Daily News and Commentary in Higher Education and Student Organizing

UC Students Call for Constitutional Amendment

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) launched the "Save the Cal Grant Now" campaign, which calls for a state constitutional amendment mandating full funding the grant.  The Cal Grant program allows thousands of low-income students to attend UC schools every year.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to eliminate the program to mitigate the state's budget crisis, prompting the UCSA's ringing endorsement of the amendment.

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Students more Engaged, Study Finds

The annual National Survey of Student Engagement was recently released with positive findings.  The survey measures a series of qualities of student engagement that are widely believed to correlate with learning quality, such as rigor of assignment and "high impact" courses.  This year's report found 41% of participating institutions had positive gains in at least one measure for freshman and 28% had positive gains for seniors.
 
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SAFRA's Investment in Early Learning

A key feature of the recently passed Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3221) which is often overlooked is the creation of the Early Learning Challenge Fund.  This fund creates a competitive grant program to support states' efforts to improve the quality of their early education programs.  Hawaiian officials estimate that this grant would help create programs that save an estimated $4.20 per dollar spent through social benefits such as criminal justice savings and less dependency of welfare services. 

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A Nation's Wealth Lies in Higher Ed

"No country can think of making much headway without having a good higher education system," said Professor HS Ballal, chair of the FICCI Higher Education Committee in India at the inaugural session of FICCI Higher Education Summit 2009 at New Delhi.  Currently, only 12% of India's secondary school graduates advance on to higher education.  While Professor Ballal's remarks were geared towards the Indian education system, the notion of a nation's wealth depending on the quality of its higher education is a universal message the United States should adopt. 

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