by Jeffrey J. Selingo. I’ve concluded that I want to post short summaries of the books I’m reading, partly as “content” and partly for my own benefit, and I’m not going to do this in any elegant way, more in the form of notes, so I can recall the content later. Three sections:  How We Got ThereThe DisruptionThe Future How We Got There:  1999 to 2009 was the Lost Decade — a boom in high school graduates, which colleges should have... Read more

So Bradley Manning wants to be called Chelsea Manning, with feminine pronouns.  Call me skeptical.  His lawyer intends to fight, and it’s my understanding there are mixed court rulings about whether sexual-reassignment surgery is a “medical treatment” that a prison (and in particular, a military prison) is required to provide, but I suspect that this is largely connected to aiming at better conditions in prison, whether it’s perceiving a woman’s prison as offering better living conditions or just being removed... Read more

Once upon a time, financial aid consisted of merit scholarships funded by outside donors, and federal grants and loans.  At least I think so.  (My family was thoroughly middle class but saved, so my dad refused to even fill out the financial aid form, figuring we wouldn’t qualify for anything so there was no point.)  Now, from what I understand, a sizable amount of the financial aid a student receives comes from the university itself. Experts on the topic (the... Read more

Will Obama’s approach of differentiating financial aid based on how a college fares in a government-devised ranking make any difference?  Unlikely. Will MOOCs and other innovations revolutionize higher education?  Not in isolation. The fundamental reason why tuition has been galloping forward is the same reason that medical costs have been.  No, not the third-party payer problem.  The fact that the product seems indispensable. If you’ve been told by your doctor that you need a triple-bypass operation, are you going to... Read more

1) stoplights and stop signs:  Bikers have to stop at all stop lights, just like cars.  The only exceptions are that if the car has to stop unusually short of the cross street for safety reasons (e.g., if a car has to stop behind the train track running parallel and a little before the cross street, rather than in the two-car gap between the cross street and the tracks), I think it’s fine for the bike to ride all the way up to the cross street; and if... Read more

In a way, starting a blog is like fishing, but your lake is the comment section of popular blogs and the bait is attempted witty or insightful comments with links to your own posts — because, even if you tell yourself that it’s not about how many readers you have but about developing your writing skills and thinking through issues of the day, you do end up checking the “pageviews” counter and eagerly looking to see if you’ve got any... Read more

Let’s start with the position that ObamaCare is a disaster in multiple ways, and in a perfect world Congress would repeal and replace (yes, with VoucherCare) and Obama would sign the bill before him. But this won’t happen.  Are you kidding?  To imagine that Obama would sign a law repealing the legislation unofficially named after him is delusional.  So I’m thinking through the question:  is there a “mend it, don’t end it” version of ObamaCare that would repair enough of... Read more

Colleges are always talking about how they meet demonstrated need, either through grants or loans, but no one ever talks about whether the calculation of “demonstrated need” is a credible one or not. It all hinges on the Expected Family Contribution — if you’re just out of high school, your family is expected to provide a significant portion of your tuition and expenses.  How much? In case you’ve been wondering, here are the official federal financial aid formulas for the... Read more

Apparently, the state supreme court in New Mexico rejected the appeal of a woman found guilty of discrimination for declining to serve as photographer for a same-sex wedding.  According to the blog post explaining the ruling, the court decided that (1) the situation is covered by the anti-discrimination law in the state, (2) she is not protected by her right to free speech or free exercise of religion because she is operating a business, and (3) the state’s Religious Freedom... Read more

Yes, I’m again following the strategy of “comment on another blogger’s post, then link to your own post on the topic.”  Megan McArdle is talking about Penny’s, and I figured, “hey, I have something to say about that” so here it is: I remember Penny’s from when I was a kid.  Mom would order out of the catalog, and we would go to Penny’s to pick it up.  That freestanding store doesn’t exist any longer, nor does the world of... Read more