Friday, September 14, 2012

Is Bloom's Portrait of Iowa and Iowans out of Bounds?

The infamous article in Atlantic Monthly's online edition from the journalism professor at Iowa, Stephen Bloom, continues to elicit critical reactions from those who know the state best.  How fair was the Professor's Portrayal? 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

We Built It!

Whatever happened to the sense of gratitude -- let alone recognition of the role of government, teachers, breaks, ohters -- that most Americans seem to feel about their luck in being alive in this country, at this time?  Watching the GOP convention speeches, framed around the the President's remark recently that no one, no matter how successful, does it solely on his own, it's easy for someone like me who was the beneficiary of a Congress who passed the National Defense Education Act to help finance the college costs of those like me from families who didn't have the means to afford tution and fees costs for all their kids.  The speakers -- Santorum, Nikki Haley, even Ann Romney, and Chris Christie -- hammer on the same point: we hearty individualists and we alone are able to say "we did it."  Good for them!  I can only say: it really is doubtful.

DT

The politics of student loans

A sobering series on college costs, the most recent post of which looks at the federal government's outstourcing to collection agencies to run down the delinquent in repaying their student loans. 

The link below is to the New York Times most recent article on the costs of college, both monetary and political.  All are sobering accounts of how students and their families have paid dearly for their detachment from politics and policymaking.  The problem, though, is that the anti-government and anti-political detachment fostered by this detachment only makes it worse.
The New York Times E-mail This


 
Debt Collectors Cashing In on Student Loan Roundup
DT