NYT: College Aid Plan Widens U.S. Role in High Schools

[Pirate Smile]

By SAM DILLON
Published: January 22, 2006

When Republican senators quietly tucked a major new student aid program into the 774-page budget bill last month, they not only approved a five-year, $3.75 billion initiative. They also set up what could be an important shift in American education: for the first time the federal government will rate the academic rigor of the nation's 18,000 high schools.

The measure, backed by the Bush administration and expected to pass the House when it returns next month, would provide $750 to $1,300 grants to low-income college freshmen and sophomores who have completed "a rigorous secondary school program of study" and larger amounts to juniors and seniors majoring in math, science and other critical fields.

It leaves it to the secretary of education to define rigorous, giving her a new foothold in matters of high school curriculums.
Mindful of the delicate politics at play when Washington expands its educational role into matters zealously guarded as local prerogatives, senior Department of Education officials said they would consult with governors and other groups in determining which high school programs would allow students to qualify for grants.

-snip-
"I'm very sympathetic to the goal of getting more students to take more math and science courses, but this particular plan has the potential to turn the Department of Education into a national school board," Mr. Hartle said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/education/22grants.html?hp&ex=1137906000&en=7033fad9c880456b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Smaller government republicans/conservatives? What a friggin joke.

What Bush cronies are going to get rich off this?

[Pirate Smile]

1. Well, isn't the following a shock? Not

"In December, Republican lawmakers working with the administration grafted the House and Senate bills together, adding language requiring the secretary to recognize at least one rigorous high school program in each state. Democratic lawmakers said they were barely consulted.

"We were shut almost completely out of the process," said Representative George Miller of California, the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

More:

"But under the proposal approved by the Senate, Department of Education officials would need to scrutinize high school courses of study and discuss curricular matters with local officials to a degree that Washington officials never have.

"We haven't actually sat down yet and decided how we're going to go about it," Ms. Stroup said.
Pell Grants have been based on financial need, but eligibility for the new grants is more complicated, with requirements changing twice as students advance through college. The requirement that students maintain a B average, for instance, will force the department to decide how to handle applicants attending institutions like Hampshire College and Sarah Lawrence College, which do not give letter or numeric grades. With little time before crucial decisions must be made, some educators said they were expecting considerable confusion.

"This will be like trying to land a 747 on an airstrip built for a single-engine plane," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. "And we're all going to have to fly in by the seat of our pants."

The department's most politically ticklish determinations, however, appear to be those involving which high school programs are rigorous."


Oh, this will be ugly. We know (Medicare Prescription Drug fiasco; Homeland Security Dept. and FEMA) how great this group does in implementing new programs.
:eyes:

[salin]

3. requirement to maintain a "b average" in college

this doesn't account for different institutions and different majors within institutions. Sue, getting aid to attend Local Community College A, maintains a B average for basic intro distribution courses - gets higher priority for funding than Susanna - attending a highly competitive University where she earns a C+ in several engineering "weedout" classes.

[ikojo]

5. Sue getting aid at the local community college may have

had greater obstacles to overcome in order to attend the community college. She may be the first person in her family to attend college and may also be working a part time job.

Susanna attending a highly competitive university more than likely is from an upper middle class family with at least one generation of college graduates in the family, possibly two. College was a given for her from birth.

The two situations are not the same.

[salin]

6. or perhaps it was reversed

having worked with teens for years I know a lot of kids whose parents have some means who screw off in high school, then realize they have to get a degree and need to start at the community college to make up for their lack of studiousness in high school; I have also known a lot of first generation college students working very hard in high school to gain admissions to top college programs.

The point is that there are tons of variations and a set formula does not take that into account.

[Mnemosyne]

2. What will be rigorous? ROTC

brain-wash training maybe?

Idjuts.

[anotherdrew]

4. rich kids will get most of it - they how to make it look like they're poor

the poor poor rich kids with the free cars and a free house bought for them while in school, etc. etc. etc.

this is total bullshit, but what else can be expected from the low-life scum our proud nation elects.