Archive for July, 2006

Declining College Enrollment

Posted by Tom on July 27th, 2006

I was chatting with a colleague when he ask why university enrollment was declining. My unresearched, off-the-cuff answer was, “The economy is doing well.”
After spending some quality time with my good friend Google, I can more confidently say I’m partly right. Here’s a list of likely reasons; we’re not being hit with just […]

Paying Math Teachers More

Posted by Tom on July 26th, 2006

Grant Harkness recently questioned the concept of paying math and science teachers more than their peers in other subject areas. His criticism centers around the perceived prioritization of math and science over English in the curriculum.
His arguments misdiagnose the problem: it’s not that Math teachers are more important than English teachers. It’s that […]

Mortgaging Our Children Part II: Public Education

Posted by Tom on July 20th, 2006

I ended my last post asking, “Is public education the proper place for a solution?” It’s a bit of a loaded question. Certainly, public schools should teach what amount to basic life skills, right?
Here in Utah, the Legislature has mandated basic financial education for high school students (Utah Code 53A-13-108). It happened partly because bankruptcy […]

Mortgaging Our Children

Posted by Tom on July 19th, 2006

I’ve been involved in a national group studying financial literacy education in public schools. The statistics demonstrating the consumerism and indebtedness of the American public are astounding. It’s no wonder our federal government isn’t fiscally responsible–a good number of our citizens aren’t either.
The Problem
Americans carry about $800 billion in consumer debt. [1] At the […]