Obama Names Diverse Group of Medal of Freedom Recipients

Civil rights veteran Joseph Lowery, anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, and medical school dean Pedro Jose Greer are among 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday.

“These outstanding men and women represent an incredible diversity of backgrounds,” President Barack Obama said. “Their tremendous accomplishments span fields from science to sports, from fine arts to foreign affairs. Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way.

“Their relentless devotion to breaking down barriers and lifting up their fellow citizens sets a standard to which we all should strive. It is my great honor to award them the Medal of Freedom.”

President Obama will present the awards at a ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

The Recipients are:

• Nancy Goodman Brinker is the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
• Dr. Pedro Jose Greer is a physician and the assistant dean of academic affairs at the Florida International University School of Medicine, where he also serves as chair of the Department of Humanities, Health and Society.
• Stephen Hawking is an internationally-recognized theoretical physicist, and the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.
• Jack Kemp, who passed away in May 2009, served as a U.S. Congressman (1971 – 1989), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1989 – 1993), and Republican nominee for vice president (1996).
• Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has served in the United States Senate for 46 years.
• Tennis player Billie Jean King has helped champion gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all areas of public life.
• Reverend Joseph Lowery helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Parks was denied a seat, and later co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading civil rights organization, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief, is the author of seminal works in Native American history and culture.
• Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.
• Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
• Sidney Poitier is the first African-American to be nominated and win a Best Actor Academy Award, receive an award at a top international film festival (Venice Film Festival), and be the top grossing movie star in the United States.
• Chita Rivera is an accomplished and versatile actress, singer, and dancer, who has won two Tony Awards and received seven more nominations. In 2002, she became the first Hispanic recipient of the coveted Kennedy Center Honor.
• Mary Robinson was the first female president of Ireland (1990–1997) and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002), a post that required her to end her presidency four months early.
• Dr. Janet Davison Rowley is the Blum Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. She is an American human geneticist and the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers.
• Desmond Tutu is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa and widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience.” He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work through the South African Council of Churches in 1984.
• Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and has pioneered the use of “micro-loans” to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral.

Most Diverse Class of Plebes Enters Naval Academy

Most Diverse Class of Plebes Enters Naval Academy: The U.S. Naval Academy earlier this month swore in its most racially diverse class ever. The 1,230 men and women in the "plebe" class of 2013 were also part of the most diverse pool of applicants in the academy's history. Inductees were given uniforms, medical examinations and their military haircuts earlier this month, and then they took an oath of office and began six weeks of rigorous transformation.

The academy has seen an increase in the number of African-American students, from about 6 percent to 10 percent for the incoming class. The number of Hispanic students is more than 14 percent in the incoming class, up from more than 10 percent the year before.

White Privilege: What if Henry Louis Gates had been White?

White Privilege: What if Henry Louis Gates had been White? The Academy Speaks: By now, most enlightened people have heard about the incident involving Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge, Mass., police. As a recap, the Cambridge police arrested the eminent scholar in front of his home. Just having returned from filming a PBS special in China, Gates, along with his Black taxi driver, were trying to loosen the lock on the front door of his home. A concerned woman called the police noting that “two black men” were forcing their way into a house in her neighborhood. Although Gates was already in the house making a phone call to the real estate company that manages his home, the police arrested him.

Two Indian Professors Pass on Education Opportunities

Two Indian Professors Pass on Education Opportunities: Drs. Rabindra and Protima Roy are well-known faculty members at Drury University, a small campus tucked away in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.

Rabindra, a chemistry professor, and Protima, an education professor, have taught at the school since the 1970s, earning numerous accolades as educators and community leaders.

However, their greatest impact over the past decade might be in their native India, where the pair has almost single-handedly educated a generation of village and tribal students in their home state of West Bengal.

In 1995, the Roys, using money they had saved since coming to the United States, established the Hem Sheela Model School in Rabindra's hometown of Durgapur, a steel-producing city located about 100 miles from Kolkata. The school, named after Rabindra's father Hem and mother Sheela, was designed to provide higher education opportunities for children of all economic and caste backgrounds.

"We wanted to give something back to our motherland and to our hometown," says Rabindra Roy. "We found out that education is the only way to improve someone's career."

Law Professor Building Native American Program

Law Professor Building Native American Program: Angelique EagleWoman remembers the moment she decided she wanted to devote her life to law.

She was 8 years old and watching the television in her family's living room in 1978 when news broke that her uncle, a Black man who had married into a Native American family and was beaten by five deputies when he went to pay a speeding ticket, was awarded $75,000 in punitive damages.

"I knew I wanted to make my life about justice," said EagleWoman, who grew up in Kansas and lived on a reservation in South Dakota.

Roughly 30 years later, EagleWoman has built a program focusing on Native American law, an area of the legal profession that experts say is often misunderstood and sometimes ignored.

"There are over 35 states that have sovereign, independent tribal nations within their boundaries, if you're practicing in any one of those states you have to understand the basics of Indian law," said Heather Dawn Thompson, president of the National Native American Bar Association.

Perspectives: Broken U.S. Police Culture and Lack of Police Temperament Explain Gates-Crowley Encounter

Perspectives: Broken U.S. Police Culture and Lack of Police Temperament Explain Gates-Crowley Encounter: I learned fast as a cop that the catchall arrest is called disorderly conduct. When a citizen dares to disagree with an officer, he or she goes to jail. Astonishingly, the prosecutor and the judge and the whole criminal justice system accept the officer's false account of events and probable cause. And, it happens again and again, but perhaps not anymore maybe now with less frequency because of an encounter between a small-city cop and a renowned university professor, Sgt. James Crowley and Dr. Henry Louis Gates. Now the way has been paved, for the first time in U.S. history, for Americans to address the problem of a U.S. police culture that holds that arrest and harm should come to a citizen who dares question the authority of a police officer.

Business Is Booming for Career Switcher Programs That Train Teachers - washingtonpost.com

Business Is Booming for Career Switcher Programs That Train Teachers - washingtonpost.com: The high unemployment rate has provided an unexpected boon for the nation's public schools: legions of career-switchers eager to become teachers.

Across the country, interest in teacher preparation programs geared toward job-changers is rising sharply. Applications to a national retraining program based in 20 cities rose 30 percent this year. Enrollment in a career-switcher program for teachers at Virginia's community colleges increased by 20 percent. And a Prince George's County resident teacher program increased enrollment by 40 percent.

In many places, there are more converts to teaching than there are jobs, except in hard-to-fill posts in science, math and special education classes. But the wave of applicants might ease teacher shortages expected to develop as 1.7 million baby boomers retire from the public schools during the next decade.

Cautious Parents Impart Lessons of How to Behave Around Authority Figures - washingtonpost.com

Cautious Parents Impart Lessons of How to Behave Around Authority Figures - washingtonpost.com: These are not new lessons taught to black children sitting at the dinner table.

They are old lessons, repeated in an oral tradition for survival. Told by grandmothers with wrinkled hands, grandfathers who saw something way back when, worried mothers talking in hypotheticals.

They are lessons you don't want to teach a child because it could make him feel vulnerable, crack her innocence, pop this generation's colorblind bubble.

So you wait until it's absolutely necessary and relevant, and explain it like this:

If you are ever stopped by the police, be polite. Say: "Yes, sir. No, sir." Make no sudden movements. Do not try to run.

Why? they ask.

And that's when you tell them: You are a black child in America. There is a history here. So, baby, just be careful.

"I tell them if a police officer comes up to you, all you have to say is, 'Okay, officer. Yes, sir. Thank you.' Then move on. Don't say nothing smart," says James Thompson, whose son is 15 and tall for his age. He goes to school in Bethesda, has white friends, spends his time skateboarding through the streets. He's a baby, really, living in a "post-racial" world.

New HBCU Initiative Leader Seeks to Forge Relationships Between HBCUs and Obama Administration

New HBCU Initiative Leader Seeks to Forge Relationships Between HBCUs and Obama Administration: Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr. looks back at his days as a Morehouse College student as a time when faculty, staff and administrators formed a campus community that was nurturing and family-oriented – a distinguishing characteristic of many of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities.

“But I’m a little concerned that positive feature for some (HBCUs) is becoming more legend than reality,” said Wilson, the new executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. “So I think there is a need to preserve that. For some, it’s slipping away.”

That is just one of the aspects of HBCUs that Wilson, an assistant professor at The George Washington University, hopes to jumpstart as head of the office in the U.S. Department of Education that serves as a liaison for HBCUs, the White House and President Obama’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Poor Neighborhoods Key in Income Difference, Study Finds - washingtonpost.com

Poor Neighborhoods Key in Income Difference, Study Finds - washingtonpost.com: Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults.

The Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project caused a stir two years ago by reporting that nearly half of African American children born to middle-class parents in the 1950s and '60s had fallen to a lower economic status as adults, a rate of downward mobility far higher than that for whites.

This week, Pew will release findings of a study that helps explain that economic fragility, pointing to the fact that middle-class blacks are far more likely than whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods, which has a negative effect on even the better-off children raised there. The impact of neighborhoods is greater than other factors in children's backgrounds, Pew concludes.

Pastor and His Small D.C. Church Offer Gay African Americans a Sanctuary From Hate - washingtonpost.com

Pastor and His Small D.C. Church Offer Gay African Americans a Sanctuary From Hate - washingtonpost.com: In the middle of a sermon, Bishop Rainey Cheeks felt his medicine bottle bulging in his pocket and realized he hadn't taken his pills. He paused in the pulpit and faced the congregation in his tiny storefront church.

"Excuse me," Cheeks remembers telling his parishioners last year as he poured three pills into his hand. "This is my HIV medicine. I'm going to take it now."

As he washed down the pills with water, Cheeks saw some members staring with wide eyes. Everybody knew that their pastor, an imposing man with flowing dreadlocks who once competed in taekwondo championships, is gay. But not everyone knew that he is HIV-positive.

"Go ahead, Rev," a few congregants urged. But most shrugged and waited for the bishop to swallow and get on with delivering the good word.

After Arrest, Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift - washingtonpost.com

After Arrest, Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift - washingtonpost.com: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The town where a white police officer and a black scholar ignited a national conversation on race and law enforcement has begun to open the dialogue that President Obama invited.

Before summer's end, the mayor, district attorney and police officials will convene a forum to grapple with the controversy over the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Sgt. James Crowley -- which exploded into a divisive debate that drew in the president.

Obama, who spoke to both men last week, called it a 'teachable moment' for the nation on a 'troubling aspect of our society.' Gates said in an e-mail statement that he accepts Obama's invitation to begin talking and wants to work with the Cambridge Police Department. Crowley has not publicly responded to the invitation.

New Asian American Civil Rights Book

New Asian American Civil Rights Book: A textbook on Asian Americans and civil rights has been published by the University of California, Los Angeles’ Asian American Studies Center Press. Untold Civil Rights Stories is aimed at high school students and college freshmen, officials say, and marks a rare work on the little-discussed topic.

The text describes the social, labor and human rights struggles of individuals who have fought discriminatory laws, helped organize farm workers along with Cesar Chavez and have spoken out on behalf of marginalized populations. Each chapter contains a lesson plan and historical timeline.

The chapters include accounts of how actress Beulah Kwoh broke the color line in the movie industry; how journalist K.W. Lee lived and reported on poor Whites in Appalachia; and oral histories of Thai sweatshop garment workers. The book was compiled by a team of Asian American scholars, writers and activists.

More information is available online at http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/archives/untoldcivilrights.htm.

WNBA Leads in Sports Diversity Study

WNBA Leads in Sports Diversity Study: The WNBA still leads the way in sports diversity, even after one of its marquee franchises folded.

The league received an A-plus Thursday for the second consecutive year in an annual diversity report card on race and gender. The WNBA is the only professional league to have received a perfect grade.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport study, run by Dr. Richard Lapchick of the University of Central Florida, rates leagues and college sports on the number of participating women and minorities.

The study reported a 10 percent increase in the number of Black general managers in the WNBA and a slight increase in Black head coaches. Women also gained ground, with 10 percent increases in the number of head coaches and team presidents, and a slight increase in the number of general managers.

Lapchick said the WNBA has long led the way in his diversity and gender studies. The league began play in 1997, about the same time the NBA began its diversity initiative.

Drive-by Shooting at Texas Southern Wounds Six

Drive-by Shooting at Texas Southern Wounds Six: Gunfire on the Texas Southern University campus wounded six people and scattered the crowd at a community rally Wednesday night, and police on Thursday were investigating whether a gang rivalry was behind the drive-by shooting.

People were gathered at the event that included a Houston rapper's performance when a car drove by and shots sprayed out from the vehicle, school spokeswoman Eva Pickens said, citing witness statements to police. The sound of gunfire made people drop to the pavement of the parking lot where the rally was being held to promote community service and voter registration.

Peter Role, a local music promoter, told the Houston Chronicle he heard what sounded “like the Fourth of July.”

Judge Says New York Is Unfair to Minority Firefighter Recruits - NYTimes.com

Judge Says New York Is Unfair to Minority Firefighter Recruits - NYTimes.com: New York City used tests that discriminated against black and Hispanic applicants to the Fire Department and had little relation to firefighting, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

“These examinations unfairly excluded hundreds of qualified people of color from the opportunity to serve as New York City firefighters,” wrote Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, referring to two tests administered in 1999 and 2002.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department in 2007 after a federal complaint by the Vulcan Society, an association of black firefighters, led to an investigation into the Fire Department’s hiring practices.

Charges Against Gates Dropped

Charges Against Gates Dropped: Cambridge officials announced Tuesday in a press release that a disorderly conduct charge against renowned Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be dropped, the Boston Herald reported.

Gates was arrested Thursday, July 16, after a woman reported seeing a man trying to pry open the front door of Gates’ home not knowing that the suspected intruder was Gates.

The Associated Press reported that police ordered the man to identify himself and that Gates refused. According to a police report, Gates then called the officer a racist and said, 'This is what happens to Black men in America.'

Most Mexicans in U.S. Stay Put Despite Recession - washingtonpost.com

Most Mexicans in U.S. Stay Put Despite Recession - washingtonpost.com: Despite the recession, the flow of Mexican immigrants out of the United States and back into Mexico has stayed level, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Last year, 433,000 people returned to Mexico, compared with 479,000 two years earlier. The number of people coming in decreased more sharply, with 636,000 people arriving last year compared with nearly 1.03 million two years earlier.

"People are essentially staying put at both ends," said Michael Fix, senior vice president of the Migration Policy Institute, after reading the report. "They're basically riding out the storm."

The findings answer questions that have been raised recently about whether immigrants are leaving the United States because of diminished economic prospects, said Jeff Passel, a senior demographer at Pew.

Scholar Says Arrest Will Lead Him To Explore Race in Criminal Justice - washingtonpost.com

Scholar Says Arrest Will Lead Him To Explore Race in Criminal Justice - washingtonpost.com: Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has spent much of his life studying the complex history of race and culture in America, but until last week he had never had the experience that has left so many black men questioning the criminal justice system.

Gates was arrested outside his house in Cambridge, Mass., after a neighbor reported seeing two black men in the middle-class, predominantly white area pushing against the front door.

"I studied the history of racism. I know every incident in the history of racism from slavery to Jim Crow segregation," Gates told The Washington Post on Tuesday in his first interview about the episode. "I haven't even come close to being arrested. I would have said it was impossible."

Harvard Scholar Henry Louis Gates Arrested - washingtonpost.com

Harvard Scholar Henry Louis Gates Arrested - washingtonpost.com: Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent African American scholars, was arrested last week at his home near Harvard University after trying to force open the locked front door.

According to a report by the police department in Cambridge, Mass., Gates accused police officers at the scene of being racist and said repeatedly, 'This is what happens to black men in America.' The incident was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.

Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, has been away from his home much of the summer while working on a documentary called 'Faces of America,' said Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and friend of Gates who is working as his lawyer. Gates returned from China last week and had trouble opening the front door with his key.

Hispanic worker deaths up 76% since 1992 - USATODAY.com

Hispanic worker deaths up 76% since 1992 - USATODAY.com: The number of Hispanic workers who die on the job has risen, even as the overall number of workplace deaths has declined, according to federal statistics.

Hispanic worker deaths increased from 533 in 1992 to 937 in 2007 — a 76% jump. In the same period, total fatalities in all jobs nationwide fell from 6,217 to 5,657, according to the data. The 2007 tally, the latest available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, followed a record 990 Hispanic deaths in 2006.

Last year, officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Dallas investigated 50 Hispanic workplace deaths in Texas alone, according to OSHA figures. So far this year, they've investigated 21 fatalities, including three workers who fell 11 stories from a collapsed scaffolding last month in Austin.

'I am particularly concerned about our Hispanic workforce, as Latinos often work low-wage jobs and are more susceptible to injuries in the workplace than other workers,' U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told USA TODAY. 'There can be no excuses for negligence in protecting workers, not even a language barrier.'

Eugene Robinson - President Obama and Black America's New Reality - washingtonpost.com

Eugene Robinson - President Obama and Black America's New Reality - washingtonpost.com: President Obama's speech Thursday marking the 100th anniversary of the NAACP's founding was widely reported as a 'tough love' message directed at black America. 'I've noticed that when I talk about personal responsibility in the African American community, that gets highlighted,' Obama said in an interview Friday. 'But then the whole other half of the speech, where I talked about government's responsibility . . . that somehow doesn't make news.'

Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it's racist - CNN.com

Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it's racist - CNN.com: (CNN) -- A group of black Philadelphia police officers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against their department, alleging an online forum geared toward city police is 'infested with racist, white supremacist and anti-African-American content.'

The suit alleges white officers post on and moderate the privately operated site, Domelights.com, both on and off the job.

Domelights' users "often joke about the racially offensive commentary on the site ... or will mention them in front of black police officers," thus creating "a racially hostile work environment," according to lawyers for the all-black Guardian Civic League, the lead plaintiff in the suit.

A look at the site's forums Friday for racist comments found several possibilities.

Reads one: "In urban areas, it seems [African-Americans] living on welfare in paid for housing is ingrained in their culture as well as fighting. ... Kids, along with adults can't speak proper English or spell at a 3rd grade level, but they can sing among "theyselves" the lyrics to a rap song."

Senate Confirms Ex-Astronaut Bolden to Head NASA

Senate Confirms Ex-Astronaut Bolden to Head NASA: The Senate confirmed on Wednesday retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator of NASA, just in time for the space agency's 40th anniversary celebrations of man's first steps on the moon.

His confirmation also came just hours after the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, which began a 16-day mission to the international space station.

The Senate confirmed Bolden to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration without objection. Bolden, who has flown in space four times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, will be the agency's first Black administrator.

Some Undergrads Shave a Year Off College to Save

Some Undergrads Shave a Year Off College to Save: While educators debate the wisdom of three-year college degrees, some ambitious students are going ahead and finishing their coursework in three years anyhow as a way to save thousands of dollars in tuition.

It takes discipline, they say, a clear study plan and, often, an armful of advanced placement credits from high school.

'I didn't think it was worth it to pay another $40,000 to play with my friends for another year, cheer for a year, and write a thesis,' said Nina Xue, who earned a bachelors degree in history and French in three years this spring at Rice University, where she also found time to be a cheerleader.

Xue says she didn't start college with a three-year plan, but did have a head start with 26 AP credits. She took more than 15 hours of classes during two semesters and studied abroad one summer for credit. At the start of her third year, she realized she had enough credits to graduate at the end of the year.

Obama Says Education a Key to Economic Rebound

Obama Says Education a Key to Economic Rebound: ...To that end, he proposed an 'American Graduation Initiative' to bolster the two-year community college field that serves millions of students as a launching point for careers or a step toward expanded higher education.

Competitive grants would be offered to schools to try new programs or expand training and counseling.

High dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to track students and help them earn an associate's degree or finish their education at a four-year institution. Money would also be spent to renovate and rebuild college facilities, and online courses would be developed to help colleges offer more classes.

The White House says the cost would be $12 billion over 10 years; Obama says it would be paid for by ending wasteful subsidies to banks and private lenders of student loans.

Achievement Gaps Show Little Change for Black Students

Achievement Gaps Show Little Change for Black Students: Despite some progress since 1990, Black students continue to trail White students significantly in both math and reading at critical stages of K-12 education, a new federal report says.

Black students scored 26 to 31 points lower than their White counterparts in 2007 under the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often dubbed “the nation’s report card” because it is one of the few national barometers of achievement during the elementary and secondary years.

Back in 1990, the gap was slightly higher, ranging from 29 to 33 points, said the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NAEP includes assessments of reading and math achievement at both the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.

In presenting the data at a conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., NCES noted that both Blacks and Whites had achieved higher test scores in 2007 compared with the previous decade. Blacks were able to narrow the gap in fourth-grade math and reading but not in either subject at the eighth-grade level.

Young students improve, but later minority achievement gap remains - USATODAY.com

Young students improve, but later minority achievement gap remains - USATODAY.com: For decades, public schools have focused on closing the stubborn achievement gap that separates African-American children from their white peers. New data out today from the U.S. Education Department show that the effort may have a limited shelf life for kids.

Since the early 1990s, schools have helped minority elementary schoolers close the achievement gap in basic math and reading skills, with real progress showing up recently on a federally administered test given to thousands of kids around the time they're in fourth grade.

But by the time they get to middle school, it seems, their progress all but vanishes.

Educators have known for years that scores for all students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tend to flatten out in middle school and high school, with few if any year-to-year score gains; but today's findings offer the first complete look at just how poorly older black students do compared with white students.

Bill would spend more to make college affordable - washingtonpost.com

Bill would spend more to make college affordable - washingtonpost.com: WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's plan to dramatically increase college student aid took its first step Wednesday on what could be a rocky path through Congress.

A key lawmaker proposed a bill to boost Pell Grant scholarships for low-income students by linking them to inflation for the first time since the program began.

House Education Committee Chairman George Miller's legislation would pay for the expansion by eliminating a massive program of subsidies for private college loans - an idea opposed by lenders and their many supporters on Capitol Hill.

In a statement, the president said the bill will end giveaways to special interests and save taxpayers money.

Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans - CNN.com

Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Africa is not a country, and Africans generally do not live in trees or hunt game with spears. Nor do they all walk around in the nude among lions and zebras.

African immigrants to the United States say cartoonish caricatures and a Western media penchant for reporting on Africa's disease, hunger and war -- rather than the continent's successes -- trivialize their cultures. They complain they have trouble dispelling the stereotypes once they arrive in the States.

They concede, though, the myths run both ways and some say they were surprised to find their values more often aligned with those of white Americans than African-Americans.

"I have been laughed at because of my accent and asked all the ignorant questions," said iReporter Ajah-Aminata N'daw, 25, of Fall River, Massachusetts. "Questions like: Did I live on a tree? Roam the jungles naked? Have wild animals at home?"

Death rates in Puerto Rican hospitals higher than in states - USATODAY.com

Death rates in Puerto Rican hospitals higher than in states - USATODAY.com: Patients in Puerto Rico die at statistically higher rates from heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia than those admitted to mainland hospitals, a USA TODAY analysis of new government data shows.

While 11.6% of patients in the states admitted for pneumonia die within 30 days, that number rises to almost 15% in Puerto Rico. Death rates for heart attack also crest above average (18.6% vs. 16.5%) and are slightly higher for heart failure (12.1% vs. 11.2%).

And the rate at which patients were readmitted to Puerto Rican hospitals within a month of discharge also edged up, according to the data. In particular, pneumonia patients landed back in a hospital bed 19.4% of the time, vs. 18.2% in the states.

'The findings highlight the need to focus on the quality of care in Puerto Rico,' says Harlan Krumholz, a Yale cardiologist who helped develop the Medicare analysis released last week of more than 1 million deaths and readmissions in more than 4,600 hospitals from 2005 to 2008.

Group warns Congress of racial extremists within military | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

Group warns Congress of racial extremists within military | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com: Saying that the U.S. military may inadvertently be training 'future domestic terrorists,' the Southern Poverty Law Center on Friday asked Congress to strengthen policies against racial extremists in uniform.

'Evidence continues to mount that current Pentagon policies are inadequate to prevent racial extremists from joining and serving in the armed forces,' Morris Dees, founder of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote to the heads of four congressional committees. 'Because the presence of extremists in the armed forces is a serious threat to the safety of the American public, we believe Congressional action is warranted.'"

Teen pilot completes cross-country trek - UPI.com

Teen pilot completes cross-country trek - UPI.com: LOS ANGELES, July 12 (UPI) -- A teenager believed to be the youngest African-American female to pilot an airplane solo across the United States has been welcomed home, witnesses say.

Cheering crowds greeted Kimberly Anyadike, 15, at Compton Woodley Airport Saturday as she landed her single-engine Cessna aircraft after a 13-day trek, during which she was accompanied by an adult safety pilot and navigator, Levi Thornhill, 87, who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Saying said her motivation wasn't to gain celebrity or set a record, Anyadike told the Times.

Obama picks Morehouse School of Medicine grad as surgeon general | ajc.com

Obama picks Morehouse School of Medicine grad as surgeon general | ajc.com: A graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine who did her residency in Macon is President Barack Obama’s choice for surgeon general.

Obama announced at a Rose Garden ceremony Monday that he is nominating Regina Benjamin, a 1982 graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine who went on to do her residency at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.

Muslim Americans encouraged, hopeful after Obama | U.S. | Reuters

Muslim Americans encouraged, hopeful after Obama | U.S. | Reuters: ...Eight years after Middle East militants carried out the September 11 attacks, Muslim Americans are raising their profile, encouraged by the election of Barack Obama, a U.S. president proud of his Kenyan father's Muslim heritage.

The president, who is a Christian, used his middle name, Hussein, at his inauguration. He called for new dialogue with Islamic nations and named a special envoy for the Middle East on his second full day in office.

'We are more optimistic about the future for us here,' said Alqaisi, an accountant. 'They changed the way they communicate with the Muslim countries. We feel like we have more value here now. We hope that will continue in the future.'

Like other immigrant groups in a country of immigrants, Muslims were drawn to the United States seeking opportunity and relief from poverty in their home countries. Arabs went to industrial centers, south Asian Muslims to the West Coast. Some arrived to study in universities; some arrived as slaves.

A 2007 Pew Research Center study says 21 percent of Muslim Americans arrived from abroad during the 1990s.

Black-White Gap in Jobless Rate Widens in New York City - NYTimes.com

Black-White Gap in Jobless Rate Widens in New York City - NYTimes.com: Unemployment among blacks in New York City has increased much faster than for whites, and the gap appears to be widening at an accelerating pace, new studies of jobless data have found.

While unemployment rose steadily for white New Yorkers from the first quarter of 2008 through the first three months of this year, the number of unemployed blacks in the city rose four times as fast, according to a report to be released on Monday by the city comptroller’s office. By the end of March, there were about 80,000 more unemployed blacks than whites, according to the report, even though there are roughly 1.5 million more whites than blacks here.

Across the nation, the surge in unemployment has cut across all demographic lines, and the gap between blacks and whites has risen, but at a much slower rate than in New York.

Documentary on Controversial African Studies Scholar

Documentary on Controversial African Studies Scholar: This month on diverseeducation.com snippets of the film “Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness,” which chronicles the life and career of the late Melville J. Herskovits, a pioneering American anthropologist of African studies, will be featured.

Herskovits was a controversial intellectual who established the first center for African studies at Northwestern University in 1948.

The documentary traces Herskovits’ development as a scholar to the shared African American and Jewish experiences of exile, exclusion and political oppression. It raises unsettling questions, asking who has the authority to define a culture, especially if people from that culture are denied the opportunity to engage in the scholarly discourse of defining themselves. Can an oppressed people retain their distinct ethnic identities and still participate as equals in American life? Tune in as prominent scholars, such as Princeton philosopher K. Anthony Appiah and Columbia University historian Mae Ngai, explore these issues through their own experiences as people of color.

Course Watch: Tribal College Offers Gaelic, Russian Classes

Course Watch: Tribal College Offers Gaelic, Russian Classes: Haskell Indian Nations University (Kan.) became the first tribal college to offer its students foreign language courses this academic year, according to the university. Through the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program two instructors from Ireland and Russia, Una Meabh Herron and Dmitry Golubev, respectively, joined the Haskell faculty to teach introductory language courses.

Herron also taught a course on Gaelic football. Students in this class then played a game against the Kansas City Gaelic Football league at Haskell stadium.

Haskell is the only tribal college participating in the Fulbright Foreign Language Program. The university will host two more Fulbright teachers from Ireland and Indonesia.

Hispanic Civil Rights Group at Center of Sotomayor Fight

Cesar Perales has fought his share of critics over the years, in legal battles for minorities denied jobs, bilingual classes in schools and more Latino police officers.

But none of those crusades compares with the tempest his Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has stirred because of the dozen years that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor served as one of its board members.

Conservatives have called the group’s stances against capital punishment and for abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, “extreme” and “shocking.” Some have suggested Sotomayor’s longtime association with the group is an indication that she is biased and would be unable to render impartial decisions as a Supreme Court justice.

The critiques leading up to this week’s Senate hearings on Sotomayor’s confirmation have stunned Perales, who calls them an attempt to derail her nomination by over-politicizing the work of his legal defense fund.

100 Years Old, NAACP Debates Its Current Role - washingtonpost.com

100 Years Old, NAACP Debates Its Current Role - washingtonpost.com: NEW YORK -- In the beginning, the purpose of the nation's oldest civil rights organization was well defined: to achieve equal justice under the law for black Americans.

One hundred years later, as 5,000 members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gather here to set an agenda, little is so clear-cut.

The NAACP faces a slew of questions: Has the election of the first black U.S. president marked the end of the civil rights agenda? Must an organization traditionally focused on the plight of black Americans expand its mission? What should a black civil rights organization do in 2009?

The NAACP has long been a prism through which to view the puzzle of race in America, and the current uncertainty promises to be a presence at its week-long centennial convention, which will include addresses from President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

New Credit Card Law May Have ‘Unintended Consequences’ for Low-income Students

New Credit Card Law May Have ‘Unintended Consequences’ for Low-income Students: College students who lack a financial safety net to assist with higher education expenses might experience some difficulty accessing credit when a new law signed by President Barack Obama in May becomes effective in February 2010.

The new law, the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009,” has many provisions that specifically target young collegians. Title III of the new legislation aims to protect young consumers by requiring students under 21 to have a co-signer, show ability to pay monthly bills or prove that they have completed a financial literacy course.

Nearly 80 percent of American families have credit cards, paying about $15 billion in penalty fees annually. The law is designed to foster more “transparency, accountability, and mutual responsibility,” according to the White House. For example, the law requires advance 45-day notices on APR increases and that statements tell credit card-holders how long it will take to pay off a balance and what it will cost in interest if they only make the minimum monthly payments.

Black Newspaper in Boston Suspends Publication

Black Newspaper in Boston Suspends Publication: BOSTON – An African-American newspaper that covered Boston's busing riots of the 1970s, the fall of Black political leaders, and the rise of the state's first Black governor, Deval Patrick, has suspended publication after 44 years and laid off its 12 employees.

Bay State Banner publisher and editor Melvin Miller said Tuesday that financial pressures and a sustained falloff in advertising have forced him to close the weekly newspaper, at least temporarily.

Miller, a 75-year-old Boston attorney who founded the paper in 1965, said he had prepared for a long economic turndown but could not risk pouring in more of his own money. When or if the paper reopens depends on any potential new investors, but Miller said he would not actively “go around twisting arms” to convince people.

The paper most recently had a weekly circulation of 34,000.

Native American Players Looking for Recognition

Native American Players Looking for Recognition: Less than four months ago, Wayne Holmberg scored 21 points to help lift his team to a small-schools Alaska state basketball championship.

It was as good as it gets for Holmberg, who had spent most of the roller-coaster season practicing in a makeshift cafeteria gym after his small western Alaska village of Kalskag had a fire burn the entire school to the ground.

All that daily struggle was over. Holmberg was on top of the world as a state champion.

The 16-year-old’s borders were dramatically expanded this week during his first trip outside Alaska.

Holmberg is in Phoenix for the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI), the only all Native American NCAA-affiliated basketball tournament in North America.

Pool Boots Kids Who Might "Change the Complexion" | NBC Philadelphia

Pool Boots Kids Who Might "Change the Complexion" | NBC Philadelphia: More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.

"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.

Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice, Campus Studies Find - NYTimes.com

Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice, Campus Studies Find - NYTimes.com: One new study, of Princeton students, used daily questionnaires to monitor roommate interactions and perceptions.

“In the earliest weeks of the relationship, the positive emotions declined for minority students with white roommates,” said Mr. Trail, an author of the study. “It wasn’t that the white students started being mean or negative. Instead, it was a drop-off in positive behaviors, like smiling or making eye contact, that led the minority students to feel worse.”

A study of students at Duke University, using lists of their close friends before college and at the end of freshman year, found that white students, the least likely to have had close friends of a different race, were the most likely to develop more diverse friendships as freshmen — while black students, who came in with more interracial friendships, had a decline in cross-race friendship freshman year. The study found little change freshman year in the diversity of Asian and Hispanic students’ friendships.

Freshmen with roommates of a different race — or those who lived alone in a dorm — were the most likely to diversify their friendships.

Perspectives: Progress Made and the Significant Work That Lies Ahead

Perspectives: Progress Made and the Significant Work That Lies Ahead: In perhaps the most important voting rights case in a generation, the Supreme Court issued a ruling this past June22 that has tremendous implications for African-American and other minority voters. The case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, threatened to strike down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act. The provision at issue—the Section 5 preclearance provision—serves as a roadblock that prevents certain states and jurisdictions with long track records of discrimination from implementing discriminatory laws. The law operates by requiring these jurisdictions obtain federal review of their voting changes before they can go into effect.

While this case was brought with the precise objective of gutting the core Section 5 preclearance provision, the Court rejected the constitutional challenge to the law, leaving the Act in place to protect the rights of minority voters.

Non-Discrimination Policies and Support Groups Help Ease Campus Life for Gay and Lesbian Students at HBCUs

Earlier this year, a group of gay and lesbian students at Winston-Salem State University, a mid-sized historically Black institution in the conservative Piedmont region of North Carolina, petitioned the school’s administration to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. The proposal was actually warmly received by many of the college’s faculty, students and administrators, according to Michael Evans, a junior at Winston-Salem State and active member of the school’s Gay Straight Student Alliance

The board of trustees voted to approve the policy and Evans says many of the group’s members feel empowered by it.

“You can actually walk to class and not feel threatened,” said Evans, a 20-year-old junior majoring in molecular biology. “At Winston-Salem State, you don’t see a lot of gay bashing but you hear a lot of remarks. This protects us from that.”

Winston-Salem State University is among a growing number of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that now include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies. In the past six years, HBCUs have updated their policies or enacted rules to broaden the rights of gay and lesbian students and workers. These colleges include schools, such as Howard University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Fisk University.

Three Black Fraternities Unite With Big Brothers Big Sisters in a National Partnership

Three of the nation's largest African-American fraternities – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. – have joined with the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) organization to help Black boys succeed.

The fraternities, which collectively represent 250,000 college educated-men, see their involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters as mentors and advocates for African-American youth as part of a catalyst that might begin to break the negative cycles of crime, violence and low academic achievement, BBBS officials say.

Many of the children mentored through Big Brothers Big Sisters' nearly 400 agencies are from single-parent families. According to BBBS, research finds that children with mentors are more likely than their peers to stay in school, avoid violence, reject illegal activities and have positive relationships with their families and others.

“When you look at those people who really need mentoring the most, the majority are African-American, and the majority of those are Black males,” said Richard Lee Snow, executive director of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. “We feel as a national leadership organization that we need to step up to the plate and bridge this gap that continues to grow of our young boys not having role models and mentors.”

BBBS says that the collaborative effort will expand Big Brothers Big Sisters' nearly 20-year national partnership with Alpha Phi Alpha. Together, the fraternities will work with the organization to develop programs to encourage members and friends in their large professional, personal and social networks to also support the BBBS’ expansive network of volunteer mentors for youth.

“We recognize that most of the Black boys who are without a father in their household probably need someone who looks like them to be available to them. We see it as part of our responsibility to reach out to members of our communities and help,” said Charles Johnson Jr., communications director for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

The fraternities agreed that officially joining in a national initiative with the BBBS was a natural fit.

New Credit Card Law May Have ‘Unintended Consequences’ for Low-income Students

College students who lack a financial safety net to assist with higher education expenses might experience some difficulty accessing credit when a new law signed by President Barack Obama in May becomes effective in February 2010.

The new law, the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009,” has many provisions that specifically target young collegians. Title III of the new legislation aims to protect young consumers by requiring students under 21 to have a co-signer, show ability to pay monthly bills or prove that they have completed a financial literacy course.

Nearly 80 percent of American families have credit cards, paying about $15 billion in penalty fees annually. The law is designed to foster more “transparency, accountability, and mutual responsibility,” according to the White House. For example, the law requires advance 45-day notices on APR increases and that statements tell credit card-holders how long it will take to pay off a balance and what it will cost in interest if they only make the minimum monthly payments.

NYC Muslims push to add holidays to school year

NEW YORK -- Moneeb Hassan remembers having to choose between a final exam in American history or celebrating the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha. In the end, he chose both.

Hassan, 17, is one of thousands of Muslim students in the city who must perform a balancing act between his academic and religious obligations during his holidays. But the nation's largest school district hasn't sanctioned official Muslim holidays.

"People came to this country for freedom of religion," Hassan said. "We're just asking for fair and equal treatment."

Muslim activists lobbying to add the holy days to the school calendar - which takes school off for Christmas and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - were heartened this week by a City Council resolution supporting the observance of the two holidays - Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Number of Black Male Teachers Belies Their Influence

Tynita Johnson had attended predominantly black schools in Prince George's County for 10 years when she walked into Will Thomas's AP government class last August and found something she had never seen.

"I was kind of shocked," said Tynita, 15, of Upper Marlboro. "I have never had a black male teacher before, except for P.E."

Tynita's experience is remarkably common. Only 2 percent of the nation's 4.8 million teachers are black men, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, Thomas, a social studies teacher at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School, never had a black teacher himself.

"I love teaching, and I feel like I am needed," said Thomas, 33, of Bowie. "We need black male teachers in our classrooms because that is the closest connection we are able to make to children. It is critical for all students to see black men in the classrooms involved in trying to make sure they learn and enjoy being in school."

Kentucky State University May Open Boarding School for Black Males

Kentucky State University May Open Boarding School for Black Males: Kentucky State University President Mary Sias says the school is trying to find funding to open a boarding school for Black males.

Sias told The State Journal of Frankfort that the proposal is part of an initiative to increase the number of Black men who earn college diplomas. She says high school students would live in campus dorms, have their own teachers and an on-site principal at the historically Black college in Frankfort.

The pilot program could start in the fall of 2010 if KSU receives enough federal and grant funding. Sias says there would be room for 30 to 50 high school students to participate.

Wisconsin Becomes 11th State to Offer In-state Tuition to Undocumented Students

Wisconsin Becomes 11th State to Offer In-state Tuition to Undocumented Students: Undocumented students in Wisconsin received a gift on Monday when Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed a provision that allows such students to receive in-state tuition rates under certain circumstances.

The law makes Wisconsin the 11th state to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. It will only extend to students who have lived in Wisconsin at least three years prior to graduating from high school or obtaining a GED.

It’s estimated that 400 to 650 undocumented immigrants graduate from state high schools every year, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The signing comes just days after students — including students from Wisconsin — traveled to the nation’s capitol to participate in a mock graduation ceremony in support of “The DREAM Act.” The proposed legislation would allow undocumented students to receive a college education and ultimately, permanent citizenship. It would also restore states’ rights to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, as previously reported in Diverse.

What We Can Learn From Unconscious Racial Bias | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com

What We Can Learn From Unconscious Racial Bias | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com: ... So, I was actually excited to read about a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in which researchers from the University of Washington confirmed the validity of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT made a lot of news late last year when results showed that 70 percent of those who took it harbor an unconscious preference for white people over black people. And no, I'm not talking about 70 percent of white people—I mean people of all races who took it, including African-Americans.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival - 2009 - Giving Voice

Smithsonian Folklife Festival - 2009 - Giving Voice: The Power of Words
in African American Culture

Giving Voice will present the deep, rich threads of the African American oral tradition. Through the power of words, African Americans have given voice to the needs, hopes, aspirations, and dreams of a people whose traditions are a major force in American culture. The program will showcase this living legacy by featuring exemplary bearers of oral traditions on the National Mall.

Through theater, poetry, storytelling, radio, and humor, the Giving Voice program will celebrate the community roots of African American oral expression. During performances, discussions, radio broadcasts, children's programming, and community celebrations, Festival visitors will hear many compelling stories about the struggle of a people to create a voice and communicate a culture. For example, visitors will experience the role of radio in stimulating and disseminating Black expressive culture, and hear how storytellers, poets, and actors draw upon their experiences at home and in community spaces to create and present their art.

New Plan Ties Lower College Loan Payments to Income - NYTimes.com

New Plan Ties Lower College Loan Payments to Income - NYTimes.com: For the first time in years, there is good news for college students who borrow to pay for their education.

Starting Wednesday, the federal Education Department will begin offering a repayment plan that lets graduates reduce their loan payments, based on their income.

“We know today’s borrowers are concerned about their ability to repay student loans in the current economic environment,” Arne Duncan, the education secretary, said in a statement. “This new plan addresses the issue head-on by giving them the option of a reduced monthly payment tied to their annual income.”

Also on Wednesday, the interest rate on new federal Stafford loans, the most widely used federally guaranteed student loan, will drop to 5.6 percent, from 6 percent. By 2012, the rate will fall to 3.4 percent, under a schedule mandated by Congress.

The changes come as student borrowers face a difficult job environment and after many families have found it harder or impossible to use home equity loans to pay for college.

Study Finds Widening Generation Gap in United States

Study Finds Widening Generation Gap in United States: From cell phones and texting to religion and manners, younger and older Americans see the world differently, creating the largest generation gap since the tumultuous years of the 1960s and the culture clashes over Vietnam, civil rights and women's liberation.

A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found Americans of different ages increasingly at odds over a range of social and technological issues. It also highlights a widening age divide after last November's election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Almost eight in 10 people believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today, according to the independent public opinion research group. That is the highest spread since 1969, when about 74 percent reported major differences in an era of generational conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil and women's rights. In contrast, just 60 percent in 1979 saw a generation gap.

Asked to identify where older and younger people differ most, 47 percent said social values and morality. People age 18 to 29 were more likely to report disagreements over lifestyle, views on family, relationships and dating, while older people cited differences in a sense of entitlement. Those in the middle-age groups also often pointed to a difference in manners.

Despite Ruling, Testing Debate Far From Settled

Despite Ruling, Testing Debate Far From Settled: The U.S. Supreme Court renewed debate Monday over the fairness of high-stakes testing with its ruling that White firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who scored high enough to win promotion on an exam Black firefighters didn't, were unfairly denied promotions as a result of their race.

"The Supreme Court sides with the White (firefighters) without really exploring the test itself for possible biases or deciding whether or not the test was the only test that could determine who is fit to be [promoted]," said Dr. Darnel Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"I would imagine, that the [opposition] will find solace in this decision and use it to try to argue that the test is the right measure of merit, and if minorities don't do well then that is their fault. This decision opens the door for that," said Hunt, who is concerned that this type of thinking could harm the college admissions bid of minorities who don't score well on admissions exams. The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.

Community Colleges See Demand Increase as Funding Decreases - washingtonpost.com

Community Colleges See Demand Increase as Funding Decreases - washingtonpost.com: Hundreds of thousands of students are likely to be turned away from low-cost community colleges across the country over the next year because of funding cuts at the very time that record numbers of students are flocking to the open-admission schools, according to education officials.

The Obama administration is promising to help the country's almost 1,200 community colleges, which educate about 12 million students, or 44 percent of all undergraduates, including the majority of blacks and Hispanics. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently said that the administration was working on a plan that would allow as many as 5 million more students or laid-off workers to attend the schools, which are at the fore of retraining efforts.