All Asian students are prodigies who wind up at Harvard and other prestigious universities to be doctors, scientists and engineers, right? No, say educational researchers in a recent report discussed by experts at a Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. You may be surprised at what they found.
Tuition at Texas public colleges rose 112 percent from 2003 to 2007, according to a report by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The news has prompted state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, to renew his calls to repeal tuition deregulation.
"We should repeal tuition deregulation, then lower tuition by at least $500," Coleman said in a telephone interview. "The way it worked before worked well."
Texas public universities have been able to set their own tuition rates since 2003. Coleman blames Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick for thwarting bills Coleman sponsored in 2005 and 2007 to undo deregulation. He promised to try again in the coming session.
Average tuition for a Texas undergraduate taking 15 semester credit hours jumped from $625 to $1,330 per semester from fall 2003 to fall 2007.
Coleman has a personal interest in tuition. One of his children is a high school junior, and Coleman has been studying debt levels for college graduates and their parents.
"One thing that we don't have is a merit-based scholarship that isn't need-based," Coleman said, adding that middle-class families are now facing six-figure debts to finance undergraduate degrees. "Those are levels of debt we associate with medical school or law school, not an undergraduate degree."
Read the rest of John Austin's report here.
Here's a nice story to kick off the week.
Last spring, Joseph DeLeon, 13, then a sixth-grader at Burgin Elementary School, shocked music teacher Harriett Koen by knocking out part of Beethoven's Pathétique on the classroom piano. He told Koen that he'd learned by watching his cousin play the piece at a family reunion.
"We were all mesmerized," she said. "He's maybe one in thousands that can just look at somebody play and duplicate it."
When Koen told her friends about DeLeon's potential, they decided to underwrite his piano lessons. DeLeon, now a seventh-grader at Workman Junior High, had his first recital Saturday, and his benefactors were there to meet him for the first time.
Read what they had to say here.
Imagine putting in long hours of study to excel in your high school's toughest courses and coming out with the top grade-point average in your graduating class. Now imagine not being named valedictorian after all that. This is the frustrating situation that Grapevine High senior Anjali Datta finds herself in. Why won't she be valedictorian? Because it took her only three years to finish high school. Read Mark Agee's report here.
Hey, Cowtown, are you up for a challenge?
If community leaders can raise $625,000, then Chesapeake Energy will match the money to help pay for minority college scholarships for Fort Worth students. There's just one catch -- the money has to be raised by June 1. (Well, the last $345,000 or so does.)
Education reporter Diane Smith has the details here.
That's what U.S. News and World Report found. More rich families are feeling entitled to financial aid than ever before while the gap for helping poor students continues to grow, according to the publication. And these aren't the highest performing rich kids either. These are B-minus students. Read the story here.
More lenders are dropping out of the student loan business while others are setting higher standards for getting such loans. See CNNMoney.com's story on it here. Last week, Senator Christoper Dodd, D-Conn., pushed for more money to be made available for such loans.
For a breakdown by city and school, click here.
Today on star-telegram.com:
Alex Branch profiles a Tarrant County College professor who trains future substance-abuse counselors: The toughest lesson: 90 percent frustration, 10 percent elation
(For 28 years, Dolores Sutter, left, has taught a curriculum she wrote for TCC and prepared students for the rigors of addiction treatment.)
Is your child ready for school? Shirley Jinkins reports on how you can learn the ropes during the Arlington school district's Kindergarten Roundup
7 students honored with journalism scholarships
From the Star-Telegram Editorial Board:
In the Dunbar High School cafeteria, Fort Worth school officials recently promised a gathering of parents and teachers "strong principals, good teachers, new schools with new visions -- and we're going to be held accountable." Read the details of their ambitious new plan here.
The Legislature has allocated $147.5 million statewide as a way to provide incentive pay for outstanding teachers. With that much money on the table, and with districts having considerable flexibility on deciding how to hand it out, it’s a shame that only about a third of the state’s school districts have decided to participate.
Today on star-telegram.com:
Several local students are among the 2008 National Achievement Scholarships recipients who were announced Wednesday. By Eva-Marie Ayala
Grapevine-Colleyville trustees told district's growth likely means no new schools needed. By Katherine Cromer Brock
