Links for 12/18/09

Sue Shellenbarger

Students are increasingly skeptical about the value of a college degree; the proportion who are willing to borrow money for college if necessary has fallen to 53% from 67% in the past year…
[AG: be sure to note the awesome uniforms of the Tailwaiters staff]

Neal McCluskey

According to a story out yesterday, the federal government is starting a new campaign to promote financial literacy among high school students. That’s right, federal politicians, who have given us Fannie, Freddie, the Community Reinvestment Act, endless pork binges, and a national debt surpassing $12 trillion have the absolutely staggering hubris to think that they somehow have what it takes to teach your kids about sound financial practices!

David Glenn

while it is easy to criticize simplistic measures of citations and "impact factors," it is not so easy to find agreement about how to improve those metrics. Faculty members sometimes suggest that evaluators should de-emphasize numbers and instead look qualitatively at how research projects affect the public good. But a version of that proposal might be put into practice in Britain, and the idea is now causing anger and anxiety among scholars there.

Tim Ranzetta

Texas's Guaranteed Tuition Plan (closed to new participants) appeared not to be so guaranteed in April when the program administrators announced a change in their refund policy "...so that investors could withdraw only the money they put in. They would have received no earnings, no matter how long their money had been in the program…

Just in time for the holidays, the state is touting their new Tuition Promise Fund…

So, what is the promise of this plan? As far as I can tell, as long as college tuition increases remain muted and stock market returns click along at 7-8% a year, you should be fine. However, if declining state support of higher education leads to significant annual tuition increases and we have a few stock market corrections along the way...well this very well could be another promise not kept…