Charter school segregation target of new report

Charter schools often promise to bring greater equity to education, but a new brief starts with the assumption that they fall short in delivery -- and provides recommendations to fix the alleged injustice.

Unemployment and poverty in America

The recent payroll tax deal struck by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama will keep an average of $1,000 in the pockets of 160 million American families through 2012 in addition to enabling tens of millions of seniors to continue seeing the doctor of their choice under Medicare. It also provides unemployment benefits for millions of people who have been unable to find a job; however many Republicans continued to ignore the impact unemployment insurance has on poverty in America. They argue that jobless individuals would rather collect unemployment benefits than look for work. This argument is both insensitive and baseless.

Why you're supposed to be extra focused on saving money this week

If you're been splurging and throwing money around lately, perhaps you didn't get the memo: February 19 to 26 is officially dubbed "America Saves Week." Feel free to go back to your freespending ways starting February 27.

Economic growth starts with education overhaul

If there is one thing on which most people in the education world agree - and, in fact, there may only be this one thing - it is that American schools must modernize for this high-tech, globally competitive century. Schools designed to educate millions of Americans in the 1900s remain stuck in 20th-century design, curriculum and assessment.

In today's economy, how far can a GED take you?

Every year, roughly 750,000 high school dropouts try to improve their educational and employment prospects by taking the General Educational Development test, or GED, long considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma.

With banks as landlords, some tenants neglected

Across the country, big banks and other large investors are buying up tens of thousands of foreclosed rental properties. They're not always model landlords, according to tenants and regulators. Some banks are failing to follow local and state housing codes, leaving tenants to live in squalor -- without even a number to call in the most dire situations.

Obama higher ed plan: President takes a tougher stance on higher education

Access to college has been the driving force in federal higher education policy for decades. But the Obama administration is pushing a fundamental agenda shift that aggressively brings a new question into the debate: What are people getting for their money?

Job creators: It's not just the 1%

"Job killer!" "Job taker!" These are epithets that are too often hurled in our present political discussion. The slow pace of the economic recovery, and the persistence of high unemployment, has rightly focused our national dialogue on job creation. But many politicians have taken to draping the mantle of job creator over almost any policy or project that they want to advance. Putting our nation back to work is too important to allow empty rhetoric to go unexamined; it is too important to overlook effective economic development.

The intractable tragedy of long-term unemployment

The vast majority of the 5.5 million long-term unemployed have been out of work for more than a year. For this installment of "Working it Out," we asked you if the government should enact special programs to help the long-term unemployed. We've received more than 100 responses. Here are some of the smartest, most heartfelt, and most provocative.

Intergenerational poverty passes plight to next generation

Donna Beegle had a nasty attitude.

She was the master of the vicious comeback, the queen of the smart remark.

She didn't just bite the hand that fed her, she insulted it.

But here's what she really wanted: A place for her children to sleep, something to eat, and someone on her side -- a companion in the unending grind of poverty.

Consumer watchdog launches overdraft inquiry

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to launch an inquiry Wednesday into banks' overdraft practices, which have been in regulatory crosshairs in recent years.

Obama proposes tax revamp

The Obama administration will propose lowering the top income-tax rate for corporations to 28% from 35% but would raise overall tax revenue by eliminating dozens of popular deductions in an effort to restructure the corporate tax code.

Balancing act is needed: State must do more to protect its residents

Bills to offer incentives for economic development have been on a fast track in the opening days of the 2012 Alabama legislative session.

Educating two generations

When President Obama released his budget last week, he laid out some ideas to loosen the grip of poverty. I have one to add: two-generation strategies that educate both parents and children at the same time.

The face of poverty in America

It's not hard to see the face of poverty in America. You can see it on any street in just about any town -- homeless people who sit on park benches, poor people who line up at the food pantry, or out of work people who wait for hours in the unemployment office. Even if we encounter poverty, we usually choose not to see it. Better to close our eyes than to think about the suffering of the poor.