"Slip-Sliding Away: An Anxious Public Talks About Today's Economy And The American Dream," is a report from Public Agenda which finds that the number one financial concern of economically-stressed Americans who also have children is college affordability. Also high on Americans' priorities, stressed financially or not: Social security and retirement benefits and job training.

If this isn't an indication of high demand for higher education, we don't know what is:

When it comes to what would be "very effective" in helping people become economically secure, the public puts its faith in higher education and job training, along with preserving programs like Social Security and Medicare. These are the top three solutions among both those who are struggling and those who aren't.

"Making higher education more affordable" led the list overall (63 percent) and among those who say they're struggling (65 percent). Preserving Social Security and Medicare was next at 58 percent (62 percent among the struggling) and expanding job-training programs came in third at 54 percent (56 percent for the struggling).

Neither cutting taxes for the middle class (48 percent) nor reducing the federal deficit (40 percent) get majority support, and other options rate even lower. ...

One reason for the faith in education may be the public's perception of who's struggling the most in the current economy. Three-quarters of Americans say that people without college degrees are struggling a lot these days, compared to just half who say college graduates are struggling.

Diane Auer Jones is a former Bush administration department of education official who is now employed in for-profit education world. In this aggressive post to The Chronicle's blog, Brainstorm, she takes on some regulatory changes by the Obama administration and posits them as mostly about hindering the uses of information technology. The entire piece includes no mention of her employment or of the fact that the new regulations are intended to cope with quality control issues by some major for-profit competitors.

It will not be long before students in brick-and-mortar classrooms will be required to have clickers in their hands so that they can press the button every 15 minutes to prove they are awake and in the room, and so that a computer can record each time they raise their electronic hand to ask or answer a question. Faculty members will need to preserve thousands of e-mails to show that they interacted with a student, even if he or she missed class on a given day. I guess faculty will be required to keep electronic logs of who visited during office hours, too. ...

You are absolutely correct, Mr. President, that the world has changed. So maybe it is time for your Department of Education to realize that the students of tomorrow will not be educated with chalkboards and overheads, no matter how much those of us who are over 40 wish to relish the glory days of our own college past. I challenge anyone who questions the quality of online education to sign up for an online course to see first hand just what it is like. Go ahead. Do it. Come back and tell us how it was. But for those who have never experienced online learning or teaching first hand, perhaps it is time to stop parroting hearsay and start making some evidence-based observations of their own.

Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing that technology has changed our world. It is now time to allow technology to change higher education.

This Business Officer document is blurbed, "Stimulus funds for university research can be a mixed blessing, causing an institution’s facilities and administration rate to shrink. A case study presents strategies to keep rates in check."

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) presented higher education institutions with an unprecedented level of funding to expand and improve their research opportunities. Since ARRA's creation in February 2009, however, the government and academic community have debated the best approach to accounting for the additional funding and capturing its effect on facilities and administration (F&A) rates—the amount of overhead, or indirect costs, associated with federally funded research that universities can recoup.

The government, understandably, wants justification of every ARRA dollar awarded; ARRA grants come with a host of documentation and reporting requirements. Equally understandably, universities with increasingly tight budgets seek to recover from the government a significant percentage of their overhead costs. These costs have escalated with ARRA's administrative requirements, as universities must devote more staff time to gathering and submitting the required data. Given the government's regulations and stance in F&A rate negotiations, university leaders now question whether they'll be picking up more of the research tab—and, if so, just how much it could cost them.

Quite an in-depth look at Phoenix University founder, John Sperling, in the context of finances and the current various controversies and political battles around for-profit institutions. For most SCUPers, this article will provide background they have not previously known. 

As a humanities professor at San Jose State University from 1961 to 1973, John Sperling pioneered remedial reading classes for Mexican Americans and courses in social problems for police officers.

Defying the education establishment, he expanded such programs into the for-profit University of Phoenix, now largely online and the biggest U.S. university, with almost 500,000 students. ...

Phoenix’s quest for acceptance was “was one nasty, brutal, bare-knuckled fight,” said Murphy, 64, a screenwriter and producer who is writing a history of the University of Phoenix during his time there. “Everything we did drove traditional education into absolute apoplexy. We didn’t know on Friday if we’d be open for business on Monday.” At the urging of Phoenix’s vice president for product development, Sperling started an online campus in 1989 and stuck with it through unprofitable years. “He persisted when virtually all of the institution was opposed to the idea,” Tucker said. ...

In 1998, 65 percent of Phoenix’s 53,200 students attained degrees, Klor de Alva said. By contrast, two-thirds of the associate’s degree students and half of the bachelor’s degree candidates who entered Phoenix from July 2008 to June 2009 withdrew by August 2010, according to a Senate education committee report. The median length of enrollment at Phoenix is about four months. ...

Because most of its students were low-income and qualified for federal grants and loans, Axia fostered Phoenix’s dependence on its biggest source of funds, the Education Department. Phoenix derived 88 percent of its revenue from federal student aid in the year ended Aug. 31, up from 48 percent in fiscal 2001.

Jerry Bowyer has a fairly pronounced point of view regarding a bubble phase in higher education and thinks that, from a financial perspective, college education may not be "worth it." It's best to read some of what folks like this are writing about, if only because of who else is reading them. It's the first time we have seen what we consider to be a value of an education (that it can't be taken away) described as a negative (that also means you can't sell it to someone else, used):

And things are only going to get worse. To call the policy drift of the Obama administration pro-college is an understatement. College is becoming the new high school, and the recent nationalization of secondary education financing affords a policy lever through which capital can be shoe-horned toward the only industry in which our president worked for an appreciable span of his life.

Progressivity of income tax rates only shrinks the College E differential. And, most troubling of all, so far the data on the current recovery indicate that a college degree is dropping in employment value relative to the alternative. Perhaps the alleged intangible benefits of a degree--status, socialization and sophistication--can outweigh the increasingly heavy costs, but taken as an economic proposition, a college degree is looking more and more like Nasdaq circa 1999, or Nevada housing circa 2007. Caveat emptor.

Jeff Wendt interviews Robert Tucker of InterEd, who says that - to him - it is seems that the Department of Education has decided that for-profits are an impediment. Tucker has some interesting ideas and perspectives.

[T]he flaws in the Department of Education's regulatory formulation are critical. ED's disclosures tell prospective students who are interested in certain applied degree programs that their degree, earned at a particular institution, is likely to land them the job they seek. However, they are told nothing about time and cost to degree. There is no mention of the opportunity costs of delays. There are no requirements for disclosure if the school is non-profit. Meanwhile, in addition to the possible outcome, does it matter what the buyer may want during the actual educational experience — facilities, amenities, fellowship and a host of other considerations? ...

A one-year delay to degree is typical among public colleges and universities. It can cost the student foregone earnings of say $40,000, plus extra tuition, plus possible additional downstream costs. Such transparent disclosures could eliminate the need for unintelligent regulation and expensive compliance. Since a consumer is likely to be shopping throughout the higher education marketplace for himself and family members, this disclosure, as well as all the others, should apply throughout the marketplace, regardless of the corporate charter of the education provider.

Rather than analyzing second-hand accounts of last week's summit, we've decided to share with you a set of links to various reports.

• The first item is a 2-minute YouTube video from the Associated Press of President Obama addressing the summit.
• The White House Community College Website
• Inside Higher Ed: Praise But No Cash
• Inside Higher Ed: Community Colleges' Day in the Sun
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: At the White House, Praise and New Challenges for Education's 'Unsung Heroes'
• The Christian Science Monitor: Gates Gives $35M to Obama's Community College Overhaul
• The New York Times: White House Plans Job Training Partnership
• Community College Week: Summit Leaves Leaders Wanting More
• Community Colleges Inside the Beltway: White House Summit on Community Colleges Ends With a Consensus on Challenges

One reporter captured some of the event's cynicism:

In the East Room, I asked a White House press corps regular how the event ranked, one to ten, in terms of stops the White House could pull out. "A five," he said, though "you didn't hear it from me." The East Room wasn't set up for cramming in as many people as possible. "Half-day event, all day spin. The Big Man isn't going to the wrap up. That's definitely a five." We press were roped off in the back third of the East Room, and the 100 or so of us didn't fill the space.

I counted four empty seats among the guests. (Among the guests, unlike my community college classes, no piercings other than earlobes. No Jordans. No Nikes.) As a matter of proportionality, the President of the United States has the whole world and parts of outer space in his hands, and he showed up to speak, not wave. The White House is The White House is The White House. Five out of ten? Plenty generous for community colleges.

This is Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, as proclaimed by President Obama as part of the administration's White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Early in our Nation's history, higher education was not possible for most African Americans, and simple lessons in reading and writing were often conducted in secret. With a unique mission to meet the educational needs of African Americans, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been valued resources for our country since their inception before the Civil War. Historically Black Colleges and Universities have opened doors and cultivated dreams, and the contributions of their founders, faculty, students, and graduates have shaped our growth and progress as a Nation. During National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, we honor these pillars of higher education in America, and we pay tribute to those who have worked to realize their promise.

Bastions of heritage and scholarship, HBCUs have produced African American medical professionals, lawyers, educators, and public officials throughout their history. Countless individuals have worked tirelessly to cultivate HBCUs, and their legacy is seen in graduates whose achievements adorn the pages of American history. From Booker T. Washington to Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., HBCU visionaries and graduates have set powerful examples of leadership, built our middle class, strengthened our economy, served in our Armed Forces, and secured their place in the American story.

Stephen J. Troop and Nell Gross argue that Canadian higher education is both in a better space and structured more appropriately to thrive instead of just survive the current economic conditions.

Some inevitable belt-tightening aside, Canadian policy makers at the federal and provincial levels are working hard to spare colleges and universities, preserving as much money as possible for research and operating expenditures and keeping tuition costs affordable. The reason? They recognize that a strong higher education system is key to long-term economic competitiveness and a successful society. If the United States doesn’t act soon to shore up its higher education sector, its loss will quickly become Canada’s — and other countries’ — gain.

That American colleges and universities have been hit hard by the economic crisis is clear. Private institutions saw the value of their endowments plummet. Public colleges and universities have fared far worse. The State of California, struggling under a $20 billion budget deficit, cut higher education funding by 6.8 percent in 2009-10, furloughing faculty and staff in both the University of California and California State University systems, reducing the number of slots for entering students, and raising tuition dramatically. Budget shortfalls in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Florida and elsewhere have likewise meant millions of dollars in campus cutbacks.

Federal stimulus money helped cushion these blows, and an expansion of the Pell Grant program, opposed by many Republicans, has provided some relief to students. But the stimulus money is nearly spent, and with the recovery stalled out, American higher education seems destined for more pain in the years to come.

 Many years ago this writer was hired to do some computer training at a for-profit school. Arriving to teach one day, he discovered the local sheriff, locking the place up and was quick-talking enough to persuade the sheriff to let him take home his personal computer, which had been stored at the school. As for-profits move to fill the gap and be part of the push for more graduates, many criticize them - and many for-profits feel unfairly tarred by the brush of bad stories. Read more.

Government money, lightly supervised institutions, unchecked supervising bodies and debt-trapped students — it all sounds similar to the subprime-mortgage collapse that is still fresh in America's mind. "The analogies are unbelievable," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, linking the for-profit education boom to the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, the dotcom boom of the '90s and the recent mortgage bubble, which was helped along by lax credit-rating agencies and loose regulation.

For-profit school leaders deny the parallel. "It's silly and simplistic," responds Harris Miller, CEO and president of the Career College Association. "The analogy between the [for-profit college] accrediting bodies and the [credit] rating service is absolute nonsense." Corinthian Colleges Inc. downplays default numbers and cites an Office of Management and Budget figure showing that loan-repayment rates have actually risen in the past decade.