Today various members of the House and Senate along with several U.S. veterans held a rally outside the Capitol to call for immediate legislative action on the “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act.” Senators and representatives that included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) addressed the crowd to rally support for the new GI bill that will cover the full cost of college for veterans, along with many recent U.S. veterans who were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 and are now facing the difficult task of paying for a college education. Many older veterans also attended the rally to show support for the bill and the younger veterans.

Many of the veterans said that although Americans are often under the impression that the government fully provides for veterans’ education, it pays only a meager amount that still leaves them struggling to make ends meet through student loans, grants, and part-time jobs. Many also said they felt unappreciated because after the service they gave to to their country at great personal sacrifice, they received not even the means to a decent education in return. Pelosi said that America needs to “thank our veterans by sending them to college.”

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The White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools was held today and President Bush addressed the crowd with a thirty minute speech. The summit is being held to discuss the benefits of educational programs that benefit lower income families and the advantages of faith-based schools. President Bush reiterated his support for the No Child Left Behind initiative and was emotional in his beliefs and support for ensuring education to those that wouldn’t normally have the opportunities.

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International pop-star Shakira discusses the importance of passing education legislation to help children around the world at press conference. (0:52)

 

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Pop-star Shakira discusses how the Education for All Act can improve the lives of children all over the world. (0:36)

 

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Pop singer and international superstar Shakira appeared today at a press conference with Representative Nita Lowy (D-NY) to campaign for the “Education for All Act.” The bipartisan act, if implemented, will increase funding for the U.S. to provide resources and leadership to “ensure all children have access to a quality basic education.”

Shakira was surrounded by fifty students from across the country, and said she was committed to improving the lives of children all over the world. Lowy called her a “committed philanthropist” and the singer described her plan to increase funding in order to do many things, such as create schools in developing countries.

Shakira discussed that the issue of helping developing countries improve their educational standards was particularly important to her because she herself had grown up and gone to school in a third-world community. The students in the packed room with the singer seemed receptive to her enthusiasm, and she reciprocated the warm reception they gave her by shaking hands and signing autographs with them after her speech.

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Gov. Roy Romer says the next president should work with chief state education officials to find a way to have “the correct expectation and the best measurement we can get toward that expectation” for education. He thinks the people will be “joyous” if the states got together to decide “this is how good is good enough, and here’s how we’re going to measure against it.” (0:45)

 

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Gov. Roy Romer says the key to getting out of the “economic malaise that we are in as a nation or as an individual family” is to increase productivity, which is rooted in education and skill level. (0:30)

 

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The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week for their 2008 Legislative Conference. They held an education policy discussion this morning with the presidential campaigns. Catherine Brown from Sen. Clinton’s campaign, Phil Handy from Sen. McCain’s campaign, and Steve Robinson from Sen. Obama’s campaign each spoke on their candidate’s top issues for education.

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Today Justice Alito spoke at the annual Spring meeting of the American Bankruptcy Institute. A non-partisan organization that is geared toward research and education on issues about insolvency, the ABI hosts this annual meeting that includes a prominent figure as the keynote speaker.

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Immigration moderately impacts the employment of young black men, according to the presentation presented to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. At the Economic Effect of Immigration on Black Workers briefing, Dr. Gordon Hanson, Professor of Economics UCSD, said that in 1960, 75% of black men were unemployed, versus 68% unemployment in the year 2000. The decline is accompanied by a rapid increase in incarceration, and he would expect any increase of immigration to impact blacks more because they have less education.

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