#989 Investments in education should not earn cash profits

Air date: 2-9-16

Today we look at the intersection of our educational system and the detrimental influence that money, austerity policies and the profit motive have on the education that our kids have access to

Show Notes

Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill

00:00:38 Ch. 2: Act 1: Driving America's yellow school bus to educational hell - @jimhightower - Air Date: 12-29-15

Ch. 3: Song 1: School Bus (featuring Tahir Jahi) - Happy Hatters

00:03:08 Ch. 4: Act 2: As Obama Admin Seeks More Funding for Charter Schools, Questions Raised over Billions Already Spent - @democracynow - Air Date: 5-8-15

Ch. 5: Song 2: School Bus (featuring Tahir Jahi) - Happy Hatters

00:19:25 Ch. 6: Act 3: Black Parents Should Opt Their Children Out of High Stakes Testing - @blkagendareport - Air Date: 8-5-15

Ch. 7: Song 3: Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare - Matt and Kim

00:23:38 Ch. 8: Act 4: Stephanie Simon on the power of Pearson publishing - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date: 2-27-15

Ch. 9: Song 4: Compensation - The Del-Knights

00:33:25 Ch. 10: Act 5: Faces Of The Student Debt Crisis In America - AJ+ (@ajplus) - Air Date: 07-09-15

Ch. 11: Song 5: Higher Education - Buch Helemano

00:38:09 Ch. 12: Act 6: Bernie Sanders: Free College for All... - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 05-22-15

Ch. 13: Song 6: Higher Education - Knowledge

00:41:30 Ch. 14: Act 7: Is Hillary’s College Plan More Progressive Than Bernie's? - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 10-11-15

Ch. 15: Song 7: I Love You Money - Lowell

00:49:03 Ch. 16: Act 8: Cancel All #StudentDebt via @thenation & @StrikeDebt - Best of the Left Activism

Ch. 17: Song 8: This fickle world - Theo Bard

00:53:26 Ch. 18: Act 9: Detroit Student "I Want to Be Able to Go to School Without Worrying About Being Bitten by Mice" - @democracynow - Air Date 01-21-16

Voicemails

01:01:02 Ch. 19: Go to BringBackSolar.com to support Nevada solar - Shawn from Las Vegas

01:02:47 Ch. 20: What we need to teach about financial education - Chris from Dallas

Voicemail Music: Loud Pipes - Classics

01:05:32 Ch. 21: Final comments on financial literacy and the superiority of universal programs to means tested ones

Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone

Activism: Cancel All #StudentDebt via @thenation & @StrikeDebt

Take Action:

SIGN: Cancel All Student Debt via The Nation & coalition

READ & Share: "How far to free?” — StrikeDebt’s plan for tuition-free college

Additional Activism/Resources:

Help if you are or are about to be behind/defaulting: Student Loan Borrowers Assistance — "Find a Solution” via National Consumer Law Center

Sources/further reading:

"Why the Student Loan Crisis Is Even Worse Than People Think” via Time.com/Money

"Student Debt Is Worse Than You Think” via The New York Times

"5 Extreme Ways to Get Rid of Your Student Loan Debt” via Attn:

"We Need to End the Student Loan Debt Crisis: To draw attention to the magnitude of the student debt crisis, we’re doing something dramatic.” via The Nation & coalition

Graphic via: BorderlessNewsAndViews.com

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

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Education Economics

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Showing 4 reactions

Mm Mm commented 2016-02-21 04:42:13 -0500
Hi again Jay, just listened to your latest episode and heard your reply to my 02/10 “unfocused” comment. Totally understand now that you’re getting at something a lot bigger than what I was focusing on; I do have a habit of honing in on details when I should be looking at the big picture. Thanks for taking the time to explain (smiley face with the tongue hanging out lol).

Aside from that, your epic recap was very moving. It’s often difficult for me to put into words why the current state of affairs is so frustrating. I was born in the late Reagan years so I have a lot of weird guilt about criticizing capitalism baked into my worldview, even as I witness so many people being left behind (myself included in some ways). No, I did not realize that you were building to that point over the last couple months. But hearing it all put together to reach a conclusion about the failure of the system made perfect sense and left me stunned.

Keep doing what you do my man, I’ll be listening and sharing.
Natalie Fredrickson commented 2016-02-12 12:25:21 -0500
I guess I see your point about privatizing public schools though I sent both my children to not for profit charter schools and it was not like the experience you have put forth.

And to your comments about college debt at the end in in total agreement with you. College should be an extension of the public school system. It does have problems obviously which needed to be addressed but it has served us well for a long time and education should be available to all Americans without putting themselves into debt.

My husband and I have college debts of our own and I don’t see how we will ever pay it off. Depressing to think we might die of old age and still have this debt.
Jay Tomlinson commented 2016-02-10 09:52:01 -0500
Mm Mm, I appreciate the comments but if you thought this one was unfocused, try squinting and tilting your head to the side. I had a very specific angle I wanted to focus on.
Mm Mm commented 2016-02-10 02:20:06 -0500
Jay, loved the show as always, but it seemed a little unfocused… should have done a K-12 municipal education show, and then later a private/public higher education loan/debt affordability episode. That’s just my two cents, but then again I don’t have a podcast so what do I know :P Love ya bro, keep it up!