Chicago Tribune | Bush exposes his gap in education: "It is stunningly clear that Bush and the Republican Congress have quit on the kids. The questioner at Kansas State was correct. In December, the Senate passed a $12.7 billion cut in loan aid, which would force college students and their families to pay much higher interest rates on their loans. Pell grants would remain capped at $4,050 for the fourth straight year, further depressing purchasing power that has declined, according to the American Council on Education, from covering 84 percent of the cost of a public four-year college in 1972 to 34 percent today.

On the K-12 front, despite the immense budgetary authority originally granted by Congress to make No Child Left Behind work, Bush and the Republicans took the assets at their disposal and shuffled them over to what is becoming a needless trillion-dollar war in Iraq. They shuffled them over to the needless trillion-dollar tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts they still want to make permanent."

Republicans Urge Scholarships For Math and Science Students - The Tech: "When Republican senators quietly tucked a major new student aid program into the 774-page budget bill last month, they not only approved a five-year, $3.75 billion initiative. They also set up what could be an important shift in American education: for the first time the federal government will rate the academic rigor of the nation’s 18,000 high schools.

The measure, backed by the Bush administration and expected to pass the House when it returns next month, would provide $750 to $1,300 grants to low-income college freshmen and sophomores who have completed “a rigorous secondary school program of study” and larger amounts to juniors and seniors majoring in math, science and other critical fields."

Proactive recruitment helping some firms succeed in quest for diversity - Wichita - MSNBC.com: "To find employees outside the company, Cargill greatly increased its presence among different ethnic communities. It now partners with the Multicultural Food Service and Hospitality Alliance, Women's Food Service Forum, Multicultural Forum and the Out and Equal Workplace Summit. And it recently began running ads in several national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Hispanic Business and Black Enterprise, that explain Cargill's stance on the importance of diversity.

So far, the efforts are working -- slowly. Of the new college trainees going into finance, operations and sales in the past three years at the company, 40 percent to 50 percent are women and minorities. Before, that number hovered around 20 percent. "

AlterNet: Finding Words to Talk About Race: "I had no language to talk about these divides of difference. 'Race' meant white or black. 'Ethnicity' meant ... well, most people weren't exactly sure what it meant, but ethnic food was anything spicy, and ethnic clothes were folksy costumes. To actually discuss prejudice or discrimination, its causes and consequences and daily realities — that was as distasteful as talking about sex at the dinner table. Even when James Byrd, Jr., was murdered in Jasper, Texas -- he was chained by his ankles and dragged behind a pickup truck -- and the murderers were tried and convicted in my hometown, people didn't talk about it."

Chicago Tribune | Financial aid rules different for grad school GRADUATE SCHOOL FINANCIAL AID Q & A

Dumbing down a college education - The Boston Globe: "A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that only 31 percent of college graduates could read a ''complex book and extrapolate from it.' Furthermore, the study found that far fewer college graduates are leaving school with ''the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity.'"

AAA Travel Challenge is Underway; $100,000 in College Scholarships and Prizes Available: "LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2006--Starting today, high school students can enter the 4th annual AAA Travel High School Challenge and compete for a total of $100,000 in college scholarships and prizes, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. Students start by logging online at www.aaa.com/TravelChallenge.

The national contest is open to all U.S. students in grades 9-12 (public, private or home-schooled), with winners from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., traveling to Universal Orlando in May to compete for the national title."

Campus - Emerald Coast Schools Community Site: "Today’s ruling is a direct blow to the national voucher movement. Several state supreme courts have struck down voucher programs despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that the Ohio voucher plan did not violate the First Amendment."

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Brave New World for Higher Education: "Once dismissed and derided as 'diploma mills,' schools like Phoenix, DeVry Institutes, Strayer University and their counterparts have already had an enormous impact on American postsecondary and postbaccalaureate education. Yes, MIT, Harvard and Berkeley are fabulous brands. But there's every reason to believe that market-oriented entities like Phoenix have every economic incentive to be even more innovative than an MIT in crafting compelling online curricula and content. A decade hence, whose 'courseware' sensibilities will be educating more people faster, better and cheaper around the globe? MIT's? Or Phoenix's?"

More Companies Bolstering Diversity, Says New Vault/INROADS Guide to Diversity Programs; Over 65% of Major Corporations Surveyed Have Diversity Committees: "In a new survey, career publisher Vault Inc. (www.vault.com) and internship organization INROADS found that over 65% of major corporations polled have established committees to promote diversity at their companies. The survey was conducted for the first annual edition of the Vault/INROADS Guide to Diversity Internship, Co-op & Entry-Level Programs.

The survey also found that over 36% of companies polled offer minority scholarships (including those that do not have formal diversity committees), and that 88% of companies with diversity committees have a key executive sitting on the committee."

USA Funds Accepts Applications for $3.5 Million in New Scholarships: "The program targets students from households with annual incomes of $35,000 or less. 'These scholarships support USA Funds' nonprofit mission to enhance postsecondary-education preparedness, access and success,' said Carl C. Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO. 'As part of our mission, USA Funds is working to improve the college-going rates of lower-income students. Federal- government statistics show a significant gap in the college-participation rates of these students, as compared with rates for their higher-income classmates.' The application deadline is March 1, 2006. For complete eligibility information and to apply online, students should visit USA Funds' Web site -- http://www.usafunds.org -- and select 'Scholarship Information' from the 'Express Links' menu."

Discovery Education and the Institute of Food Technologists Offer Free Science Resources to High School Science Teachers: "The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and Discovery Education are launching a food-science learning program to provide U.S. high school students with an introduction to a rapidly expanding profession that is often not introduced until college. The program, The Science and Scientists Behind the Food, is a multimedia resource kit containing six food science lessons and experiments complimented by a three-part Science of Food DVD and a classroom poster."