Civil Rights News: Obama Discusses Rising Cost of Education; DC Achievement Gap; Health Care Law

College Leaders Meet with Obama to Discuss Costs and Productivity
Tamar Lewin, The New York Times

President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan conferred with a dozen college presidents, mostly from public institutions, and leaders of two nonprofit education organizations, about how to curb the rising cost of college and improve graduation rates. Participants said that everyone understood that additional financing for education would be scarce in the coming years, making it crucial to improve affordability and graduation rates through innovation, including online learning.

D.C. Schools Have Largest Black-White Achievement Gap in Federal Study
Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post

D.C. public schools have the largest achievement gap between Black and White students among the nation’s major urban school systems, a distinction laid bare in a federal study released Wednesday. The achievement gap has proved to be a stubborn problem, and one of growing concern among educators, policy makers and civic leaders. With enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, the federal government made closing the achievement gap a priority and a reason for increased accountability in public education. A host of strategies have been deployed by schools across the country to attack the gap, but few have resulted in substantial progress.

Health Care Forecast
Joanne Kenen and David Nather, Politico

With a presidential election and a Supreme Court ruling, 2012 will be the year that could determine whether the health reform law moves forward, is stripped of big pieces or gets (mostly) shut down. The elections will set the course for the law — if the Supreme Court doesn’t strike down the individual mandate before then.

Compiled by Emily Hammer, a Fall 2011 intern