<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f6b1df9dd7cc24008b9fe9-1279-959/pouringcoffee_2x1.jpg" alt="PouringCoffee_2x1" data-mce-source="Sam Rega" /><p class="source"><span>Sam Rega</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Via Dave Lutz at JonesTrading, here's a quick guide to what traders are talking about before markets open on Monday. </p><p style="padding-left: 60px;">Good Morning! US Futures are in the green, with the S&amp;P and Nasdaq up roughly 30bp. This follows a tepid rally over in Europe on Rosh Hashanah volumes. The FTSE is FTSE rallying on miners and Semiconductor ARM (Barron's) - while the DAX is up 30bp on the back of consumer discretionary and HC. China was the market to watch, as the Shanghai fell 2.7%, led by technology and consumer companies. About 12 stocks fell for each that rose as weak economic data was released - Tech Heavy Shenzen was hit for almost 7%, while Smaller-Cap CSI 500 was hit for 6.6% as Consumer discretionary stocks got pummeled in very light turnover. The Nikkei lost 1.6% as telecoms were crushed as Abe called for cut in phone rates. Aussie rallied as banks jumped on Macquarie guidance, and while the KOSPI closed weaker, most emerging markets made small gains as we enter Fed week.</p><p style="padding-left: 60px;">The Bank of International Settlements latest to caution Fed against hiking this week, and doves talking weaker China data early has a persistent overnight bid in US Treasuries. While the 10YY is off small, there was a nice reversal at 2.2% in the overnight. That "Policy Sensitive" 2YY is slightly higher, and Fed Funds rests at a 30% chance of liftoff. The Yen is seeing some covering as we await the BOJ tonight, and watch the Euro - starting to finally lose some ground against the $ - it has risen 6 days straight. The A$ was hit on Political headlines down under - and Industrial metals weaker on China's industrial production and fixed asset investment numbers, with copper losing 1% - and the Oil complex is under slight pressure as we await OPEC's monthly market report today. Your best performing energy commodity is Natty, gaining 60bp as it feels darn cold to PMs commuting in the Northeast</p><p style="padding-left: 60px;">It's a very light session for scheduled catalysts today - with only a crop condition report scheduled at 4pm. Down in Washington, Senate and House not in session today, while President Obama travels to Des Moines, Iowa, with Education Sec. Arne Duncan to hold a town hall on college affordability late this afternoon. International Atomic Energy Agency Holds its Annual Conference, and we do get that OPEC report today. Later this week brings us the FOMC and BOJ decisions - both with pressers, along with 2 Fed Speakers Friday Afternoon - Germany's ZEW Survey Expectations; Minutes from Aussie and Japan; US Housing Starts for August - and I count 25 Sell Side Conferences this week.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/global-market-meltdown-stocks-oil-2015-8">RED EVERYWHERE: It's a global market meltdown</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="F3NTU1dzpxuF4acJ9B_9g5mwKWDZ5O4E" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'F3NTU1dzpxuF4acJ9B_9g5mwKWDZ5O4E',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Here's a quick guide to what traders are talking about right now

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58837191ee14b68f7b8b6366-1511/undefined" alt="betsy devos education secretary hearing nominee" data-mce-source="Yuri Gripas/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Betsy DeVos testifies before the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee confirmation hearing to be next Secretary of Education on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>Yuri Gripas/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Betsy DeVos testifies before the Senate Health, <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Education">Education</keyword> and Labor Committee confirmation hearing to be next Secretary of Education on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as the secretary of education on Tuesday in historic fashion, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/betsy-devos-approved-nomination-secretary-of-education-2017-2">requiring Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tiebreaking vote.</a></p><p>The Senate split 50-50, with every Democratic member and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting to oppose DeVos. Pence's vote was the first time in US history that a vice president has had to cast a tiebreaker for a Cabinet nominee.</p><p><span>The vote ended an uncharacteristically contentious confirmation process for a secretary of education. Typically, the position is confirmed without major opposition. </span></p><p><span>So what exactly does the secretary of education do?</span></p><p>Education in the US is largely under state and local control and the federal government's role is deeply limited in scope.</p><p>As the head of the US Department of Education (ED), the secretary advises and executes legislation over education policy at both the K-12 and post-secondary level.</p><p>"The position of secretary of education is, more than anything, an opportunity to be a bully pulpit to express the views of the president," <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/paul-reville">Paul Reville, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education</a><span>, </span>told Business Insider. "The role is highly constrained"</p><p>Created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, the ED is the smallest cabinet-level department. Its main functions include administering federal assistance to schools and enforcing federal education laws. The secretary of education is fifteenth in line for succession to the presidency.</p><p>Before its inception as independent agency, the ED existed under the scope of what is now known as the Department of Health and Human Services (formerly the <span>Department of Health, Education, and Welfare). </span></p><p><span>A changing political and social environment after the Second World War led to the creation of the ED, as interest grew to invest in the American educational system. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, for example, threw the US on its heels, and started a race to close the perceived gap in technological capabilities between the USSR and US.</span></p><p>Today, the department collects data and does research on student outcomes and success, providing national figures which allow comparison between states.</p><p>While school districts get most of their funding from local taxes, federal agencies including the ED contribute about <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html">8%</a> to district budgets. The ED's Title I program, for example, provides federal funding to schools with large numbers of low-income students.</p><p>The ED, through its sub-agency the Office for Civil Rights, also ensures that discrimination does not occur in schools based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/560ee0b0bd86ef1d008bed36-681/education-secretary-duncan-steps-down-obama-picks-deputy-to-replace-him.jpg" alt="U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan participates in an open meeting of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans at the Treasury Department in Washington, October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan participates in an open meeting of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans in Washington" /><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.</p></div><p></p></div></div>For example, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal discrimination <a href="http://acluva.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/141218-dojcomplaintltrGRIMM.pdf">complaint</a> with the Department of Education on behalf of Gavin Grimm. Grimm, a transgender student, claims he was discriminated against by his school district who will not allow him to use the bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity.</p><p>At the collegiate level, too, the ED handles issues of discrimination. Last year, a alliance of Asian American groups filed a federal complaint with the ED against Harvard University. The groups claim that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-wang-says-ivy-league-discriminates-against-asians-2015-5">Harvard and other Ivy League schools use racial quotas</a> that discriminate against Asians in the admissions process.</p><p>The Office for Civil Rights is also responsible for investigating Title IX - the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination - violations. <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2861781-List-of-195-Higher-Ed-Institutions-Under-Title.html">The ED currently has more than 200 open investigations</a> into sexual assaults on college campuses.</p><p>Lastly, one of the largest, and certainly the most costly, areas of responsibility for the ED is the administering of federal student aid. The Pell Grant program - student aid that does not need to be repaid - was the largest area of spending for the department for 2016 with <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/01/14/federal-education-funding-where-does-the-money-go">about $22.5 billion spent.</a></p><p>In her home state of Michigan, DeVos has championed charter school and school voucher initiatives, but has not waded into any issues of higher education. She is the first choice for secretary of education without any substantial higher education experience.</p><p>While it is possible to predict some of the primary and secondary schooling issues that DeVos will support in her role, it is less apparent the direction she will take in higher education.</p><p><span>During a confirmation hearing where DeVos was </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/betsy-devos-trump-education-secretary-contentious-hearing-2017-1">grilled on several issues,</a>  she <span>gave vague answers or said she was currently unable to provide a response. </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nutritionist-explains-which-foods-make-skin-look-healthier-2017-1">A nutritionist explains which foods make your skin look healthier</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VkOGI3OTE6JPVrZkUKdl1WinQtq0BTHv" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'VkOGI3OTE6JPVrZkUKdl1WinQtq0BTHv',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Betsy DeVos was just confirmed as education secretary - here's what she will control

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5508436269bedde652092d73-735-408/mallory.png" border="0" alt="Mallory Heiney"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://fox17online.com/2015/03/09/west-michigan-student-joins-nationwide-debt-strike-refuses-to-pay-student-loans/">Screenshot/Fox 17</a></span></p><p class="caption">Mallory Heiney spoke to a local news station about her student debt.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>The US Department of <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">Education</keyword> said on Monday it was moving to forgive much of the federal student debt of some of the 78,000 students who had attended the now-bankrupt for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges.</p><p>In a press conference, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also said the department is going to create a plan that will forgive the debt of <em>any </em>student defrauded by their college, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/education/us-to-forgive-federal-loans-of-corinthian-college-students.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news">The New York Times' Tamar Lewin notes</a>.</p><p>Lewin noted that "<span>the government has never before opened debt relief to such a potentially large pool of students." </span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/557638bceab8ea3f4fe8f25a-1200-924/tudents-wait-outside-everest-college-tuesday-april-28-2015-in-industry-calif-hoping-to-get-their-transcriptions-and-information-on-loan-forgiveness-and-transferring-credits-to-other-schools-corinthian-colleges-shut-down-all-of-its-remaining-28-ground-campuses-on-monday-april-27-displacing-16000-students-the-shutdown-comes-less-than-two-weeks-after-the-us-department-of-education-announcing-it-was-fining-the-for-profit-institution-30-million-for-misrepresentation--4.jpg" border="0" alt="tudents wait outside Everest College, Tuesday, April, 28, 2015 in Industry, Calif., hoping to get their transcriptions and information on loan forgiveness and transferring credits to other schools. Corinthian Colleges shut down all of its remaining 28 ground campuses on Monday, April 27, displacing 16,000 students. The shutdown comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education announcing it was fining the for-profit institution $30 million for misrepresentation. ("><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Corinthian-Closures/527fcd211ced46929623e37165f17e29/1/0">AP Photo / Christine Armario</a></span></p><p class="caption">Students wait outside Everest College, Tuesday, April, 28, 2015 in Industry, Calif., hoping to get their transcriptions and information on loan forgiveness and transferring credits to other schools.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>In a statement sent to Business Insider, the Education Department estimated that the cost of forgiving debt of students who attended one of Corinthian's colleges would be $544 million.</span></p><p>The plan announced Monday will let students who left the schools run by Corinthian on or after June 20 last year receive a closed-school discharge of their federal student loans. This is instead of the usual period of 120 days up until it closed its last campuses on April 26, effectively adding about six months to the eligibility period.</p><p>Santa Ana, California-based Corinthian, which had operated the Heald College, Everest and WyoTech schools and offered degrees in healthcare and trades, filed for bankruptcy on May 4. It entered Chapter 11 with $143 million in debt and about $19 million in assets, according to Delaware bankruptcy court documents.</p><p>Late last year, Corinthian sold off more than half its campuses to nonprofit education provider ECMC Group Inc. Thirteen campuses, included Everest and WyoTech in California, remained open up to the April 26 announcement.</p><p>In April, the Department of Education fined Corinthian $30 million for misrepresenting job placement rates to students in its Heald College system, and said that Heald would no longer be allowed to enroll students.</p><p>Founded in 1995, Corinthian was one of the largest US for-profit college operators, at one point employing more than 10,000 people, and running more than 100 campuses with 74,000 total students, court papers show.</p><p>For-profit education companies such as Corinthian, Apollo Education Group Inc and Strayer Education Inc, have struggled to attract students since a 2010 government crackdown revealed high student debt loads, low graduation rates and poor employability of graduates.</p><p>(Reuters reporting by Eric Walsh; Additional Reuters reporting by Nick Brown in New York and Tom Heals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Eric Beech)</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-floyd-mayweather-spends-his-money-boxing-2015-4">Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NiaGVpdDqdBR4NCmtjL5odLe14N1R4Hp" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'NiaGVpdDqdBR4NCmtjL5odLe14N1R4Hp',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

The US government is about to provide unprecedented debt relief to a huge pool of students

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/4fdf2ef0ecad04063d00000b-900-675/7180297659_e92a314fc2_b.jpg" border="0" alt="Obama takes picture with high school student" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/7180297659/in/photostream">White House/Flickr</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The White House announced Monday that <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/09/factsheet-making-student-loans-more-affordable">President Obama's income based education loan repayment plan would be expended by executive order</a>, lessening the burden on 5 million borrowers.</p>
<p>The executive order directs the Secretary of <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">Education</keyword> Arne Duncan to propose regulations that will extend the president's <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/pay-as-you-earn">"Pay As You Earn" loan repayment plan</a>, which allows borrowers to pay back their loans through monthly payments equal to 10% of their annual discretionary income. Any remaining balance after 20 years of monthly payments is forgiven by the government.</p>
<p>The PAYE plan is currently available to any person who has taken out a federal education loan since October 2007 or has recieved a secondary payment from the government since October 2011. If this executive order successfully moves forward, people who borrowed before October 2007 or have not borrowed since October 2011 will have the option of capping their monthly student loan payments at 10% of their income, rather than a predetermined set rate.</p>
<p>PAYE is different than the federal government's <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/standard">"Standard Repayment Plan,"</a> under which a person predetermines a payment plan for a monthly set amount over $50 during a set number of years - between 10 and 30. The length of the plan is determined by the person's total education loan debt.</p>
<p>While the PAYE monthly payments are guaranteed to be lower than what a person would be paying under a Standard Repayment Plan, they may end up paying more overall under the income based system.</p>
<p>Most students who have taken out direct loans from the federal government are eligible for the income based repayment plan. Loans from a private lender are not eligible for the PAYE plan.</p>
<p>Here's an example from the White House of how the president's PAYE plan affects people paying back student loans:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">A 2009 graduate earning about $39,000 a year as a fourth year teacher, with student loan debt of $26,500, would have his or her initial monthly payments reduced by $126 under the President's Pay As You Earn plan compared with monthly payments under the standard repayment plan and would see a reduction in annual loan payments of over $1,500.</p>
<p>According to the White House, the DOE "will begin the process to amend its regulations this fall with a goal of making the new plan available to borrowers by December 2015."</p>

Obama Announces Expansion Of Student Loan Relief Plan That Will Help 5 Million With College Debt

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55776b2c6bb3f7203ee55ae8-3183-2241/ap585163078701.jpg" alt="Jeb Bush" data-mce-source="AP" data-mce-caption="Jeb Bush at the Economic Council in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 9, 2015." /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Jeb Bush deflected on his support for the Common Core.</p></div><p></p></div></div><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-debate-republican-live-blog-trump-2015-8">Fox News' Republican presidential debate</a> kicked off on Thursday night with fireworks. There were accusations of misogyny and mentions of hugs with President Barack Obama, but <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword> initially stayed on the back burner.</p><p>Then, about 50 minutes into the debate, education made its way onto the agenda when moderator Bret Baier asked former Florida governor Jeb Bush a question about the Common Core, a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-so-many-people-hate-the-common-core-2015-3">controversial set of nationwide education standards</a>.</p><p>Developed in 2009 through a joint effort between state leaders and private groups, the Common Core has been attacked for supposedly focusing too much on testing and being too one-size-fits-all.</p><p>Baier asked about <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/30/politics/bush-common-core/">Bush's support of Common Core</a> and and whether he agreed with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's assertion that most of the criticism of it comes from a "fringe group of critics."</p><p>"I don't believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content," Bush responded. "It is clearly a state responsibility."</p><p>Though he didn't explicitly disparage the Common Core, his response comes as a stark contrast to prior language he has had on the topic.</p><p>Last November, Bush, a vocal supporter of the Common Core, was less subtle about his support for the controversial standards. "In my view, the rigor of the Common Core State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeb-bush-defends-common-core-standards/">he said at summit in Washington</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55c4042b69beddfe3129cf9a-4608-3072/ap_659790057202.jpg" alt="Republican debate" data-mce-source="AP" data-mce-caption="Republican presidential candidates from left, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and John Kasich take the stage for the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland." /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Republican presidential candidates from left, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and John Kasich take the stage for the first Republican presidential debate.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The tempering of his rhetoric is likely a response to claims that his support for Common Core will hurt his presidential campaign. He remains the most prominent Republican presidential contender who hasn't withdrawn his support of Common Core, amid fierce opposition from the conservative GOP base on the issue.</p><p>Though many Republicans originally supported the Common Core, they have begun to pull back and instead condemn the nationwide standards. </p><p>Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee <a href="https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/595966518783025152/photo/1">tweeted</a> "Kill Common Core" in May. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie publicly <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/06/03/chris-christies-common-core-flip-flop">withdrew his support this year</a>. and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/bobby-jindal-common-core-lawsuit-110377.html">suing the federal government</a> over Common Core. The list goes on.</p><p>At Thursday's debate, Bush did not go as far as condemning the standards, but he chose to deflect a bit, instead focusing on the work he did in Florida with the creation of a voucher program.</p><p>School vouchers are a politically popular issue among Republicans, and a safe area for Bush to showcase his experience in K-12 educational issues.</p><p>But although he was able to direct the conversation away from his support for Common Core, it's not an issue that is going to go away quickly for Bush.</p><p>Baier's follow-up question on Common Core went to fellow Floridian lawmaker Marco Rubio. "Sen. Rubio, why is Gov. Bush wrong on Common Core?" Baier asked.</p><p>"Here's the problem with Common Core," Rubio said. "The Department of Education, like every federal agency, will never be satisfied. They will not stop with it being a suggestion. They will turn it into a mandate."</p><p>That denigration of the Common Core is just not possible for Bush at this time, if ever. And it will likely be a damaging issue for Bush through the primaries.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mba-worth-money-tuition-cost-benefit-analysis-2015-6">We did the math: Is an MBA worth it?</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="B2ZWY2bTp47bf8XXc0yX1YLIhALiZDkX" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'B2ZWY2bTp47bf8XXc0yX1YLIhALiZDkX',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

The education issue that continues to dog Jeb Bush's campaign was on full display at the Republican debate

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"><html><body><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://bit.ly/1AqlQlZ" target="_blank"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/555a6b95ecad041515000e01-693-519/aca-ed-tech.jpg" border="0" alt="ACA ed tech" /></a><p class="source"><span>Arizona Commerce Authority</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>This past April, 2,000 people headed to the Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, near Phoenix, to mingle at the annual <a href="http://asugsvsummit.com/" target="_blank">ASU+GSV Summit</a>, an event The New York Times <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/education-technology-investors-converge-on-scottsdale/?_r=0" target="_blank">referred to as</a> "the must-attend event for <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword> technology investors."</p><p>In all, 270 ed tech companies presented at the conference, which attracted a who's who of the education technology industry and drew the highest-ranking policymaker in education: US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.</p><p>The success of this year's summit shows how much the education technology sector has grown in Phoenix and the surrounding area. Millions of investment dollars are now flowing to Phoenix-area startups that develop education services and tools designed to improve academic performance.</p><h3>Capitalizing on a national ed tech movement</h3><p>It makes sense that investors, executives, and policymakers would convene in the Grand Canyon State about ed tech. Nationwide, venture-capital firms invested more than $2 billion last year in educational technology companies, a 50% jump from 2013, according to TechCrunch.</p><p>Recently, Arizona has established itself as a leader in the industry. Ed tech startups in the state have raised more than $100 million in angel and venture capital in the past three years, resulting in at least 750 new jobs, ed tech entrepreneur Matthew Pittinsky says. Pittinsky is cofounder of the educational software company Blackboard and founder of Parchment, a Scottsdale-based company that helps learners, educators, associations, and employers securely send and receive education credentials online.</p><h3>A thriving ecosystem</h3><p>Arizona is now being mentioned by industry insiders alongside other innovative hubs such as New York and Silicon Valley. "We do have a great cluster in place," Pittinsky says, "and it includes all the different stages, from the startup stage up to the publicly traded companies."</p><p>That robust ed tech ecosystem in Arizona includes startups such as the Tempe-based <a href="http://www.picmonic.com/" target="_blank">Picmonic</a>, which allows medical professionals and students to create audiovisual study cards, and midsize firms such as <a href="http://www.parchment.com/" target="_blank">Parchment</a>, which has secured $60 million in funding and employs about 140 people.</p><p>But those startups would not even exist if there hadn't been an example to lead the way. "Often for clusters to develop you need some early successes that build up, scale, and attract talent and entrepreneurs, and then those people go off and start other companies," Pittinsky says.</p><p><a href="http://www.apollo.edu/" target="_blank">Apollo Education Group</a>, the leading for-profit online education provider, was one such early success. Founded in 1973 and considered a pioneer in online learning, the company has proved to be a breeding ground for a lot of the area's talent in the Valley.</p><h3>Helping students in more ways than one</h3><p>Gregg Scoresby, who owns the Gilbert-based CampusLogic, says: "There is something really special going on in Arizona around education technology." His CampusLogic speeds up the financial-aid process by giving students a simple TurboTax-like platform to apply for and receive aid.</p><p>Whether in online learning, test prep, study aids, or skills training, technology is rapidly expanding what's possible in education. And with the ed tech sector booming both locally and nationally, Arizona is poised to be at the forefront of this area for some time to come.</p><p><strong><a href="http://bit.ly/1AqlQlZ" target="_blank">Learn more about the ed tech sector in Arizona.</a><br /></strong></p><p><em>This post is sponsored by <a href="http://www.azcommerce.com/" target="_blank">Arizona Commerce Authority</a>.</em></p><p>Find out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/sponsor-post" target="_blank">more about Sponsored Content.</a></p></body></html><p class="tagline"><strong>Follow BI Studios on <a href="https://twitter.com/bi_studios_" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderStudios" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</strong></p>

Venture capitalists are flocking to Phoenix to invest in the growing ed tech sector

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/513365e6ecad04831300001b-926-694/john-boehner-sequester-meet-the-press.png?maxX=400" border="0" alt="John Boehner sequester meet the press" width="400" /></div><p class="source"><keyword id="5601" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="NBC">NBC</keyword></p></div>House Speaker <keyword id="51016" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="John-Boehner">John Boehner</keyword> suggested on "<keyword id="210024" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Meet-the-Press">Meet the Press</keyword>" Sunday a theme of uncertainty surrounding the forced spending cuts known as the sequester, which began kicking in on Friday.</p>
<p><span>"Listen," he told NBC’s <keyword id="637219" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-Gregory">David Gregory</keyword>. "I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not. I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work."</span></p>
<p><span>And he also suggested that he's not sure where the debate goes from here.</span></p>
<p><span>"<span>I don't think anyone quite understands how it gets resolved," he said.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Boehner's talking point was clear — he painted President Barack Obama as the person who thought up the idea of the sequester and blamed him for not budging on his insistence to include new revenue-boosting measures as part of a deal to avert the cuts.</span></span></p>
<p><span>He backed up his theme of uncertainty by citing a <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/mar/01/arne-duncan/arne-duncan-says-teachers-are-losing-jobs-because-/" target="_blank">now-debunked claim from Education Secretary Arne Duncan</a>, who said that teachers would be laid off en masse in Virginia. </span></p>
<p><span>Boehner said that the onus is now on the Senate to act to replace the sequester, since the House has passed two bills. Those bills are now defunct, however, as they expired with the end of the last <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword>. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Two Republican and Democratic-led bills failed to pass because of a 60-vote threshold.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Gregory asked Boehner whether he still had control of his caucus despite some conservative members being upset with his inclusion of revenues in the deal to avert the fiscal cliff.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Listen, I'm here to lead the fight against out-of-control spending. And I'm going to lead that fight as Speaker of the House," Boehner said.</span></p>
<p><span>Here's a clip of Boehner on "Meet the Press," courtesy of NBC:</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 11px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit NBCNews.com for <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072">news about the economy</a></p>

BOEHNER: I Have No Idea If The Sequester Is Going To Hurt The Economy Or How We'll Get It Resolved

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/52739e6c69beddb268afe9b5-1200-600/am-3.jpg" border="0" alt="math class green chalkboard" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>A group of Massachusetts sixth-graders <a href="http://ipswich.wickedlocal.com/article/20140529/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/140525758/12423/NEWS/?Start=1">forced to do a trial-run of a new Common Core test</a> has sent a letter to national and state <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword> officials requesting payment for their work.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span>The controversial </span><a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">Common Core State Standards</a><span> (CCSS), enacted in 2009, set math and language arts standards for kindergarten through 12th grades in most U.S. states. Some parents and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/susan-sluyters-resignation-letter-sums-up-common-core-concerns-2014-4">teachers have attacked the standards</a> for creating a one-size-fits-all education model that doesn't always benefit students.<br /></span></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><span>The recent controversy in Massachusetts over the standards began after the state </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">randomly selected 37 students in two sixth-grade math classes at <a href="http://ipswichschools.org/Middle%20School/mid_main.html">Ipswich Middle School</a> to take a trial test aligned with the Common Core. <br /></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Ipswich Middle School students lost a week of instruction time - five and a half hours split into four testing periods - in order to take the field test, <a href="http://ipswich.wickedlocal.com/article/20140529/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/140525758/12423/NEWS/?Start=1">the Ipswich Chronicle reported</a>. <br /></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">After their teacher Alan Laroche made a joke that the two classes should get paid, a student named Brett Beaulieu calculated how much they would have earned at minimum wage, as well as how many textbooks, pencils, paper, and calculators that money could buy. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Beaulieu included his calculations in a letter requesting that he and his fellow students receive compensation for their work. </span><span>After he obtained 50 signatures from peers, his teacher, the assistant principal, and principal, Laroche sent the letter to the United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Matthew Malone, and </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc">Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers</a> (PARCC) (which administered the test).<br /></span></p>
<p class="p2">"I thought it was unfair that we weren't paid for anything and we didn't volunteer for anything," Beaulieu told the Ipswich Chronicle. "It was as if we said, 'Oh we can do it for free.'"</p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">However, PARCC Director of Communications David Connerty-Marin told Business Insider his group doesn't actually profit from the test. "PARCC doesn't make any money off of the test," he said, explaining that PARCC itself is a group of states and testing companies are the ones who make a profit. <br /></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Connerty-Marin declined to comment on the letter itself.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A million students in over a dozen states took the field tests. The purpose of the trial test is to determine whether it's worth adopting in Massachusetts, </span><span>said Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2RwMIwlCpg#t=84">video</a> posted on the department's website. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span>"It's an opportunity to essentially test drive the test to make sure that the test is one that's worth adopting in Massachusetts," Chester said. "This will give us an opportunity to better judge how strong a test it is, how it compares to our existing test, and to make sure that the test is as high quality as it can be." </span></p>
<p class="p2"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/03/6th-graders-seeking-payment-for-taking-common-core-field-tests/"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">H/T Answer Sheet, The Washington Post</span></a></p>

6th-Graders Found An Incredibly Creative Way To Rebel Against Standardized Tests

<p><img class="float_right" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5076a8a869beddf44800003d-400-300/biden.10.12.jpg" border="0" alt="joe biden" /><strong>DANBURY, Conn. —</strong> Speaking about 15 miles from the site of December's elementary-school massacre, Vice President <keyword id="99719" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joe-Biden">Joe Biden</keyword> said Thursday that it was "unacceptable not to take action" to curb gun violence.</p>
<p>"If you're concerned about your political survival, you should be concerned about the survival of our children," Biden said. "There's a moral price to be paid for inaction."</p>
<p>Biden spoke at Western Connecticut State University, which is about a 20-minute drive on Interstate 84 from Sandy Hook Elementary School in <keyword id="241888" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Newtown">Newtown</keyword>, Conn., where 20 children were massacred in December. The event featured panels led by Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.</p>
<p>Biden's speech comes a little more than a week after President Barack Obama renewed his push for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-they-deserve-a-vote-line-state-of-union-speech-2013-2" target="_blank">stronger gun laws during his State of the Union address</a>.</p>
<p>"They say it isn't about guns. They're wrong. It is about guns," Biden said. He pledged that no new measures will infringe on anyone's Second Amendment rights.</p>
<p>Biden said he met with Chris and Lynn McDonnell, the parents of Grace McDonnell, who was one of the children killed in the elementary-school massacre. The McDonnells were part of one of the earlier panels on gun violence.</p>
<p>Speaking before Biden, Blumenthal said that the push to curb gun violence was gaining momentum.</p>
<p>"Preventing gun violence was thought to be unthinkable politically two months ago," Blumenthal said. "That unspeakable horror has given us unstoppable momentum. ... We can do it. We can win this battle."</p>
<p>Secretary of Education Arne Duncan followed Blumenthal and told a story that made the audience audibly gasp. He said a young boy in Chicago told him that "if — not when" he grows up, he wants to be a fireman.</p>
<p class="p1">Larry<span> Keane, senior vice president of the </span>National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry based in Newtown, called Biden's appearance at the panel "all political."</p>
<p class="p1">"It's obvious they won't get their proposals through the House, and they might not even get them through the Senate," Keane told <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/business-insider">Business Insider</a> of the <keyword id="6356037" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="white-house">White House</keyword>'s approach. "So now they're trying to go out and create some pressure."</p>

Joe Biden Made A Fiery Plea For Gun Control Just 20 Minutes Away From Newtown

<p><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/551da7b2eab8ea4c4513cda5-1200-2000/rothman headshot_color.jpg" border="0" alt="mike rothman fatherly"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Fatherly</span></p><p class="caption">Fatherly cofounder Mike Rothman.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></span>Today's new moms have a vast network of blogs full of helpful tips for each stage of parenting. </p><p>But what about new dads? </p><p>Meet <a href="http://fatherly.com/">Fatherly</a>, a brand-new site created by early Thrillist employee Mike Rothman and marketing exec Simon Isaacs. The site officially launches today after several months in beta.</p><p>The goal, according to Rothman, is to provide parenting advice for guys who are on their first or second kid and looking for content geared towards them specifically.</p><p>"There's been an interesting shift, where fathers are more involved in terms of time commitment and purchasing decisions," he said to Business Insider. "But there was a complete dearth of content for this up-and-coming demographic. <span id="docs-internal-guid-619bcf03-7ff1-9bed-a217-ef54b8faaf82">They're not signing up for print magazines because they're not really tailored to them.</span>"</p><p>With stories like <a href="http://fatherly.com/child-care/development/physical-development/the-quinny-longboardstroller/">"The Longboard Stroller Is Exactly What It Sounds Like"</a> and <a href="http://fatherly.com/child-care/wellness/kids-activities/how-to-win-hide-and-seek/">"A Navy SEAL's Tips On How To Dominate Hide-And-Seek,"</a> you could think of Fatherly as a grown-up version of Thrillist.</p><p>It's a guide, he says, for guys who also happen to be dads. </p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e4892be0-7bd5-e7d4-deef-3939c769d371">"After seven years of marketing to young, single guys [at Thrillist], we realized they were not as young or single anymore," Rothman said. "We were kind of aging out of the demographic."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/551ebef56bb3f77551d01307-798-599/simon-isaacs-fatherly.jpg" border="0" alt="simon isaacs fatherly"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Fatherly</span></p><p class="caption">Fatherly cofounder Simon Isaacs.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Fatherly recently raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by SoftTech. Lerer Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Gary Vaynerchuk, the Knight Foundation, and the founders of the Bleacher Report and Elite Daily also contributed to the round. </p><p>"<span id="docs-internal-guid-619bcf03-7ffb-7809-d30a-68d5e98395d1">They understand we're going in this inevitable direction, where people are coming online as parents to see what's there," Rothman said.</span></p><p>In addition to Rothman and Isaacs, Fatherly currently has two full-time editors in its New York City office. Much of their content, however, comes from a vast network of contributors. </p><p>One series called "Why is the sky blue?" will have experts give simple explanations to the questions kids might ask. They might have a Harvard psychology professor, for example, explain where dreams come from.</p><p>Among the experts they've recruited are therapist and author Esther Perel, Wharton School of Business Professor Stewart Friedman, and home improvement expert Timothy Dahl. There will also be advice from neuroscientists, the Centers for Disease Control, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. </p><p>They even did <a href="http://fatherly.com/relationships/malala-yousafzais-father-zia-on-raising-a-nobel-prize-winner/">an interview with </a><a href="http://fatherly.com/relationships/malala-yousafzais-father-zia-on-raising-a-nobel-prize-winner/">Malala Yousafzai's father</a>, who provided some insight on what it's like to raise a Nobel Prize winner.</p><p>"<span id="docs-internal-guid-619bcf03-8014-58b8-64dd-e92938815ded">We take this expert-driven guidance because we realize there's not one uber dad who knows the answer to everything," Rothman said. "And it's not the people who usually blog about these kinds of things. It's a lot of general interest content." </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/551eb661eab8ea6017a43755-1200-706/screen shot 2015-04-02 at 4.36.39 pm.png" border="0" alt="fatherly"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://fatherly.com/">Fatherly.com</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>When you sign up for Fatherly, you have the option to enter your child's age, which will help the site tailor its content for the challenges you might face at any given stage. </p><p>There's also an ecommerce component, where you can get age-specific product recommendations sent to your inbox - ranging from the things you need when you're preparing to have a child to the baby monitors you should try once you have one.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/551eb80169bedd1332a4375e-786-814/screen shot 2015-04-03 at 11.54.44 am.png" border="0" alt="fatherly"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://fatherly.com/">Fatherly.com</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>Rothman isn't a father just yet, but Isaacs welcomed a new baby to his family just a few weeks ago, and Fatherly's editorial director is also a new dad.</p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-619bcf03-8018-f52e-c426-a6c45c762f00">"It's been an interesting experience to do this with guys who just had kids," Rothman said. "We keep the time flexible." </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drunk-driving-checkpoint-regulation-hack-2015-2">A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="EwZXE5czqobpJLXsPUCBDsxSm8XxaRw0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'EwZXE5czqobpJLXsPUCBDsxSm8XxaRw0',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

One of Thrillist's first employees got $2 million to launch a new parenting site for guys

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5399cf40eab8ea3324b89489-1200-924/students-taking-test-teacher-9.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Students Taking Test Teacher" width="480" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Stephen J. Boitano</span></p></div><p></p></div>A potentially landmark decision from a California court earlier this week has garnered significant praise after a judge ruled against the state's teacher tenure laws, stating that they violate a child's right to <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword> as guaranteed by the state's constitution.</p>
<p>The contentious California laws granted teachers tenure eligibility after only 18 months on the job and tied layoffs to seniority rather than merit - a system called "Last In, First Out" or LIFO. Most states have tenure reviews for teachers after two to three years.</p>
<p>The suit's plaintiffs - a group of nine students funded by a prominent Silicon Valley businessman - argued that California's tenure laws deprive all students of an equal education.</p>
<p>More specifically, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/california-teacher-tenure-laws-ruled-unconstitutional.html">The New York Times reports</a>, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu determined that "the least effective teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools filled with low-income and minority students." According to The Times:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">[Treu] agreed with the plaintiffs' argument that California's current laws make it impossible to remove the system's numerous low-performing and incompetent teachers, because the tenure system assures them a job essentially for life; that seniority rules requiring the newest teachers to be laid off first were harmful; and that granting tenure to teachers after only two years on the job was farcical, offering far too little time for a fair assessment of the teacher's skills.</p>
<p>The ruling has found support outside of California, perhaps <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-regarding-decision-vergara-v-califo">most notably in US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan</a>, who praised the decision in a statement:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">For students in California and every other state, equal opportunities for learning must include the equal opportunity to be taught by a great teacher. The students who brought this lawsuit are, unfortunately, just nine out of millions of young people in America who are disadvantaged by laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students. Today's court decision is a mandate to fix these problems. Together, we must work to increase public confidence in public education.</p>
<p>The New York Times editorial board also showed strong support for the decision in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/opinion/in-california-a-judge-takes-on-teacher-tenure.html">an editorial titled "A New Battle for Equal Education,"</a> writing that the decision "underscores a shameful problem that has cast a long shadow over the lives of children, not just in California but in the rest of the country as well."</p>
<p>The Times cites several examples of the persuasive uses of data and studies in the lawsuit, such as the "stupidity of a state law that makes teachers eligible for tenure after 18 months even though evidence shows that such a decision reasonably takes between three and five years."</p>
<p>Former <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michelle-rhee-california-tenure-ruling-is-a-win-for-teachers-and-children/2014/06/11/65bff4e6-f182-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html">Washington, D.C. public schools </a><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michelle-rhee-california-tenure-ruling-is-a-win-for-teachers-and-children/2014/06/11/65bff4e6-f182-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html">chancellor Michelle Rhee also lauded the decision</a> in a Washington Post op-ed.</p>
<p>"The case was built on the simple and undeniable premise that every child deserves equal access to a quality education - regardless of his or her race, Zip code or family circumstances. Since a great teacher is the most powerful factor inside a classroom in determining educational quality, equal access has got to mean access to great teachers," Rhee writes.</p>
<p>However, many believe that this ruling is an attack on teachers' rights. Prominent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/11/does-tenure-protect-bad-teachers-or-good-schools/tenure-is-a-guarantee-of-due-process-to-prevent-capricious-firings">education historian Diane Ravitch criticized the California court's decision</a>, writing in The New York Times, "Tenure protects academic freedom. In the absence of tenure, teachers may be fired for any reason. Teachers may be fired if the principal doesn't like them or if they are experienced and become too expensive. Teachers may be fired for being outspoken."</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://studentsmatter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tenative-Decision.pdf">Read the full decision against teacher tenure laws here &gt;&gt;</a></strong></p>

There's A Lot Of Support For California Ruling Against Teacher Tenure Laws

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/537a50126bb3f7b61eea9724-1016-762/students-test-classroom-exam-8.jpg" border="0" alt="Students Test Classroom Exam" /><p class="source"><span>Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Last month, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/19/senators-propose-legislation-to-simplify-college-financial-aid-process">announced a draft bill</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to simplify the process for students seeking federal financial aid.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Their Financial Aid Simplification and Transparency (FAST) Act would most notably kill the 130-question, 10-page Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which determines how much federal aid families will pocket.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>The FAFSA has become especially crucial for providing students with Pell Grants (federal tuition subsidies), loans, and work-study jobs as tuition rates have skyrocketed.</span> </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">However, the application is notoriously tedious, and some students avoid filling out altogether, despite being eligible for federal funding. Some 40% of the 20 million students who were enrolled in U.S. colleges in 2009 failed to file FAFSA forms, despite generally being eligible for the funds, <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/The-Complicated-Task-of/18884/">according to the Chronicle for Higher Education</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As Secretary of <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">Education</keyword> Arne Duncan </span><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/The-Complicated-Task-of/18884/"><span class="s1">said</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> during his conformation hearing, "you basically have to have a Ph.D. to figure that thing out." </span></p>
<p class="p2">The FAST Act would replace the FAFSA with a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/opinion/simplifying-fafsa-will-get-more-kids-into-college.html?_r=0"><span class="s1">"two-question postcard"</span></a> that asks applicants: "What is your family size? And, what was your household income two years ago?" </p>
<p class="p3">Here are three reasons why drastically simplifying the federal financial aid application is a great idea:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">It gets federal tuition subsidies to students who need them most. </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Millions of college students miss out on loan-free aid each year.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> A</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">n analysis by student aid expert </span><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/07/pf/college/fafsa-financial-aid/">Mark Kantrowitz <span class="s1">found</span> that</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> 2 million current college students would have qualified for Pell Grants during the 2011-2012 school year, and that 1.3 million of them would have received the full amount ($5,645 annually).</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Many of these students didn't apply because they lacked information or felt the form was too much work. A simplified form would make the process significantly easier for all applicants.  </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The bill also solves another major drawback of the current FAFSA </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">-</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that it asks families to provide their prior year income from their tax return, which can conflict with the April tax filing deadline. The bill proposed asking about </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">two-year-old income, so families can find out about aid significantly before tax day.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Simpler forms have been shown to work. </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The idea to simplify FAFSA stems from a </span><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2007/02/education-dynarski"><span class="s1">2007 Brookings paper</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by Professors Susan Dynarski and Judith Scott-Clayton. Student aid applications are a </span><a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/sag.pdf"><span class="s1">burdensome gauntlet</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, and complexity is most damaging to students with the least resources.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As one economics study </span><a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w15361"><span class="s1">showed</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, direct FAFSA assistance increased the college enrollment rate of low-income high school seniors by 8 percentage points, and the rate among older people with no college experience by about 2 percentage points.    </span></p>
</li>
<li><strong style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">The bill is a bipartisan effort.</strong><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;"> Both senators are well-established in the education field, and it restores some faith in Congress to see them work together. Senator Alexander served as the Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, and Senator Bennet is a former superintendent of Denver's public schools.            </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Concerns about the proposal have been raised. If the financial aid form ignores assets, why can't Bruce Wayne (or someone real with no family income but a huge trust fund) get a Pell Grant? As Dynarski </span><span class="s1" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/upshot/a-closer-look-at-simplifying-financial-aid-applications.html?_r=0">notes</a> in a recent article for The Upshot</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, the government currently ignores assets in education tax credits, and "for 90 percent of aid applicants, ignoring assets has no effect on the Pell amount, while for 98 percent it changes [their grant] by less than $500." The benefit of aid simplification outweighs the cost of a few rich sneaks. </span></p>
<p class="p3">There's also a concern that states and colleges may still produce complicated aid forms for their own need-based aid distribution. The current FAFSA form, while complex, is at least standardized for all applicants. If the federal government is truly dedicated to simplicity, however, it can respond by restricting aid to any institution that requires excess information.       </p>
<p class="p3">A two-question postcard would kill a well-intended <span>-</span> but burdensome <span>-</span>policy, and capture the true purpose of student aid: making college a possibility for all.</p>

Why We Should Cut The Federal Financial Aid Form From 130 Questions To 2

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52d287726bb3f7ee083ac60e-1200-600/chicago-police-violence-1.jpg?maxX=800" border="0" alt="chicago police violence" width="800" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jim Young</span></p><p class="caption">A police officer stands beneath a beam of light projected into the sky at the 10th Annual Chicago Police Memorial Foundation's Candlelight Vigil in Chicago, Illinois, September 17, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Imagine city leaders surveying Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, a landscape of ash and ruin. Their task, as daunting as it must have been exhilarating: Build the city again, from the husk of what was. Build it better. Thirty-eight years later, famed civic architect Daniel Burnham offered his Plan of Chicago, a blueprint for building this city into a dominant economic and cultural force on the national and world stage. Mission accomplished. Today Chicago's muscular skyline and robust neighborhoods draw tourists from around the world.</p>
<p>But not far from these enclaves of affluence are neighborhoods poisoned by foreclosed homes, boarded-up businesses and empty lots, all of which spur an exodus of people. That poison spreads, imperiling healthier communities.</p>
<p>In October the Tribune launched a series of editorials to draft a new Plan of Chicago, encouraging solutions for education failures, joblessness, crime and other intertwined challenges that endanger the city's livability and future. We asked readers for their proposals to solve these problems. And they delivered.</p>
<p>In more than 700 proposals, readers embraced Burnham's admonition to "Make no little plans." On Dec. 15 we presented proposals for improving the prospects of Chicago's children. Today, we focus on the land, how the city and its people can better use vast swaths of Chicago's 231 square miles, reviving neighborhoods and fueling growth.</p>
<p>Several readers urged the city to live up to its official motto, "Urbs in Horto" -- "City in a Garden." The idea: A campaign spearheaded by foundations, businesses and City Hall to convert polluted brownfields and other vacant lots into urban gardens that would not only provide communities in food deserts with fresh produce but also generate jobs and cash. Restaurateurs gladly would buy locally grown herbs. And why stop at crops? Urban farmers can raise fish. Or bees.</p>
<p>The benefits of creating farms and gardens extend beyond those neighborhoods. A 2005 Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs study showed that every dollar the state spent on cleaning up brownfields yielded $16 in private, local and federal investment.</p>
<p>So City Hall, foundation leaders ... what are you waiting for?</p>
<p>Ask any Chicagoan about the city's most pernicious problems and you'll hear about crime. Dangerous streets. Parks that devolve into shooting galleries.</p>
<p>Employers flee danger zones, accelerating a neighborhood's collapse. How to encourage those businesses to open and stay put? One reader suggested that the city offer tax incentives and training to businesses that agree to mentor a business owner in economically struggling, high-unemployment areas. The mentors would focus on helping businesses that attract people and more development: bakeries, clothing stores, cafes, day care centers, shoe repair shops. In return, the business owner who is mentored would agree to hire people in the community. Sounds like a great idea to us.</p>
<p>Another strong proposal: Create designated commercial strips and parks as "refuges." These would get 24/7 security so people would feel safe in them at any time. That would ease parents' anxieties and strengthen neighborhoods.</p>
<p>An exodus of city manufacturing jobs and population has left some neighborhoods ravaged by abandoned factories and warehouses. Demolishing them is expensive and leaves ... empty lots. Readers have a raft of innovative suggestions for vacant and underused structures: Convert some into temporary dorm-style residences for homeless and working-class families. Repurpose other long-vacant buildings as centers for day care and job training, or places for small-business startups to root and grow.</p>
<p>Think big, then bigger: Designate and nurture a new Motor Row of vehicle and service outlets. Create a string of indoor hydroponic plant farms, financed by TIF funds, establishing Chicago as a leader in the industry. Cluster enterprise zones around sewage treatment plants for industries that need vast amounts of water but not potable water. Chicago, perched on Lake Michigan, is also a perfect place for a global fresh water research center, drawing on the talents and assets of companies, institutions and universities.</p>
<p>Public schools anchor many communities. For years, however, Chicago Public Schools mismanaged its portfolio, keeping half-empty buildings open to avoid political blowback. No more. Last year, CPS closed almost 50 schools. If no one will repurpose or replace them with commercial or other private investments, many could be reborn as training, athletic or elder day care facilities.</p>
<p>Several proposals echo an idea suggested by Education Secretary Arne Duncan when he headed CPS in 2008: Create public boarding schools where children from troubled homes would eat, sleep and study in a stable setting. Such schools already exist in Washington, D.C. They're successful, though costly to run.</p>
<p>Still, CPS loses millions of dollars in aid based on attendance when kids don't go to school. Ultimately, children pay the price of their parents' neglect. So do their neighborhoods -- the entire city -- as families flee to suburbia. But that flight isn't a foregone conclusion. We've seen how one business on one troubled block can make a difference. The same way that one cop can. Or one teacher.</p>
<p>Chicago's current land and structures aren't fixed and immutable. They must evolve so the city can thrive as a 21st-century colossus. Chicagoans have plenty of terrific ideas to rebuild Chicago, block by block. What they lack is the money, and the clout, to begin reviving their city.</p>
<p>A request for your proposals</p>
<p>We invite you or your organization to help craft a new Plan of Chicago. Our goal is to address the city's current challenges holistically, not one by one. Among them: violent crime, underperforming public schools, joblessness, troubled families, population loss and desperate City Hall finances. The more concrete your proposals, the better. And tell us how you would redeploy current dollars, or raise new money, to fund your suggestions. Please include your name, town and phone number with your proposals:</p>
<p>Email: PlanOfChicago@tribune.com</p>
<p>Mail: Tribune Editorial Board, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611</p>
<p>Learn about Daniel Burnham's 1909 plan: chicagotribune.com/burnham</p>
<p>Follow this project online: chicagotribune.com/plan ___</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>(c)2014 the Chicago Tribune</p>
<p>Visit the Chicago Tribune at <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com">www.chicagotribune.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by MCT Information Services</p>
</div>
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How To Save Chicago

<p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5253df9569bedd155022cfcc-700-393/b8d5406bd49f0a5fc46b9e447ad98761.jpeg?maxX=800" border="0" alt="b8d5406bd49f0a5fc46b9e447ad98761" width="800" /><p class="source">AP</p></div><p></p></div><br /></em></p>
<p><em>American adults out-performed by many global peers on workplace skills assessment test</em></p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - It's long been known that America's school kids haven't measured well compared with international peers. Now, there's a new twist: Adults don't either.</p>
<p>In math, reading and problem-solving using technology - all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength - American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.</p>
<p>Adults in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland and multiple other countries scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test. Beyond basic reading and math, respondents were tested on activities such as calculating mileage reimbursement due to a salesman, sorting email and comparing food expiration dates on grocery store tags.</p>
<p>Not only did Americans score poorly compared to many international competitors, the findings reinforced just how large the gap is between the nation's high- and low-skilled workers and how hard it is to move ahead when your parents haven't.</p>
<p>In both reading and math, for example, those with college educated parents did better than those whose parents did not complete high school.</p>
<p>The study, called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, found that it was easier on average to overcome this and other barriers to literacy overseas than in the United States.</p>
<p>Researchers tested about 157,000 people ages 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries and subnational regions. It was developed and released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of mostly industrialized member countries. The Education Department's Center for Education Statistics participated.</p>
<p>The findings were equally grim for many European countries - Italy and Spain, among the hardest hit by the recession and debt crisis, ranked at the bottom across generations. Unemployment is well over 25 percent in Spain and over 12 percent in Italy. Spain has drastically cut education spending, drawing student street protests.</p>
<p>But in the northern European countries that have fared better, the picture was brighter - and the study credits continuing education. In Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, more than 60 percent of adults took part is either job training or continuing education. In Italy, by contrast, the rate was half that.</p>
<p>As the American economy sputters along and many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, economists say a highly-skilled workforce is key to economic recovery. The median hourly wage of workers scoring on the highest level in literacy on the test is more than 60 percent higher than for workers scoring at the lowest level, and those with low literacy skills were more than twice as likely to be unemployed.</p>
<p>"It's not just the kids who require more and more preparation to get access to the economy, it's more and more the adults don't have the skills to stay in it," said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.</p>
<p>Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement the nation needs to find ways to reach more adults to upgrade their skills. Otherwise, he said, "no matter how hard they work, these adults will be stuck, unable to support their families and contribute fully to our country. "</p>
<p>Among the other findings:</p>
<p>-Americans scored toward the bottom in the category of problem solving in a technology rich environment. The top five scores in the areas were from Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden and Norway, while the U.S. score was on par with England, Estonia, Ireland and Poland. In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse.</p>
<p>-Japanese and Dutch adults who were ages 25 to 34 and only completed high school easily outperformed Italian or Spanish university graduates of the same age.</p>
<p>-In England, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United States, social background has a big impact on literacy skills, meaning the children of parents with low levels of education have lower reading skills.</p>
<p>America's school kids have historically scored low on international assessment tests compared to other countries, which is often blamed on the diversity of the population and the high number of immigrants. Also, achievement tests have long shown that a large chunk of the U.S. student population lacks basic reading and math skills - most pronounced among low-income and minority students.</p>
<p>This test could suggest students leaving high school without certain basic skills aren't obtaining them later on the job or in an education program.</p>
<p>The United States will have a tough time catching up because money at the state and local level, a major source of education funding, has been slashed in recent years, said Jacob Kirkegaard, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.</p>
<p>"There is a race between man and machine here. The question here is always: Are you a worker for whom technology makes it possible to do a better job or are you a worker that the technology can replace?" he said. For those without the most basic skills, he said, the answer will be merciless and has the potential to extend into future generations. Learning is highly correlated with parents' education level.</p>
<p>"If you want to avoid having an underclass - a large group of people who are basically unemployable - this educational system is absolutely key," Kirkegaard said.</p>
<p>Dolores Perin, professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, said the report provides a "good basis for an argument there should be more resources to support adults with low literacy."</p>
<p>Adults can learn new skills at any age and there are adult-geared programs around the country, Perin said. But, she said, the challenge is ensuring the programs have quality teaching and that adults regularly attend classes.</p>
<p>"If you find reading and writing hard, you've been working hard all day at two jobs, you've got a young child, are you actually going to go to class? It's challenging," Perin said.</p>
<p>Some economists say that large skills gap in the United States could matter even more in the future. America's economic competitors like China and India are simply larger than competitors of the past like Japan, Carnevale said. Even while America's top 10 percent of students can compete globally, Carnevale said, that doesn't cut it. China and India did not participate in this assessment.</p>
<p>"The skills in the middle are required and we're not producing them," Carnevale said.</p>
<p>Respondents were selected as part of a nationally represented sample. The test was primarily taken at home using a computer, but some respondents used a printed test booklet.</p>
<p>Among the other findings:</p>
<p>-Japan, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Flanders-Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and Korea all scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test.</p>
<p>-The average scores in literacy range from 250 in Italy to 296 in Japan. The U.S. average score was 270. (500 was the highest score in all three areas.) Average scores in 12 countries were higher than the average U.S. score.</p>
<p>-The average scores in math range from 246 in Spain to 288 in Japan. The U.S. average score was 253, below 18 other countries.</p>
<p>-The average scores on problem solving in technology-rich environments scale for adult ranged from 275 in Poland to 294 in Japan. The U.S. average score was 277, below 14 other countries.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Online: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/publications.htm">http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/publications.htm</a></p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Follow Kimberly Hefling at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/khefling">http://www.twitter.com/khefling</a></p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.</p>
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<p>Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</p>
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