A new report released by the Brookings Institution today warns that, “widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.” Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also reported today that Stanford University plans to make a huge announcement concerning the way financial aid is administered at the institution. According to sources at Stanford, the University will no longer charge tuition to students whose families made less that $100,000 a year. One suspects that other private institutions with large endowments will likely follow suit.
Also in higher-ed news today, it looks as though copyfighting Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, looking to bounce back from his recent defeat before the Supreme Court in a big way, is contemplating a run for Congress. According to Lessig, he wouldn’t just be running on a platform of technology and open-culture, but one of ethical reform. Specifically, he says he intends to help remove the corrupting influence of money in politics. And, given the enormous amount of support he enjoys online, it’s not hard to imagine that he’d be able to raise a shit load of money to do it.
3 Comments
Lessig either was responsible for, or helped draft Obama’s technology policy. He might get swept up on his coattails.
He can talk about fighting the corrupting influence of money, but McCain’s actually doing something about it. He fucks ’em.
I really enjoy reading your blog, it always has great insight. But I am very frustrated with the media’s lack of questions to the presidential candidates about global warming. Now that it is down to just a few candidates I would think that this would be a bigger issue.
Live Earth just picked up this topic and put out an article ( http://www.liveearth.org/news.php ) asking why the presidential candidates are not being solicited for their stance on the issue of the climate change. I just saw an article describing each candidate’s stance on global warming and climate change on earthlab.com http://www.earthlab.com/articles/PresidentialCandidates.aspx . So obviously they care about it. Is it the Medias fault for not asking the right questions or is it the candidates’ fault for not highlighting the right platforms? Does anyone know of other websites or articles that touch on this subject and candidates’ views? This is the biggest problem of the century and for generations to come…you would think the next president of the United States would be more vocal about it.