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Higher Ed Resources for Activists

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The Debt Resistors’ Operation Manual. A newer group grown out of Occupy called Strike Debt is making waves with their newly released Debt Resistors’ Operation Manual, available to read here with commentary from Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith and available for download as a pdf here. Their goal is compelling, and they state it in their manifesto on page 2: We gave the banks the power to create money because they promised to use it to help us live healthier and more prosperous lives—not to turn us into frightened peons. They broke that promise.

We are under no moral obligation to keep our promises to liars and thieves. In fact, we are morally obligated to find a way to stop this system rather than continuing to perpetuate it. This collective act of resistance may be the only way of salvaging democracy because the campaign to plunge the world into debt is a calculated attack on the very possibility of democracy. To the financial establishment of the world, we have only one thing to say: We owe you nothing. Like this: European Debt Crisis Explained. University Inc. - corporate corruption of Research & Higher Education. CUNY Administration Declares War On Rebel English Department. URGENT UPDATE, September 16: I’ve spoken with a QCC faculty member who has confirmed the report below and added important new details on crucial elements of the story, including the vote count from the faculty meeting, the nature of the administration’s threats, and the department’s plans for the future.

Please read and distribute today’s post before continuing. This is an astounding story. On Wednesday the English department at Queensborough Community College voted not to adopt a policy of the City University of New York to reduce composition course credits from four to three. In so doing, they rejected the CUNY Pathways initiative, a proposal for streamlining and centralizing CUNY curricula which many faculty regard as antithetical to students’ needs. Administrators didn’t like this. But they are. Horrifying. Update: It’s worth underscoring one element of this that I mentioned only in passing in the original post. CUNY community college students are pretty much the definition of “at risk.”

Moody's applauds plan to let UC campuses set own tuition. Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service applauded a new University of California, Berkeley proposal to give each UC campus more autonomy, particularly when it comes to setting tuition rates. Because its seats are so coveted, Berkeley has wanted to charge higher tuition and admit more out-of-state students than other campuses. The school's Center for Studies in Higher Education released a report last month that suggests giving the system's 10 schools greater ability to set policies that fit the "uniqueness of individual campuses. " As we reported today, Berkeley has moved aggressively to admit more non-resident students, who pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of full tuition, and fewer California residents than the school did prior to 2010.

It is far from clear that UC Regents would consider giving up power to set tuition or admissions policies. And student groups say the campuses have already moved too far toward privatization in the wake of state budget cuts. College Students: Your School Is Pimping You Out to a Bank. High schools really, really need to begin teaching fundamental consumer economics, including the proper use of credit and and how it can help/hurt you in the long term.

The best thing that can be done is to educate kids early on exactly what credit, loans and banking can to for them, because even slight missteps early on can ruin your life for many years to come. I don't mean some comprehensive class on economic theory that nobody will pay attention to, just the really critical, practical stuff, like explaining how credit scores/ratings work, what interest rates are, and how debt can either help you or hurt you. I knew nothing about any of this stuff coming out of high school, and I was very much the worse for it. And maybe if kids actually understood the basics of credit, interest and debt, they wouldn't think of themselves as victims of some 'system' after taking out massive student loans that will never pay themselves off (by avoiding loans they can't afford in the first place).

Acts, Laws, Lobbying

ACTION. Student Loans (U.S.) Challenging Education Models.