President Obama has sent a strong and badly needed  message of philosophical and financial support for community colleges. But they, and their students, are still in deep trouble in many states whose economic recovery is key to the national economic recovery, including California and Florida. continue reading

I saw an ugly sight last week: An emerging new exclusion from the opportunity called higher education. This exclusion is the net result of reduced state budgets for community colleges and state colleges and universities, an increasingly expensive and ineffective education model, and the expressed attitudes of some policy, government, and educational professionals. continue reading

The GAO issued a report last week finding that the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Standards for the Approval of Law Schools play only a “minor role” in increasing costs of J.D. programs and the lack of diversity in law schools - two important matters for legal education and the profession.

The report generated attention - from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, the ABA Journal, and in the blogs (see, for example, Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports and Above the Law). For those of us who work at law schools or follow legal education closely, these findings are not surprising. They are also somewhat beside the point. continue reading