Hi. I very much agree with the sentiment of the lead article, and strongly recommend both Saturday events. Maybe catch Ry, Roland, Mike, et al on the way to the Peace Press event. -Ed
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22herbert.html?th&emc=th Stepping On The Dream By BOB HERBERT NY Times Op-Ed: March 22, 2007 One of the weirder things at work these days is the fact that we're making it more difficult for American youngsters to afford college at a time when a college education is a virtual prerequisite for establishing and maintaining a middle-class standard of living. Young men and women are leaving college with debt loads that would break the back of a mule. Families in many cases are taking out second mortgages, loading up credit cards and raiding 401(k)s to supplement the students' first wave of debt, the ubiquitous college loan. At the same time, many thousands of well-qualified young men and women are being shut out of college, denied the benefits and satisfactions of higher education, because they can't meet the ever-escalating costs. You want a recipe for making the U.S. less competitive over the next few decades? This is it. Traditionally, one of the sweetest periods in the lives of many college graduates has been the time immediately after leaving school, when they could relax and take the measure of the newly emerging adult world. It was a time, perhaps, to travel, or to sample intriguing employment opportunities, even if they didn't pay particularly well. Debt was not usually the overriding concern of the young graduate. That has changed. Along with their degree, most graduates leave college now with a loan obligation that will hover over them for years, maybe decades. Student loans have decisively overtaken grants as the primary form of financial aid for undergraduates. Two-thirds of all graduates now leave college with some form of debt. The average amount is close to $20,000. Some owe many times that. Tamara Draut, in her book, "Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead," tells us: "Back in the 1970s, before college became essential to securing a middle-class lifestyle, our government did a great job of helping students pay for school. Students from modest economic backgrounds received almost free tuition through Pell grants, and middle-class households could still afford to pay for their kids' college." Since then, tuition at public and private universities has soared while government support for higher education, other than student loan programs, has diminished. This is a wonderful example of extreme stupidity. America will pony up a trillion or two for a president who goes to war on a whim, but can't find the money to adequately educate its young. History has shown that these kinds of destructive trade-offs are early clues to a society in decline. At the state level, per-pupil spending for higher education is at a 25-year low, even as government officials and corporate leaders keep pounding out the message that a college degree is the key to a successful future. Ms. Draut, director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a public policy group in New York, got to the heart of the matter in her recent testimony before a U.S. Senate committee looking into higher education costs. "The fundamental problem," she said, "is rooted in the reality that our government no longer really helps people pay for college - it helps them go into debt for college. The question we need to be asking is not, 'How much student loan debt is reasonable?' but, 'What is the best way to help students afford college?' " The kids who graduate with enormous debt burdens - $40,000, $80,000, $100,000 or more - face a range of uncomfortable and even debilitating consequences, the first of which is the persistent anxiety over how their loans are to be repaid. I've spoken recently with a number of law students who have already decided to go into corporate practice because their first choice - public interest law - would not pay enough to cover their loans. Many students have turned their backs on teaching for the same reason. At that stage of life, you shouldn't have to choose between a job you would love and one that you would take simply because it would pay the bills. Talk about stepping on a dream. There are also plenty of cases of students who have postponed marriage or buying a home or having children because of their college loan obligations. And then there are those who never see a graduation day. There's no way of telling what talents have been squandered, or what great benefits to society have been lost, because bright students who were unable to afford the costs have been forced to leave college, or never went to college at all. In a nation as rich as ours, it should be easy to pay for college. For some reason, we find it easier to pay for wars. *** EVENT: Official showing of "PatriotS Act...PEACE PRESS" A feature-length documentary about Los Angeles' Peace Press produced by students in L. A. Valley College¹s Media Arts Dept.'s Directed Studies workshop in conjunction with several Peace Press "alumni" and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. WHEN: Saturday, March 24, 7PM [Doors open 6:45] WHERE: Main Stage Theater of the Theater Arts Department; Los Angeles Valley College, 5800 Fulton Avenue, Valley Glen (Directions below) COST: Free to the public. Free parking in the lots at Fulton and Oxnard (between Coldwater and Woodman, Burbank and Victory). What do Timothy Leary, Huey Newton and Brian Wilson have in common? They were all clients of Los Angeles' Peace Press, an alternative print shop which produced posters, books and other printed matter from 1967-1987. The Press operated for twenty years, a long time for an art collective, a very long time for an anti-war group, and an extraordinary length of time for a print shop whose founders did not know how to print. The 95-minute documentary "PatriotS Act...PEACE PRESS" explores how this group of L.A. area activist-artists used the graphic arts as a weapon against the Viet Nam War and subsequently evolved into a business collective that produced high-quality commercial work while continuing to print for virtually every progressive cause taken up in LA. More than 300 organizations --including the United Farm Workers, Daniel Ellsberg Defense Committee, Black Panther Party, Free Angela Davis Committee, Alliance for Survival, American Indian Movement, Earth Day, the Free Venice Collective, and various groups advocating solidarity with Central America-- had their posters printed at the Press. Produced over five semesters by advanced students in L. A. Valley College's Media Arts Dept.'s Directed Study Workshop, the film includes interviews of Peace Press alumni and clients, coverage of the first Peace Press reunion in 2002, the Spring 2005 "Posters of Peace Press" Exhibition, and numerous images of posters, books, bumper-stickers, personal memorabilia, photos, and home movies from sources coast-to-coast. "PatriotS Act...PEACE PRESS" had its "world premiere" at the 9th Annual Dances With Films Festival at the Laemmle Theaters last July and has played in several other film festivals across the country. A Q&A will follow with members of the Crew and several Peace Press alumni and special guests. *DIRECTIONS: Take the 101 Freeway to Coldwater Canyon Boulevard. Go north on Coldwater to Oxnard Street and turn left. Enter Campus Drive from Oxnard Street. Park in Lot C, adjacent to the Art Building. For other info, contact LAVC Media Arts Dept.'s Prof. Joe Daccurso at 818-947-2354. *** ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roland White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello all, I wanted to let you all know that this Saturday March 24, 2007 I'll be on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" with Ry Cooder. www.prairiehomecompanion.org Others in Ry Cooders group for that night will be Mike Seeger, Paddy Malony, Joachim Cooder, Ry and me. I've know Ry since the early 1960s. Last year he invited us, plus many other artists, to record on his new CD. It is a wonderful project called "My Name Is Buddy" Not trying to sell you all anything; Just wanted to let you all know about the show coming up. It is broadcasted on most public radio stations around the country. Best to all of you, Roland visit my site: http://www.rolandwhite.com the doors are always open! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
