They Say / I Blog

Easing the burden: Lamar Alexander on financing a college education

We all know that the price tag for college puts a degree out of reach for many people, and for many others, the debt from student loans is very high. Lamar Alexander, US senator from Tennessee and former Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, has a proposal for easing some of the burden. He lays out his ideas in this February 2019 essay from the New York Times.

Alexander, “Going to college should not be a financial albatross”

More than STEM: Natalie Wexler on forming “citizens of a democracy”

These days it seems that the STEM bandwagon is very full, and why wouldn’t it be, given how important STEM is for employment opportunities and technological advances? Still, there may be areas more important than STEM for the future health of the United States, and education writer Natalie Wexler discusses a few of them in this January 2019 essay from Forbes.

Wexler, “Math and science can’t take priority over history and civics”

 

Top export in trouble: Catherine Rampell on decline of international students in US schools

When you think about exports, the first things you probably think of are agricultural products such as corn and soybeans or manufactured items such as trucks or cigarettes. Did college degrees make your list? Not ours, either. Still, journalist Catherine Rampell, who covers public policy and political issues for the Washington Post, argues in this December 2018 essay that higher education is one of the most important US exports, and what’s more, that it’s in trouble.

Rampell, “One of America’s most successful exports is in trouble”

Not so soft a skill: Matt Reed on career navigation

Smartphones get blamed for a lot of what may be wrong with social interactions these days, including a decline in “soft skills” that some say is the reason why young people are poorly prepared for the labor market. It’s refreshing to read someone who has other ideas about this lack of career readiness and ways to fix it. Community college administrator Matt Reed proposes a change to general education requirements in this October 2018 essay in Inside Higher Education.

Reed, “Career navigation as a Gen Ed”

Who pays the bill: Alia Wong on prestige universities around the world

Prestige universities across the globe share many of the features that account for their excellence—“celebrated faculty, groundbreaking research,” and comfortable, well-maintained facilities. There is a huge difference, however, in the source of funding for these institutions; those in the US are overwhelmingly private schools, while prestige universities in the rest of the world tend to be publicly funded. Alia Wong, education writer for the Atlantic, discusses some of these contrasts in this September 2018 essay.

Wong, “At private colleges, students pay for prestige”

The doctor’s empathy: Angira Patel on the humanities in medical training

We want our doctors to be competent scientists, of course; our bodies are complicated instruments, and doctors need to learn a lot. Since medical training can’t cover everything, should it focus only on the hard sciences—the anatomy, the chemistry, the bioengineering? Dr. Angira Patel, professor of pediatrics and medical education in Chicago, argues that medical training should include more than just science in this May 2018 essay from the Pacific Standard.

Patel, “To be a good doctor, study the humanities”

Ready for the ball: Kevin McClure on public regional universities

March Madness draws a lot of attention to many colleges and universities that don’t usually get noticed, and the lack of recognition applies to much more than sports. In this March 2018 essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, education professor Kevin R. McClure argues that public regional universities across the US should receive much more funding, status, and respect. 

Read it here: McClure, “The problem with calling UMBC a Cinderella”

 

Spring broke: Anthony Abraham Jack on food insecurity on campus

Spring break, yay!!! *Cough*—not so fast. Spring break is a nonstop party for some, but for others, it’s lonely and hungry. When campus food service shuts down, when there are no cooking facilities available, things can get very grim. In this March 2018 New York Times essay, Harvard sociologist Anthony Abraham Jack reports on a serious situation for many students who stay on campus while those with resources scatter for vacations.

Read it here: Jack, “It’s hard to be hungry on spring break”

Opportunity and healing: Mellow & Pollard on community colleges

Just how important are community colleges in the landscape of higher education in the United States? Well, nearly half of US undergraduates attend a community college; that makes them pretty important. Two community college presidents—Gail Mellow of LaGuardia Community College in New York and DeRionne Pollard of Montgomery College in Maryland—argue in this February 2017 Baltimore Sun article that community colleges are the key to healing the nation and its people.

Read it here: Mellow & Pollard, “Community colleges can heal a divided America”

 

“The people we want to become”: Jorge Salles Diaz on elite universities

Many of the students at top-ranked universities have worked enormously hard to get there. They know that a degree from such an institution will pay off in “the market.” Such an emphasis, however, has its own costs and consequences. Vanderbilt University student Jorge Salles Diaz takes a step back and poses some larger questions in this November 2017 essay in the student newspaper Vanderbilt Hustler.

Read it here: Salles Diaz, “Let’s be honest about why we’re here”