchase your Festival Pass. Follow us @ideafestival and #IF17 to get the latest updates on speakers, sessions and other events.

Stay Curious™- Stay Relevant

The post LouisvilleKY’s IdeaFestival 2017 Releases Full Agenda appeared first on Louisville KY.

 

New STEM program offered to California neighborhood kids Wednesday, Aug 16 2017 

California Community Center and Clariant and Education Melissa Chipman 4:41 pm

A new after-school and summer-break STEM club at the California Community Center has been created with a $75,000 grant from a North Carolina-based chemical company, Clariant, which has offices in Louisville, including in the California neighborhood. The program, Moving Forward Through STEM, will serve second and third graders from Phillis Wheatley Elementary School who attend […]

 

Kentucky Science Center’s Focus On Play Reflects Early Childhood Research Tuesday, Aug 15 2017 

Arts and Culture and Education and Kentucky Science Center and STEM and Youth Ashlie Stevens 6:00 am

Walking into the Kentucky Science Center as an adult can feel a little disorienting. Perhaps, it’s because the space is so different than the science museums many of us grew up visiting.

Everywhere you look there are young kids and their guardians engaging with what the center’s executive director Joanna Haas calls “loose parts.” That includes objects like a giant pile of wooden blocks, shopping carts full of shapes and a water table stocked with PVC pipes.

But according to Haas, what feels unstructured — and maybe even a little chaotic to adults — is actually a collection of conscious design choices.

“A few years ago we said to ourselves, ‘You know, there’s a lot of new brain research and there’s a growing urgency and priority locally and nationally around early childhood development and education and school-readiness,’” Haas says.

“And those were incentives and catalysts for us to begin rethinking how we worked with families with young children.”

21st Century Skills

For Haas, the main takeaway from the new research is that kids in that “early childhood demographic” — typically 8-years and under — learn essential skills through open-ended play, although they may not be the skills on which schools or guardians have traditionally focused.

“Everyone is so focused on ‘Can my kid recognize letters, can my child count to 10, do they know their address?’” Haas says. “I mean, it’s all very structured around certain prescribed milestones, but parents aren’t thinking — and this is one of the things we learned in our research — they aren’t thinking about softer skills.”

Also called “21st Century Skills,” these softer skills include things like creativity, critical thinking, persistence in the face of challenges and working effectively with one’s peers; these are early precursors for elements of scientific thinking like observation, prediction and experimentation.

Laney Johnson

The Science Center’s newly renovated first floor has a focus on taking science into the real world, so kids can experience science and learning in their everyday lives.

And many researchers argue they matter just as much as reading and math in the long run. According to a 20-year retrospective study in the American Journal of Public Health, kindergarten students who are more inclined to exhibit “social competence” traits may be more likely to attain higher education and well-paying jobs.

But in order to teach these skills, while maintaining their commitment to STEM education, Haas knew the Science Center would have to undergo some serious changes.

“It was probably about a five-year process,” Haas says. “We had assembled an advisory group that included practitioners in early childhood education. We worked with support of the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, had partners at Metro United Way. We had the University of Louisville Department of Childhood Education.”

This group spent time testing, reworking and piloting educational elements that eventually led to a complete overhaul of the entire first floor of the center.

The final result is their 11,000 square-foot permanent space called “Science in Play,” which has received major attention from other cultural centers. Last year, nearly a dozen representatives from institutions nationwide visited Science in Play for inspiration.

Laney Johnson

At the Kentucky Science Center, staff take play seriously

“Where I think Kentucky Science Center is a real pioneer is dedicating that much permanent gallery space to an early childhood-focused STEM space,” says Laura Huerta Migus, the executive director of the Association of Children’s Museums, an international organization of children’s museums based in Arlington, Virginia.

She says more and more cultural spaces — like art and science museums, not just children’s museums — all across America are recognizing the need to dedicate more space to early childhood learners.

“But I think that that is still a very emergent trend,” Huerta Migus says.

Unstructured Play

So what does this look like in practice? A good example is the the Science Center’s “Shapes and Stuff Store,” a space filled with pint-sized grocery baskets and carts and buckets of bright shapes and sponges. There are some prompts to get parents and kids started on exploring, but not many.

Laney Johnson

The “Shapes and Stuff Store” has “shopping lists” if children want a more structured experience, but they are also free to explore on their own.

“The idea was to give enough cues that you were in a store of some sort,” Haas says. “But again, not too many cues that mandated or manipulated or contrived or controlled in any way where you might be.”

It’s essentially an unstructured, play-focused version of the mini-grocery stores that seem to be in every children’s museum.

“We scraped it all away to really the math bones — from sorting to counting to classifying to volume to just the process of identifying things,” Haas says.

And being in the space, those skills were easily observed: there was a kid collecting all the green cylinders in a shopping cart. Without prompting, he then organized them in order of size. Meanwhile, a mom and her daughter scanned the space for shapes to create an “ice cream cone.” (They used a cone and a sphere.)

Laney Johnson

There are reminders throughout the museum that learning opportunities are all around us.

According to Haas, parents are noticing differences in how their young children learn in this space. In surveys, many reported increased problem-solving capabilities and heightened creativity.

As a result, the rate of visitors who come to the center 7 to 10 times through the year has increased from 24 to 42 percent.

The last key part of the Science Center’s plan for early learners is a library of easy resources for parents to continue educating at home.

These include conversation and drawing prompts or craft ideas that can reinforce what the kids learned — through play — at the center.

 

Frankfort committee denies extra funds for UofL legal services, ahead of expected post-audit litigation Monday, Aug 14 2017 

C.E. & S. Foundation and Education and government and Government Contract Review Committee and J. David Grissom and James Graham Brown Foundation and James Ramsey and Julie Raque Adams and Max Wise and Metro and U of L Board of Trustees and U of L Foundation and University of Louisville Joe Sonka 3:39 pm

A committee in Frankfort on Monday rejected the University of Louisville’s request to spend an additional $1.25 million on legal services, in a move that could affect the school’s ability to pursue potential litigation against officials in the administration of former President James Ramsey. UofL had sought to double the amount it was permitted to […]

 

NCAA punishment is ‘draconian,’ UofL claims in appeal Saturday, Aug 12 2017 

Andre McGee and Education and greg postel and Metro and NCAA and NCAA Committee on Infractions and Rick Pitino and University of Louisville WLKY 9:00 am

The University of Louisville calls the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ punishments for the men’s basketball program “draconian” in its appeal submission released this week. The university indicated this summer that it would limit its appeal to penalties vacating wins and forfeiting revenue and that Coach Rick Pitino would appeal a five-game suspension on his own. […]

 

At Long Last, Signs That College Tuition Might Come Down Tuesday, Aug 8 2017 

college and Education and higher education and tuition Jonese Franklin 10:10 am

It’s a fall tradition: Students don college sweatshirts and their parents, meanwhile, sweat the tuition bills.

One flash-in-the-pan movie this summer even featured a couple, played by Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, who start a casino to cope with their kids’ college costs.

Annual tuition hikes have been pretty much a given in higher ed, but recently, there are signs that the decades-long rise in college costs is nearing a peak.

  • In a marked change from previous years, net tuition at college and graduate schools rose in line with inflation over the last 12 months. Doesn’t sound too encouraging? Well, consider that from 1990 through 2016, tuition grew at a rate more than double that of inflation, year after year.
  • Overall college enrollment has been decreasing for the past five years, both because of a dip in the birthrate among young adults and an improving job market drawing older adults back to the workforce. Lower demand can lead to deeper discounts, especially from private, nonprofit colleges.
  • On top of that, public free tuition programs are proliferating, with New York state’s enormous system announcing the “Excelsior Scholarship” earlier this year. The Campaign for Free College Tuition says more than half the states have some kind of merit-based free tuition, free community college “promise” program or at least legislative action on this front. Rhode Island’s is the latest statewide program.

NPR Ed asked a range of experts: Is this a trend? Have we finally broken the back of the college tuition camel? Will college become more affordable, or at least start to be subject to normal market forces?

Too soon to say: Sara Goldrick-Rab, Temple University, and founder of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, which researches college affordability:

I think it is far too early to make such claims. Tuition increases are not necessarily down in response to the cries of the middle-class; in many cases [cuts or freezes] have been enacted by Republicans who seek to starve the public sector in order to “open” higher education for business. Declines in college enrollment may have nothing to do with prices; we are coming off a recession (which always increases enrollment due to lack of jobs) and it could be that.

All that said, if people want college to be more affordable then they need to be far more vocal than they are currently being, voting with their feet for candidates with good plans, and continuing to keep up the pressure …

This administration is in the midst of raising college prices and increasing debt by unleashing the for-profit industry, and most of the public appears to be unaware.

The rapid rise is over: Robert Kelchen, Seton Hall University:

I think that the period of rapidly rising college tuition rates is over at this point, especially as students and their families become more price-sensitive and politicians pressure colleges to hold the line on tuition increases.

I think we’re moving into a period in which tuition prices increase at something close to the rate of inflation and students who choose to attend community colleges will often have tuition-free options for their first two years. But long-term issues about the cost of providing an education and who pays for financial aid programs will still remain.

Focus on the neediest: Michelle Asha Cooper, Institute for Higher Education Policy:

[T]ragically, the college affordability problem in America is largely one of inequity…To fulfill the promise of higher education—giving all people the opportunity to reach their full potential by participating and succeeding in college—our leaders must target precious aid dollars to our neediest students.

Tuition is just one of several costs students must account for when considering how to finance their college education. Living expenses such as food, room and board, and transportation along with other educational expenses like books or class fees drive up college costs. Unsurprisingly, our neediest students struggle the most to manage these additional expenses.

“Free college” isn’t always free: Ronald Ehrenberg, Cornell University:

In New York State, which I know the best because I just recently ended my term on the SUNY board of trustees, the governor’s [Excelsior Scholarship] program doesn’t provide any money for living expenses.

It’s a quote “free” final-dollar tuition program for middle income students [whose families make] $60,000 up to $100,000 and soon $120,000 a year.

But it doesn’t do anything for the students in the state who are basically Pell-Eligible or eligible for state tuition assistance [based on low income].

These are the students who have the most trouble getting to, and through, college.

If they’re not full time, they are not eligible, and it’s difficult for them to be full-time because they are supporting their own families. Plus, the additional living costs of attending a four-year college are more expensive than tuition. At SUNY campuses this year it’s in the range of $6,500 but room and board will be $12-$15,000.

Bring down costs, not just prices: Preston Cooper, research analyst, American Enterprise Institute:

I’m reluctant to declare victory over tuition increases just yet: Tuition hikes could start accelerating again should the economy lose steam and more people decide to take refuge in college.

I’m not really convinced that free college programs will remedy the college affordability problem for middle-class families. The problem is that the underlying cost of education is too high, meaning states will have a hard time funding free college for everyone.

In New York, we recently saw that the number of applicants for their free tuition program vastly exceeded the number of available scholarships. Unless we find a way to bring down the underlying cost of education — not just provide more aid — I don’t really see the affordability problem abating anytime soon.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

 

JCPS seeks help with nationwide superintendent search Thursday, Aug 3 2017 

chris brady and Donna Hargens and Education and JCPS and Jefferson County Board of Education and Marty Pollio and Metro Boris Ladwig 7:02 pm

The local school district is seeking firms to help with a nationwide search for a superintendent. The Jefferson County Board of Education said late Thursday that it is seeking requests for proposals (RFP) from firms, which also would “be responsible for helping engage the public in feedback and forums during the search.” Proposals must be […]

 

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