USA ovih dana

[vbo man]

The New Poor - For-Profit Schools Cashing In on Recession and Federal Aid - NYTimes.com

    One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

    At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

    But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

    "If these programs keep growing, you're going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can't find meaningful employment," said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. "They can't generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they're going to end up in financial distress."

[vbo man]

Hocete da slavite ako ne prodje :mrgreen:

Obama's health care legacy hangs on 216 House votes | McClatchy

    WASHINGTON -- The looming vote for final passage of the historic health-care bill is the stiffest challenge House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn has faced in his three-plus years as the lawmaker responsible for counting heads and ensuring passage of major legislation.

    The South Carolina Democrat has spent the past week in endless meetings and conversations with key factions of Democrats in the House of Representatives, among them black, Hispanic and the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" lawmakers.

    The forthcoming health-care vote puts Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, in the tough position of securing enough Democratic support to gain final passage of a historic initiative that will help define the legacy of President Barack Obama. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the original House health-care measure in November, 24 of them Blue Dogs.

    The outcome, he said, could be tighter than the 220-215 vote by which the House passed the original health-care bill in November.

    "I need 216 votes to pass this bill," Clyburn told McClatchy. "I think I'm going to get 216 votes. It could be closer than last time. All I want is 216 votes.