I. For-Profit Schools in Decline
"Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of bachelors' degrees that came from for-profit schools septupled. Today, the for-profit education bubble is deflating." "For-profit colleges are far more expensive than community colleges, their closest peers." "According to a study by the economists Adam Looney and Constantine Yamalis, students at for-profit schools are roughly three times as likely to default [on their loans] as students at traditional colleges." The college system Corinthians, for instance, was found to have lied about job placement nearly a thousand times. [1]
On the popular television show, "The Good Wife," a main story line was built around a college with a name very close to that of Corinthians that was giving inflated information about job placements of its graduates. Also, the episode on the fictional school depicted it as riding the student-loan gravy train, whereby the loans were financed by another party. In the real world, the federal government is making it harder to ride the student-loan gravy train by requiring the for-profit schools to prove that, on average, students' loan payments amount to less than eight percent of their annual income. The notion that college will transform job prospects is in many ways, an illusion, and for a while, for-profit schools turned it into a very lucrative one." [2]
II. Mormon Church's New Policy on Same-Sex Marriages
Mormon Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins says of the new policy on same-sex marriage: "While it (the church) respects the law of the land, and acknowledges the right of others to think and act differently, it does not perform or accept same-sex marriages within its membership." Mormon Church officials have issued a rules change that says members in same-sex marriages can be kicked out and their children must wait until they're eighteen and disavow homosexual relationships to be baptized. They can, however, be baptized and serve missions once they turn eighteen, but only if they disavow the practice of same-sex relationships; no longer live with gay parents; and get approval from their local leader and the highest leaders at church
headquarters in Salt Lake City. [3]
III. GOP Policy in a Capsule
"Next fall, the Republican Presidential nominee will be committed to taking away health insurance from eighteen million people, keeping the minimum wage where it is, cutting tax rates on the wealthy to historic lows, reducing the progressivity of the income tax, creating trillions of dollars in new deficits, returning to a militarized foreign policy, and allowing Iran to resume its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by tearing up the deal just signed." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Sarah Palin cites Luke 22:36 as proof that Jesus would fight to protect Second Amendment rights. She says Jesus said take up your arms and defend yourself and protect the innocent. Specifically, he said: "he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Two verses later, Jesus says that two swords is "enough."
*The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) says: 1.) the 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 61% of the population; 2.) 20 individuals control more wealth than the bottom half of the population -- 157 million people living in 57 million households; 3.) 100 richest households own more assets than the entire African-American community; 4.) 182 individuals in the Forbes list have more assets than the entire U.S. Hispanic population. Chuck Collins of the IPA says the study understates the problem: the rich hide wealth in offshore tax havens, or in loophole trusts where money is shuffled around. He also points out that those in the lower income brackets experience more stress.
Footnotes
[1] James Surwiecki, "The Rise and Fall of For-Profit Schools," The New Yorker, November 2, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Brady McCombs, "Mormon church rules aimed at gay members," The Albuquerque Journal, November 7, 2015.
4.) George Packer, "Still Standing," The New Yorker, February 23, 2015.
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