By Josh Meny. University of Montana student Mitch Everts has come up with a plan to help curb student debt and now two Missoula lawmakers will carry it to the state legislature.
Everts wrote the framework for a bill called the People's Bill, which is an option to repay student loans by withholding a percent of a student's income.
"A student could choose between 3 percent to 10 percent of additional income withholding to pay down their student loans, and why students like it is because the payments become relative to their individual income," Everts said. More...

University of Montana student Mitch Everts has come up with a plan to help curb student debt and now two Missoula lawmakers will carry it to the state legislature.

Everts wrote the framework for a bill called the People's Bill, which is an option to repay student loans by withholding a percent of a student's income.

"A student could choose between 3 percent to 10 percent of additional income withholding to pay down their student loans, and why students like it is because the payments become relative to their individual income," Everts said.

By David Shepardson. President Barack Obama says colleges and universities should be able to offer racial preferences in college admissions if they do it in a "careful way."
In an interview published Monday with the New Yorker magazine, the president said schools should be allowed to use racial preferences in admissions. More...

By Frank Islam and Ed Crego. In the middle 90's, "value" was the hot new word and every business was trying to improve its value equation -- which we operationally define as "outcomes divided by cost."
Now, almost two decades later, it appears that higher education is hearing the message that value is important and matters to its customers (i.e., students). But, unfortunately, higher education in general does not appear to be getting that message. More...

By CCAP. Higher education is notorious for adjusting slowly to change. Despite its status quo position on higher learning, the pedagogical view that instruction must be taught in the traditional classroom has long been defeated. Adaptive learning technologies, a hot topic among postsecondary pundits at the moment, seem to have risen in its wake.
Many believe adaptive learning technologies will pave the way for a pedagogical renaissance. In a recent Gallup and Inside Higher Ed survey, two in three college and university presidents believed adaptive learning would make a “positive impact on higher education.” Understood as computer-based or online systems which modify the way material is presented, adaptive learning technologies are meant to be interactive tools for both teachers and students. More...

By CCAP. In the traditional Indian caste system, certain individuals were so low they were not even classified; they were the “untouchables,” now called the dalit. Although strictly against Indian law, recent news reports say these people often are forced to do horrible tasks to this day, such as removing human excrement from latrines by their bare hands.
The academic dalit in America — the collegiate underclass — consists of two groups. Among the faculty, they are the adjuncts, persons with high teaching loads, low pay, minimal or no office space, and no job security. Although not latrine workers, they are the closest thing academic America has to that. Among the students, the “untouchables” are those students who do not make it through the system, the dropouts. More...

By Meadow Rue Merrill. I often tell my children, “With humility and a good sense of humor, you never have to be embarrassed.” I think I’ll add, “You never have to be embarrassed for honesty either.”
That’s how I feel after scanning the comments about our family after we were featured last week in The New York Times. When the paper’s financial columnist, Ron Lieber, shot me an email requesting an interview to follow up on a post I had written for Motherlode about not having saved money to send our children to college, I had mixed feelings. More...

By Reeve Hamilton. In Texas political circles, massive open online courses — commonly known as MOOCs — have enjoyed a resurgence. Officials have praised the typically free college classes, available to anyone with Internet access, as a crucial component in the future of higher education. Last month, Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor, called on colleges to offer credit for such courses. More...