Israeli Students Go on Strike; Americans File for Bankruptcy!
[As a college teacher and parent I am all too aware of the huge loan balances that American students are building up to cover their college expenses. I have heard too many horror stories of students forced to drop out, forego distinguished graduate programs, etc. simply to pay off their college loans.
This is a new pattern since my day. I was a full scholarship student. By chance I had one alumni contribution that was half scholarship and half loan which I was able to pay off during my first teaching year following graduate studies -- no grim accumulation of interest thereupon. Another foundation loan was designated "pay if and when you can." I never paid back the cash, but rather tried to make my contribution in teaching and assistance to others.
It looks downright criminal now to see our financial institutions feeding on our next generation in such greedy ways. The ugly story is breaking now with recent disclosures of loan scams (See below). But that is only the tip of this iceberg. What has changed is the means for financing higher education. The greedies are keeping it all for themselves in the form of huge tax breaks. And the coming generations are bearing the burden.
It is good to note that comparable students in Israel have been on strike for several weeks to protest proposed tuition increases there (See below).
Wonder what we should call the present U.S. generation. Mine was known as the "silent" one. Should this be called the 'passive' or the 'conned' one? Ed Kent]
.........................
Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated
By SAM DILLON
The whistle-blower's story opens a window, lawmakers say,
onto how the Bush administration resisted calls to improve
oversight of the student loan industry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/washington/07loans.html?th&emc=th
..................
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1178431585244&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
May. 7, 2007 0:09 | Updated May. 7, 2007 11:18
Students promise to continue strike
By HAVIV RETTIG
Now in its 24th day, the university students' strike is "far from over," according to student union leaders.
Indeed, promised the two nationwide unions, the National Union of Israeli Students and the National Student Organization, it will only become more severe in the coming days.
Around 400 students were marching Monday morning from Haifa's Technion to the Ziv Center nearby in protest. Police closed off the streets in the vicinity.
A rally in Tel Aviv was planned for 11 a.m. and a large demonstration at 4 p.m. in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.
The unions physically barred the entrances to university campuses - in some places with chains - in order to prevent students from attending class.
The three-week-old strike comes in protest of the establishment of the Shochat Committee examining the future of higher education. The student unions demand the dismantlement of the committee due to expectations that it will recommend a rise in tuition.
The new, harsher steps come in response to the threat by the Committee of University Presidents (CUP) to sanction students who do not return to classes on Tuesday. The CUP decided to give students one more day.
According to National Student Organization head Itay Barda, "The conduct of CUP, the head of the Finance Ministry and the government leaves us no choice but to use greater force. Obviously it is our wish to return to our studies and to negotiations [with the government]."
Barda further warned, "we are organizing extreme and far-reaching activities that will leave the country's leaders without any other options except finding appropriate solutions, and quickly."
In advertisements in several Friday newspapers, the Committee of University Presidents warned that those who refuse to return to class risked forfeiting the semester's courses entirely, receiving failing grades and losing course credits and tuition money spent for those courses.
At the same time, the committee promised to extend the semester by two weeks and give special consideration in make-up material and test grades to students who return to class.
But the threat encountered immediate opposition not just from students, but from lecturers as well. Both the junior and senior lecturers' national unions publicly stated that they supported the students' position and vowed to assist striking students in making up lost study material.
Senior lecturers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, along with the college lecturers' unions, even vowed that they would not allow the semester to be discarded for students continuing to strike.
Meanwhile, the strike of junior high and high school teachers also renewed this week, with the announcement by the Secondary School Teachers Organization that teachers in grades seven through 12 would be on strike throughout the country's South on Monday.
The strike will take place in the towns of Ofakim, Eilat, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Dimona, Yeroham, Kuseifa, Lehavim, Lachish, Mitzpe Ramon, Netivot, Omer, Arad, Arara, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi, Rahat and in smaller communities near those cities.
The SSTO also announced Monday that secondary schools in the north would go on strike Tuesday.
While all activities and courses related to matriculation exams will take place normally, as mandated by the National Labor Court, class trips and other out-of-school activities have been canceled.
The strike will be suspended - and schools will be open and operating - in communities of the Gaza periphery.
The teachers are protesting "foot-dragging" on the part of the Finance and Education Ministries in negotiations over new wage agreements.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
This is a new pattern since my day. I was a full scholarship student. By chance I had one alumni contribution that was half scholarship and half loan which I was able to pay off during my first teaching year following graduate studies -- no grim accumulation of interest thereupon. Another foundation loan was designated "pay if and when you can." I never paid back the cash, but rather tried to make my contribution in teaching and assistance to others.
It looks downright criminal now to see our financial institutions feeding on our next generation in such greedy ways. The ugly story is breaking now with recent disclosures of loan scams (See below). But that is only the tip of this iceberg. What has changed is the means for financing higher education. The greedies are keeping it all for themselves in the form of huge tax breaks. And the coming generations are bearing the burden.
It is good to note that comparable students in Israel have been on strike for several weeks to protest proposed tuition increases there (See below).
Wonder what we should call the present U.S. generation. Mine was known as the "silent" one. Should this be called the 'passive' or the 'conned' one? Ed Kent]
.........................
Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated
By SAM DILLON
The whistle-blower's story opens a window, lawmakers say,
onto how the Bush administration resisted calls to improve
oversight of the student loan industry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/washington/07loans.html?th&emc=th
..................
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1178431585244&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
May. 7, 2007 0:09 | Updated May. 7, 2007 11:18
Students promise to continue strike
By HAVIV RETTIG
Now in its 24th day, the university students' strike is "far from over," according to student union leaders.
Indeed, promised the two nationwide unions, the National Union of Israeli Students and the National Student Organization, it will only become more severe in the coming days.
Around 400 students were marching Monday morning from Haifa's Technion to the Ziv Center nearby in protest. Police closed off the streets in the vicinity.
A rally in Tel Aviv was planned for 11 a.m. and a large demonstration at 4 p.m. in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.
The unions physically barred the entrances to university campuses - in some places with chains - in order to prevent students from attending class.
The three-week-old strike comes in protest of the establishment of the Shochat Committee examining the future of higher education. The student unions demand the dismantlement of the committee due to expectations that it will recommend a rise in tuition.
The new, harsher steps come in response to the threat by the Committee of University Presidents (CUP) to sanction students who do not return to classes on Tuesday. The CUP decided to give students one more day.
According to National Student Organization head Itay Barda, "The conduct of CUP, the head of the Finance Ministry and the government leaves us no choice but to use greater force. Obviously it is our wish to return to our studies and to negotiations [with the government]."
Barda further warned, "we are organizing extreme and far-reaching activities that will leave the country's leaders without any other options except finding appropriate solutions, and quickly."
In advertisements in several Friday newspapers, the Committee of University Presidents warned that those who refuse to return to class risked forfeiting the semester's courses entirely, receiving failing grades and losing course credits and tuition money spent for those courses.
At the same time, the committee promised to extend the semester by two weeks and give special consideration in make-up material and test grades to students who return to class.
But the threat encountered immediate opposition not just from students, but from lecturers as well. Both the junior and senior lecturers' national unions publicly stated that they supported the students' position and vowed to assist striking students in making up lost study material.
Senior lecturers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, along with the college lecturers' unions, even vowed that they would not allow the semester to be discarded for students continuing to strike.
Meanwhile, the strike of junior high and high school teachers also renewed this week, with the announcement by the Secondary School Teachers Organization that teachers in grades seven through 12 would be on strike throughout the country's South on Monday.
The strike will take place in the towns of Ofakim, Eilat, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Dimona, Yeroham, Kuseifa, Lehavim, Lachish, Mitzpe Ramon, Netivot, Omer, Arad, Arara, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi, Rahat and in smaller communities near those cities.
The SSTO also announced Monday that secondary schools in the north would go on strike Tuesday.
While all activities and courses related to matriculation exams will take place normally, as mandated by the National Labor Court, class trips and other out-of-school activities have been canceled.
The strike will be suspended - and schools will be open and operating - in communities of the Gaza periphery.
The teachers are protesting "foot-dragging" on the part of the Finance and Education Ministries in negotiations over new wage agreements.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 7:54 AM
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