THIS AND THAT FOR SEPTEMBER

Here are a few interesting and noteworthy posts from around the web in the past month.

CITY CLUB OF BOISE PRESCHOOL DISCUSSION AUDIO AVAILABLE

Boise's City Club hosted a conversation about preschool on August 26 at the Grove Hotel. Discussion participants were Beth Oppenheimer, Executive Director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, and Representative Christy Perry, R-Nampa, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. 

Discussion was lively and informative, and audience members asked many interesting questions. Here is a link to the audio of the discussion.

STUDENT COLLEGE DEBT AND DEFAULT RATES

From The Upshot, a research feature of the New York Times, Dr. Susan Dynarski has written another interesting article about student debt.  Using information from and analysis of student debt published in Brookings, Dynarski writes that of the increase in defaults on students debt, 75% can be attributed to students at for profit and community colleges.

She notes that "Borrowers at for-profit and community colleges, by contrast, earn low salaries — a median of about $22,000 for those exiting school in 2010 — and have had difficulty paying their loans."

Here's a chart from the article detailing loan defaults among students attending different types of colleges.

In explaining the cohort increases, Dynarski indicates that "during the recession, millions of students poured out of a weak labor market and into college to improve their skills. Historically, these students would have gone to community colleges. But with state tax revenues taking a nose-dive, community colleges were starved for funds and unable to expand capacity to absorb all of the new students. Students took their Pell Grants and loans to for-profit colleges. Enrollments at these schools spiked, and so did borrowing."

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL INC.

Again from the New York Times comes the story of Florida's  IMG Academy and its foray into high school football. IMG is the preparatory academy founded in the late 70's which, at the time, was primarily a training ground for future tennis stars.

However, for the past several years, IMG has fielded a football team composed of players recruited from around the country. The players take a full array of academic courses and are often recruited by top colleges. Recently, IMG trounced Florida public school powerhouse Cocoa High School  49-7.

IMG's tuition can be as high as $71,000, though it does have need-based aid for students. Interestingly, the Florida legislature provides support for the school to the tune of $7 million, even though IMG is private.

SEATTLE SETTLEMENT AND SALARIES

Seattle teachers reached a tentative negotiations agreement with the Board of Trustees late last week, after staging a walkout just as as school was to start for the fall semester. Teachers will vote on the proposed contact on Sunday, September 20.

Though its important to understand that the cost of living in Seattle is about 45% higher than that of Boise (Bellevue is +67%) , it is interesting to see the range of salaries in the Seattle area (from the Seattle Community Schools Forum blog).