In our earlier post, we analyzed four critical areas that impact the value equation for higher education customers/student: college costs; graduation and placement, return on investment; and career education and skill development. In this post, we examine three additional areas to determine their impact. Teacher Preparation: A Crisis in Competence. The quality of teacher preparation and certification has been a concern in educational circles for some time. Arne Duncan brought the issue front … [Read more...]
Articles
Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
Frank’s most recent blogs are highlighted on this page. To read other blogs or articles by Frank, click on the categories or publications links on the left.
Double Dip Recession Looms Large
A less-than-stellar recovery of the U.S. economy, the inability of the euro zone to dig out of a deep financial hole and a slowdown in emerging economies point to the need for different policy approaches to avoid another global recession. For the world to get out of the current financial trouble, the United States first needs to switch gears. The weakness of the U.S. economy is dragging down other economies because of its sheer size. With a gross domestic product of $15 trillion and per … [Read more...]
Higher Education, Student Loans: Victors and Victims
As June drew to a close, after much wrangling, Congress passed a transportation bill that included extending the current 3.4 percent interest rate on government subsidized student loans for one year. This was clearly a short term but much-needed victory for students. That's because, based upon two reports that came out in July, it appears that the primary victors over the past decade have been some of the institutions making these loans and the victims have been many of the students who … [Read more...]
Stand Your Ground
About half of our states have stand your ground laws, which permit individuals to use their own weapons to defend themselves when there is a reasonable belief of a threat without retreating first. Unfortunately, there is no stand your ground requirement for those who would propose any meaningful legislation for gun control. For a variety of reasons, they are in full retreat and either unwilling or unable to stand their ground. As a result, in spite of the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colo., the … [Read more...]
Trust-busting
In the early 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt engaged in "trust-busting" -- eliminating the powerful control of a few robber barons over the country, its citizens and our democracy. That was a good thing. In the early 21st century, we have a different form of trust-busting going on -- inept, illegal and amoral acts engaged in by some businesses, politicians and individuals that are destroying the bonds of confidence and faith in each other that bind the nation together. That is a bad thing. A … [Read more...]
The Skilled Worker Shortage Fallacy
America has a serious shortage of skilled workers and that is a primary cause of our lack of job creation. Right? Wrong! We have been bemused for the past few years as an ecumenical group of business leaders, academics and experts have put forward the argument that training and developing a more skilled workforce would help drive job creation. It seems to us that this is a basic misunderstanding of cause and effect. We can have a philosophical debate about which came first -- the chicken … [Read more...]
Auctioning Off Democracy
On June 22, George Washington's personal annotated copy of the Constitution including the Bill of Rights was auctioned off for almost $10 million. Just three days later, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed its Citizen's United ruling which gave corporations the right to unlimited "independent spending" to support candidates to federal election office by summarily reversing a decision by the Montana Supreme Court that had upheld a state law limiting independent political spending by … [Read more...]
The cracks in the fabric
High-ranking officials from India and the US, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, have been meeting every summer since 2010. Dubbed "strategic dialogues," these meetings involve high-level discussions between key US agencies and Indian ministries and cover a broad range of political, economic, defence and security issues. Officials in both countries point to these dialogues as evidence that the two democracies are closer than ever before. … [Read more...]
Time to Work the Pivot Points
2012 is a pivotal time for the United States. The decisions we make and the actions we take in this election year and in the remainder of this decade will determine the future of America and the American dream. Some might want to call this a tipping point, a turning point or a talking point. We strongly prefer the term "pivot point." Let us explain why. In science, a tipping point is the "point in which a system is displaced from a state of stable equilibrium into a different state." A … [Read more...]
The Politics of Division and Subtraction
Much has been written over the past few years about the partisan polarization of our two major political parties. It is unquestionable that both parties have become more partisan -- one much more so than the other. We think, however, that an equally appropriate description for what is going on is "the politics of division and subtraction." That's because as the parties have polarized they have grown the divide between them and subtracted a large number of registered voters from their rolls. … [Read more...]