The litany of bad news about the status of black men in higher education is by now familiar. They make up barely 4 percent of all undergraduate students, the same proportion as in 1976. They come into college less prepared than their peers for the rigors of college-level academic work. Their completion rates are the lowest of all major racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.

Shaun R. Harper is tired of hearing the list. It’s not that he believes it’s inaccurate — the facts are the facts — or irrelevant. But what troubles Harper, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, is that it’s pretty much all that we hear, in higher education research, in news reports, and as reflected in campus policies. That single-minded theme struck Harper personally as incomplete, since it didn’t reflect his own experience or that of many black men he knew.

And it troubled him professionally, as well, because he believes the relentless emphasis by researchers and others on the failures of black men has helped ‘shape America’s low expectations for black men.’ For teachers and counselors and others in a position to influence black men, he says, ‘if all you read […]

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It’s budget time again, and with the economy still in rough shape, that means it’s time for governors to show where their priorities are.

It’s probably not surprising that right-wing governors claim they can’t fund education properly when revenues are low-we’ve been seeing this happen for years, even before an actual economic crisis knocked states sideways. But cutting funds to schools isn’t the only option for states even if they do have to balance their budgets. There are many other places to cut-and of course, they have the option of raising taxes, something the conservative crowd simply refuses to do.

Like any other choice made by a politician, budgeting is a decision laced with ideology. When state after state slashes education dollars (and often at the same time funnels more of the money they do spend to private companies running charter schools, or gives it away as vouchers) we see what matters to them. And when you take a look at the programs that get funded, or the people who get fat tax cuts as money is drained out of the schools, well, you see what matters to state governments.

Here’s a look at five of the governors taking money away from their […]

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California has one of the nation’s most ambitious renewable energy mandates – 33% of its electricity must be carbon free by 2020 – yet the price of that power had long remain locked in a black box, kept confidential by state regulators.

Not any longer. Forced by a new law to publish the electricity rates of utility contracts it has approved, the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday issued a report detailing what green energy costs consumers.

Prices paid for renewable energy ranged between 5.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2003 to and 13.3 cents in 2011, with an average cost 11.9 cents. However, the commission said that for contacts signed in 2011 but not counted in the report, prices fell about 30% from 2009 contract prices. Many of those contracts promise to supply electricity below the cost of energy produced by natural-gas fired power plants.

(The increase in renewable energy prices from 2003 to 2011 is a result in part earlier contracts that tied the price paid for renewable energy to prevailing natural gas costs, which spiked in 2008. Green energy prices also rose as utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison -rushed to sign […]

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ATHENS, Georgia — Broken bones in humans and animals are painful and often take months to heal. Studies conducted in part by University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center researchers show promise to significantly shorten the healing time and revolutionize the course of fracture treatment.

‘Complex fractures are a major cause of amputation of limbs for U.S. military men and women,’ said Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, animal and dairy scientist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center.

‘For many young soldiers, their mental health becomes a real issue when they are confined to a bed for three to six months after an injury,’ he said. ‘This discovery may allow them to be up and moving as fast as days afterward.’

Stice is working with Dr. John Peroni to develop a fast bone healing process. ‘This process addresses both human and veterinary orthopedic needs,’ said Peroni, an associate professor of large animal surgery in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the RBC.

Peroni and Stice are leading a large animal research project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The project includes scientists and surgeons from the Baylor […]

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Majority Support Requirement that Employer Health Care Plans Include Contraception Coverage

A majority (55%) of Americans agree that ’employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost.