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So last night, in the final question of the final debate, the presidential candidates finally got around to discussing education. A full debate transcript is available here, and I’ve cut-and-pasted the higher education portions of their answers behind the cut.
Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper has outed Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s chief speechwriter as a former “radical student activist.”
According to the Daily Mail‘s report, speechwriter Kirsty McNeill, 28, was the president of the Oxford Student Union during her undergraduate days, “devoting herself to leading sit-ins and mass protests” against Tony Blair, Mr. Brown’s immediate predecessor as head of the Labor party.
She was, the paper said, a protest organizer for the “Campaign For Free Education – an alliance of hard-Left causes that united in opposition to tuition fees” at Britain’s universities.
Eighty activists marched on a Toronto courthouse Tuesday, urging prosecutors to drop charges against the fourteen people who were arrested in a March demonstration at the University of Toronto.
“We are rallying to show our support and to demand that the criminal charges be dropped, and the academic investigation against the students be dropped as well,” said Ahmina Hanif, a protest spokesperson.
The charges, which include forcible confinement mischief, stemmed from a March 20 demonstration against hikes in student fees.
Once a thriving country, Zimbabwe has tumbled into political and economic crisis in the last several years. Every aspect of national life has been affected by the collapse, and Zimbabwe’s universities have been no exception.
Ceaser Sitiya, pictured at right, is the vice-chair of the Students’ Representative Assembly of the University of Zimbabwe. In the summer of 2007, Sitiya (some news sources spell his name “Caesar Sitiya”) was a leader in protests against conditions at the university. According to Amnesty International, Sitiya was pulled from classes on July 7 of that year, arrested, and held for more than two weeks. Amnesty reports that he was tortured, starved, and denied access to a lawyer during his time in custody.
Last week Sitiya was informed that he has been suspended from the university for a period of two years for his role in the protests. Even after he becomes eligibile for re-admission, he will be barred from participating in student union activities and from living in the university’s dorms.
Other Zimbabwean student leaders face similar punishment from the university’s disciplinary committee.
ZINASU, the Zimbabwean national student union, has a website here. Their report on the events of July 2007 can be found here.
The United States Student Association writes with the following news:
On Thursday, the House passed the Veterans Educational Assistance Act by a vote of 256-166. The bill will provide benefits up to the level of tuition at the most expensive public in-state colleges and universities, a housing allowance based on the cost of living for the area, and a $1,000 a year textbook stipend. The bill would be paid for with a .5% tax increase on the wealthy (individuals making more than 500,000 a year or couples making more than $1M a year). To find out how your representative voted on the new G.I. bill find out here.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week as part of their War Supplemental. It has 57 co-sponsors in the Senate. A list of co-sponsors can be found here.
The President has indicated that he will veto any increased spending beyond his request for War Supplemental funding, stating that it is expensive and will make it harder to retain forces in time of war. However, it remains to be seen if he will carry out a veto on this bill which many veterans groups have been in support of.
We will keep you updated as Congress moves on the G.I. bill. If you have questions or would like to help take action contact the USSA office at (202) 640-6570 or at USSA@usstudents.org.
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