SOURCE: washingtonpost.com

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, March 11, 2010; A03

As they push to finish health-care legislation by the end of the month, Democratic leaders in Congress are weighing whether to add another of President Obama's priorities to the package: a popular proposal to overhaul the federal student loan program.

The move could clear the way for Obama to claim victory on two of his most significant domestic initiatives in a single signing ceremony. Administration officials and House leaders have pressed aggressively for the addition in recent days. But key senators are objecting to the move, arguing that political resistance in the Senate and the rapidly rising cost of the education measure could jeopardize efforts to push health-care reform to final passage.

"I think it threatens the health-care bill," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) "It would threaten to sink them both."

Software maker blasts 'vigilantism' in Pa. school spying case

Absolute Software will update its LANRev to disable camera feature

By Gregg Keizer

The company selling the software used by a Pennsylvania school district to allegedly spy on its students blasted what it called laptop theft-recovery "vigilantism" today.

Absolute Software said it dissuades users of theft-recovery software from acting on their own. "We discourage any customer from taking theft recovery into their own hands," said Stephen Midgley, the company's head of marketing, in an interview Monday. "That's best left in the hands of professionals."

Midgley confirmed that Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, Pa. was running Absolute Manage, formerly known as LANRev, which Absolute Software acquired last December. The suburban Philadelphia school district purchased and deployed LANRev prior to Absolute's acquisition, he said, noting that most school districts buy the software for power management features that let IT staff remotely power down systems.

StudentLoanJustice.Org is a national grass roots organization dedicated to convincing congress to restore standard consumer protections to student loans.

My name is Ed McKinley. I am a social worker and a resident of NH. In 1996 I graduated Salem State College with a masters degree in social work, a desire to help underserved and disenfranchised populations and @ $40, 000 in student loan debt.

What I did not have when I left college was knowledge of some of the early struggles I would have managing this debt or any awareness of the punishing consequences that would have.

Due to some family illness and tragedy and with the help of a lender, my loans went into default. It took a couple of years, but I was able to regain my footing and proceeded to go about clearing up the financial wreckage.

Most creditors welcomed the opportunity to work with me and for the first time in a few years I began to feel hopeful.

Obama Gives Bush a 3rd Term in Education BY Diane Ravitch Historian, NYU professor

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

The great mystery of education policy today is why the Obama administration is embracing the Bush program. I recently wrote in Education Week (June 10) that it is time to kill the Bush-era No Child Left Behind program. The overwhelming majority of teachers agree with me. Those who educate our kids know that NCLB is a failed program that is not improving our schools but rather turning them into test-prep factories and dumbing down our kids. Bush's main advisor Sandy Kress reacted with outrage on the website of Education Week, and Tom Vander Ark on Huffington Post called me an "edu-curmudgeon" for speaking plain truth.

Let me say it again: It is time to kill the Bush-era No Child Left Behind program. This is a program in which the federal government requires every state to test every student from grade 3-8 in reading and math every year. If states do not make "adequate yearly progress" towards 100% proficiency by 2014, then the schools face a series of increasingly onerous sanctions, ending with their being closed down. Vander Ark thinks that this punitive approach to school improvement is swell. I don't.

SOURCE: , FRIDAY 18 JULY 2008

Gore Calls for US to Use Renewable Energy by 2018, Friday 18 July 2008

by: David Stout, The New York Times

Former Vice President Al Gore introduced an ambitious plan to rely completely on clean, renewable energy within the next decade.
(Photo: Breakthrough)

    Washington - Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of electric power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.