Friday, May 12, 2017

Today's Investment in Education

There are some things which will not be covered:

"Say goodbye for now to low interest rates on federal student loans" by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel Washington Post  May 11, 2017

WASHINGTON — Families have been benefiting from historic lows on student loan interest rates. But that will change this fall.

As the result of the Treasury Department’s auction of 10-year notes Wednesday, interest rates on federal student loans will rise by seven-tenths of a percentage point.

Undergraduate students can expect to pay 4.45 percent in interest on new Stafford loans, instead of the current 3.76 percent. At that current rate, a student borrowing $5,000 would repay a total of $6,007 with interest over the standard 10-year period. But a freshman taking on a $5,000 loan for the 2017-2018 academic year will pay $196 more in interest with the new rate, assuming she pays off the loan in 10 years.

Graduate students will see the interest rate on new direct loans climb from 5.31 percent to 6 percent. A graduate student who took out a direct loan for $20,000 this past school year would have to shell out a total of $25,821 to pay back the debt in 10 years. The same loan amount will cost an extra $833.

Parents who take on federal debt to help their children pursue a bachelor’s degree can expect to pay 7 percent on a PLUS loan, instead of 6.31 percent. If mom and dad take out a $10,000 PLUS loan at the new rate this coming school year, they would be looking at $13,933 in total repayment costs over 10 years, an increase of $423.

Because many students and their families have to borrow money each year, continued annual increases could take a significant toll. If there are a couple more rate increases over the next few years, a student who graduates with $31,100 in loans at a blended rate of 5.1 percent would pay $49,672 to repay them over 20 years — $5,380 more than the $44,292 in total repayment costs they would be looking at if they’d been able to take all of their loans out at 3.76 percent, said Stephen Dash, chief executive of Credible, a marketplace for student loans. 

It doesn't look like much over time, but given the volume the banks clean up while you struggle to pay.

Why couldn't you get an intra-bank rate on your loan, kids?

Why is the government even charging you interest?

‘‘Students and their families shouldn’t panic about this year’s increase, but they should keep in mind that if interest rates continue to go up while they are in school, that will also have an impact on their monthly payment and total repayment costs after they graduate,’’ Dash said. ‘‘They should be aware that because some colleges front-load their financial aid offers, they may get less financial aid each year they enroll, and have to borrow more when they are seniors than they did when they are freshmen.’’

Dash said he expected rates on student loans would rise because of the way the markets reacted to the election of President Trump. Treasury yields soared after the election, as investors banked on increased government borrowing to pay for promised tax cuts, infrastructure, and defense spending because investors expect a surge in economic growth and are weary of safe investments like bonds, Dash said....

They want to make some money, and yeah, BLAME HIM when he has nothing to do with it!

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You start paying after graduation (where you can form a union and receive proper value for your skills.

I thought they simplified the forms in a bid to tighten up the rules, and I was told that LGBT people are welcome at the school as they try to ease burden for low-income freshmen so that the kids' parents could retire.

"It was only when his father agreed to cosign for him that the country’s leading student loan refinancing lender, San Francisco-based SoFi, offered to cut Tremblay’s hefty 12.5 percent interest rate by more than half. In the booming world of student loan refinancing, most would-be borrowers are shut out. Only those with high-paying jobs, stellar credit history, and the ability to tap mom and dad as cosigners can usually clear the bar. Private lenders from SoFi, Providence-based Citizens Financial Group, and even the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority have jumped into the refinancing market for both private and government student loans to help overwhelmed millennials save tens of thousands of dollars...."

Said Brad Conner, vice chairman of consumer banking at Citizens: “We believe there’s an enormous untapped market.”

Second-largest private student lender to pay $4 million over its unfair practices 

It's Wells Fargo & Co.  that had "unfair and deceptive practices in its student loan business, including charging borrowers illegal fees and giving them wrong information that may have pushed them further into debt." 

It's almost as if they were treating you like an illegal.

At least they have more important issues to deal with at Yale.

Also see:

Brockton elementary school makes way for ducklings — 17 of them

Get your pink slip yet?

At Boston Children’s Theatre, crisis deepens

Gotta get 'em when they are young.

Black Malden charter students punished for braided hair extensions

That's worthy of the front page.

UPDATE:

SAT subject tests lose favor for colleges
Teachers, city schools urged to overhaul policies
New students from 43 states, 30 countries check in at Brandeis

Just be careful on the Arctic trip; don't go swimming with the seals, if you know what I mean

Hampshire College faces $2.6m budget deficit this fall

Leaked letters from Smith College faculty stir tempest on race
Smith College activists cry wolf over bigotry, to the school’s disadvantage

Interim Boston Latin headmaster vows to build harmony
Boston boosts diversity in preparing for exam school tests

Meow! Or Woof

Pitt student trying to impress woman gets stuck between buildings
Female hiker found dead in Great Barrington
Suit Alleging Gay Marriage Bias in Catholic High School Firing Case Can Proceed

They pump out too many kids as it is.

"Two prep school teachers ousted over misconduct" by Jenn Abelson and Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff  August 24, 2016

Concord Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill have each ousted a teacher after they acknowledged sexual misconduct with students dating back decades — the latest upheaval in the wake of a Globe Spotlight report on sexual abuse at private schools in New England.

The schools, among at least two dozen to launch independent investigations of sexual abuse this year, also reported that investigators found credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving other faculty as well, most from decades ago.

“There were a number of inappropriate relationships between adults and students, relationships that left lasting harm,” Rick Hardy, Concord Academy’s head of school, wrote in a letter to the school community on Wednesday.

Concord Academy English teacher Parkman Howe sent a separate letter saying that he was asked to resign and remove himself from campus because he had kissed a student twice more than 30 years ago.

“This behavior was inappropriate, and I recognized that it must never happen again. I have never, since these incidents, had any inappropriate relationship with a student,” Howe wrote.

Howe, who was hired in 1979, declined to comment through a school spokeswoman.

The school would not provide the total number of allegations or the names of other teachers accused of sexual misconduct. Howe was the only faculty member accused of “inappropriate conduct” who still worked at the school, said Karen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for Concord Academy.

Although some of the relationships were described to the school as consensual, Hardy wrote, “let me be clear that a romantic relationship, whether physical or emotional, between an adult and student can in no way be ‘consensual’ and under no circumstances is it acceptable.”

In other cases at Concord, faculty made unwanted advances or developed “overly close and plainly unhealthy relationships with students.” Concord’s investigation, conducted by former state attorney general Scott Harshbarger, began this spring after a former student — and current Boston Globe employee — accused a teacher of sexual misconduct in the early 2000s. That teacher, who was placed on leave and denied the allegation, decided not to return to campus. The school said it could not substantiate that accusation.

Although Harshbarger could not substantiate all allegations brought forward to the school, Hardy said, “we can say that in most cases they were credible, and that we believe them to be true.”

In May, the Spotlight Team reported that at least 67 private schools in New England have faced accusations since 1991 that staffers sexually abused or harassed more than 200 students. Many former students came forward with new allegations and the count now stands at more than 100 schools, where more than 300 former students say they faced sexual abuse or harassment. At least 24 private schools in New England have launched investigations this year into sexual misconduct by staffers.

On Tuesday, Peter Fayroian, head of the Northfield Mount Hermon school in Western Massachusetts, sent a letter to the school community saying that he recently fired longtime teacher Gary Partenheimer over an allegation of misconduct with a student more than 30 years ago.

A three-month investigation by a law firm hired by the school found six other credible allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers stemming from incidents between 1976 and 1991, according to Fayroian.

The letter did not specify how many teachers were involved, but said that all but one of the faculty members “were separated’’ from Northfield Mount Hermon shortly after school officials learned of the incidents. The remaining teacher was disciplined and allowed to stay, but left the school over a decade ago. Fayroian didn’t identify any of the teachers.

A seventh incident came to light earlier this month after a former student contacted Fayroian to report an allegation regarding Partenheimer. A teacher at the school since 1977, Partenheimer is the former chairman of the religious studies and philosophy department.

“After speaking with her and with Mr. Partenheimer, who did not deny the allegation, I determined the allegation to be credible,’’ Fayroian wrote, and he fired the teacher. “While we have no evidence to suggest any misconduct has occurred since that incident, NMH cannot continue to employ anyone we believe is guilty of such a serious violation of the trust of our students.’’

Fayroian and Partenheimer could not immediately be reached for comment.

The investigation for Northfield Mount Hermon was conducted by Jackson Lewis, a law firm that specializes in workplace law, and included an examination of old files and interviews with alumni.

Both Concord Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon said they reported all allegations to the appropriate authorities. In many cases of sexual abuse at private schools, the Globe found, statutes of limitations make it difficult for authorities to pursue criminal cases and for survivors of abuse to sue schools.

Fayroian said he spoke in person with all the alumni who came forward with allegations. “These were emotional, heartbreaking conversations,’’ he wrote. “I apologized for NMH, and thanked them for their courage.’’

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Related:

 ‘Profoundly disturbing’ abuse documented at elite R.I. school  After a months-long investigation of sexual abuse at St. George’s School, a report released Thursday described the elite Rhode Island prep school in the 1970s and ’80s as a cauldron of sexual exploitation of students.

"An investigation into sexual misconduct at Phillips Academy in Andover found that five former teachers allegedly harmed students during the 1970s and 1980s, the boarding school announced Tuesday...."

They are getting an education in power relationships.

Petitioners say judge should lose job over sex assaulter’s probation
23,000-plus sign petition for judge to lose job over ‘light’ sentence in sex assault case
Despite outcry, sex assault sentence followed precedent
St. Paul’s parents helped fund Owen Laurie’s defense
 ‘I don’t want anyone else to be alone,’ Owen Labrie’s victim says

On NBC's Today Show!

In breaking silence, St. Paul’s survivor reclaims her name

Man says Tufts Medical Center doctor molested him as a child

Frustrated by finances, BU students team up online
BU students talk being #PoorAtAPrivateUniversity

Boston’s college students are returning
BC hits hurdles in its promise on student housing

First time away from home?

Mass. students top nation on ACT scores

"With new cast behind the scenes, Harvard’s ART stages financial revival" by Beth Healy Globe Staff  August 25, 2016

The past several years have marked a revival for the Cambridge theater, which in 2008 was mired in financial and artistic distress. Since then, the ART has doubled its revenue as it launched 10 plays and musicals that ended up in New York, a record pace for the theater. The shows have won a bevy of Tony awards, notice that’s led to regular sellouts of its 534-seat Loeb Drama Center.

Revenue has climbed to $17.5 million in the fiscal year ended June 2014, the latest publicly reported. That same season, for the first time in a decade, the nonprofit ART did not lose money, according to a Globe review of its tax filings.

The story of the ART’s resurgence is as much about an overhaul of its governance and oversight as it is about the jolt from the more popular shows it’s been producing since artistic director Diane Paulus arrived in 2008....

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Related(?):

"Harvard University has established a research alliance with Tata Group under which the Indian conglomerate will fund work in Harvard labs and the university will provide executive education to Tata’s employees. Harvard said the six-year, $8.4 million agreement, announced Monday by its office of technology development, is the first to combine the research capabilities of the university’s engineering and business schools with its leadership development programs. The initial focus of the alliance will be on robotics, wearable technologies, and the “Internet of things” with the aim of stimulating a global exchange of ideas....."

Time to for the kids to rebel in the name of free speech:

Lunenburg crash kills 18-year-old football player

"A Gardner man was arraigned Monday on several charges in the death of a close friend in a Lunenburg car crash. Joseph Kapp, 19, is charged with motor vehicle homicide by driving under the influence of liquor with negligence, in the death of Austin Robbins, 18. Robbins was a passenger in Kapp’s car when the vehicle ran off Hollis Road early Saturday morning, striking several trees. Kapp, who would soon be starting his sophomore year at Boston University, is also charged with driving under the influence of liquor with negligence causing serious bodily harm, driving under the influence of liquor, and negligent driving...."

Should have called a cab:

North Shore Community College partners with Uber
Uber driver held without bail for allegedly exposing himself
Everett mayor calls for tighter screening of Uber drivers
Rockport police arrest Gloucester man in attack on woman

Not that way.

What do you mean you didn't get the loan

No wonder she is being booed.