Links for 9/16/10

Joanne Jacobs

Sixty percent of new community college students aren’t ready for college-level work…

Emilie Deans

Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill would need to provide at least $23.2 billion to support that [Pell] grant amount. But Democrats ignored the estimate, shortchanging Pell Grants by $5.5 billion (providing only $17.7 billion) and redirecting that money to fund other programs to make it look like the overall bill would fit under the $169.6 billion spending cap. Since students getting lower Pell Grants next school year would be an unpopular budgeting decision, the bill’s sponsors attempted to cover up the funding problem…

included an unprecedented instruction in the bill requiring that CBO ignore the budget rules and disregard any discrepancy between what the Pell Grant program will cost and the funding provided in the appropriations bill…

Peter Meyer

Can’t poor black kids catch a break here?

We throw them into segregated inner city public schools all over the country and blame poverty for their poor performance. Someone comes along and actually educates them, proving that poverty is not the cause of their academic problems, and we cry segregation!

Harvey Mansfield on grade inflation.