When Bloggers Aren't Blogging
The Warren Reports blogging team all have day jobs--students (or faculty) at Harvard Law School. For most of them, however, being students and bloggers isn't enough. They are working on issues they care deeply about.
One of our long-time members, Ganesh Sitaraman, has been written up for his work on a proposal to help college students pay off debt by public service work. The proposal is written up in more detail here and here.
This blogging team gives me hope for the future.
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this post sounds cute but, the older I get... the less difference I see between the private and public sectors because of the revolving door and corruption.
obviously, it's important to pay off student debt, but senior citizens, and every other citizen, for that matter, need work to make life possible, etc...
and I know students who borrow more than they need to buy new cars, fund down payments on homes, pay off credit card debt, etc... so I don't look at student loands like I used to-- and, as we've seen recently, student loans have become big business.
projects that keep costs down and quality high, like MIT's open courseware, I think will have more impact than putting a particular brand, like Harvard Law School, on somebody's diploma.
In fact, law degrees have become so expensive, that justice is no longer affordable in America so after the debt forgiveness, lawyers would still be looking for governmental subsidies that feed their economic appetites.
I'm not sure what hope you have but it only seems like a bunch of platitudes.
April 17, 2007 7:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's an interesting idea, and I certainly agree with the idea of providing non-military service options. One big issue, though, is that it takes 4 years out of the most critical period of a student's career. For example, for someone to become a professor at a top university, they have to basically sacrifice other pursuits before their mid-thirties. Even if departments don't have a preference for younger hires, this places even more of a burden on women who want to have both academic careers and families, as their window of dating and child-having opportunity is narrower. I imagine there is a similar problem in seeking other high-status jobs, whether becoming a partner at a major law firm or trying to run for national office. So the result would be a laudable expansion of opportunity, but at the cost of accepting a career cap.
One way around this might be to have a buy-out option, where the student could pay off remaining service time as if it were a low-interest loan. Another might be to spread the service out over a longer period, for example doing part-time work for 8 years instead of full-time for 4. This way, students would have maximum flexibility in paying off their debts after graduation.
April 17, 2007 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
It think it's a bit silly for Ms. Warren to wax on about this barely original proposal. John Kerry put forward a community service plan in '04, and it was actually fully planned and made alot of sense.
The one referenced here displays the lack of understanding and/or experience from the ivory tower crowd.
The intro was rather condescending and honestly, pathetic as well. I think the ones needing to perform some community service are the authors of the piece and anyone who actually considers the article as having any merit at all. Get out in the real world and grow a conscience please.
April 17, 2007 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of my friends, a graduate student in economics, was informed by his professor that he shouldn't even think about a family unless/until he earned tenure. Which, yikes. Anyway, it's a definite burden on all students, even if it's heavier for women.
April 17, 2007 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but you're missing the point. Ivy League schools really aren't about quality of students or quality of education. They have always been and remain a mutual defense pact, if you will--an agreement among self-selected elites to promote each other.
Besides, the dude is a law student. You can't expect any real insight or originality from a law student (or a lawyer for that matter). The whole of legal scholarship is based on the proposition that if you have a citation--any citation whatsoever--then what you write is true.
April 17, 2007 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like you're ignorant of Ms. Warren's resume. Look at her bio. She's not from the Ivy League. She's a breath of fresh air they knew they needed. And quite frankly, she has 400% the chance of passing anything to completion than the political presidential car wreck the Kerry campaign was. Know your facts before you insult someone in the elite's backyard plugging for the little person.
She's a different quantum. Just look at her actions in combination with her words. She testified before the pols in Congress pushing for credit industry reform, going over in detail the ways they put a knife to the middle class.
April 18, 2007 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
See my response to Reece. Fact infuse before posting about someone you obviously haven't learned about. She's done a good bit of service to the middle class and for the cause of the needy. And not just theoretical or stratospheric rhetoric -- practically so.
April 18, 2007 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
blah blah blah. I stand by what I wrote, or rather, what you you wrote is irrelevant. It's as if I said, "Ishtar is a terrible movie," and you responded by saying "I liked Warren Beaty in Bugsy."
April 18, 2007 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink