Doo-Occupy! Bail Out America Trainings & Actions March 31 thru April 3 in DC. University Inc. - corporate corruption of Research & Higher Education. College Students: Your School Is Pimping You Out to a Bank. High schools really, really need to begin teaching fundamental consumer economics, including the proper use of credit and and how it can help/hurt you in the long term. The best thing that can be done is to educate kids early on exactly what credit, loans and banking can to for them, because even slight missteps early on can ruin your life for many years to come.
I don't mean some comprehensive class on economic theory that nobody will pay attention to, just the really critical, practical stuff, like explaining how credit scores/ratings work, what interest rates are, and how debt can either help you or hurt you. I knew nothing about any of this stuff coming out of high school, and I was very much the worse for it. And maybe if kids actually understood the basics of credit, interest and debt, they wouldn't think of themselves as victims of some 'system' after taking out massive student loans that will never pay themselves off (by avoiding loans they can't afford in the first place).
Moody's applauds plan to let UC campuses set own tuition. Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service applauded a new University of California, Berkeley proposal to give each UC campus more autonomy, particularly when it comes to setting tuition rates. Because its seats are so coveted, Berkeley has wanted to charge higher tuition and admit more out-of-state students than other campuses. The school's Center for Studies in Higher Education released a report last month that suggests giving the system's 10 schools greater ability to set policies that fit the "uniqueness of individual campuses. " As we reported today, Berkeley has moved aggressively to admit more non-resident students, who pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of full tuition, and fewer California residents than the school did prior to 2010. It is far from clear that UC Regents would consider giving up power to set tuition or admissions policies.
And student groups say the campuses have already moved too far toward privatization in the wake of state budget cuts. CUNY Administration Declares War On Rebel English Department. URGENT UPDATE, September 16: I’ve spoken with a QCC faculty member who has confirmed the report below and added important new details on crucial elements of the story, including the vote count from the faculty meeting, the nature of the administration’s threats, and the department’s plans for the future. Please read and distribute today’s post before continuing. This is an astounding story.
On Wednesday the English department at Queensborough Community College voted not to adopt a policy of the City University of New York to reduce composition course credits from four to three. In so doing, they rejected the CUNY Pathways initiative, a proposal for streamlining and centralizing CUNY curricula which many faculty regard as antithetical to students’ needs. Administrators didn’t like this. But they are. Horrifying.
Update: It’s worth underscoring one element of this that I mentioned only in passing in the original post. CUNY community college students are pretty much the definition of “at risk.” European Debt Crisis Explained. The Debt Resistors’ Operation Manual. A newer group grown out of Occupy called Strike Debt is making waves with their newly released Debt Resistors’ Operation Manual, available to read here with commentary from Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith and available for download as a pdf here. Their goal is compelling, and they state it in their manifesto on page 2: We gave the banks the power to create money because they promised to use it to help us live healthier and more prosperous lives—not to turn us into frightened peons.
They broke that promise. We are under no moral obligation to keep our promises to liars and thieves. In fact, we are morally obligated to find a way to stop this system rather than continuing to perpetuate it. This collective act of resistance may be the only way of salvaging democracy because the campaign to plunge the world into debt is a calculated attack on the very possibility of democracy.
To the financial establishment of the world, we have only one thing to say: We owe you nothing. Like this: 8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance. Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.
Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?”
Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them. How exactly has American society subdued young Americans? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Get on the bus to stop student debt | Student Labor Action Project.
By Chris Hicks, National Student Labor Action Project Coordinator A month ago I was standing outside of Sallie Mae’s DC office with over three hundred students from all over the country asking for a meeting with Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord, and Sallie Mae responded by calling the police and having 36 of my friends arrested. But we are the 99%, and we can’t back down – too much is on the line. That is why we are going to Newark, Delaware on May 24th for the Sallie Mae Shareholder meeting and we need you there! When we went to their DC offices, we wanted to ask them to forgive student debt, to stop lobbying against our interests, and to pay their fair share of taxes. They locked us out of the building and wouldn’t leave their offices.
That is why students and graduates alike have said it’s time to take it to their shareholder meeting and confront corporate power! Join us in telling Albert Lord… we won’t let an entire generation of students be sacrificed to build his bank account.