Our friend Kevin Powell asks, What are you doing for Spring Break? Think about going to the Gulf to help with Katrina On The Ground.

Student voting rights update: In Maryland, young local electeds are introduce legislation that was proposed by young local activists to protect student voting rights. As the student paper reports, "An upcoming bill in Annapolis regarding election polling places may reignite debate on the issue of student voting disenfranchisement in College Park."

From our friends at the USPIRG, its the STOP THE RAID ON STUDENT AID UPDATE

Things are in full swing as campuses across the country hold their first action day to Stop the Raid on Student Aid. Congress reconvenes on January 30th, and the date for the House vote on the budget reconciliation bill, which contains provisions to cut $12.7 billion out of the student loans programs, is set for February 1st.

News from across the country is flowing in, reminding us that it ain’t over til it’s over and there is plenty of will to win. Here are some highlights:

1) Congressman Rob Simmons from Connecticut came out yesterday afternoon against this new version of the budget reconciliation bill. We know that the phone calls, student government resolution and the editorials and press coverage that the students generated all Fall must have had something to do with it too!

2) There are at least eight other student run press conferences and events occurring across the nation from UC Davis to UT Austin to U Conn Storrs occurring TODAY.

3) NJPIRG and coalition partners are scheduling an enormous statewide press conference in Trenton for January 31st.

4) Press coverage of the cuts has been kicking up a notch in the past several weeks. Major national media outlets like the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the LA Times, etc., have been running articles that educate the public about the cuts. Yesterday Representative George Miller, a champion for student aid, had a strong editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle – see below.

5) Watch for coalition ads running this Monday in key congressional districts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Michigan.

6) And because it is JUST TOO GOOD to pass up the opportunity to get it out to you, here is the Daily Show clip featuring President Bush being questions at Kansas State University on the Raid on Student Aid on Tuesday.

Chris Lindstrom
PIRG Higher Education Project

New research on "Gen Y" from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Polimetrix:

For those coming of age during a period where it seems there is no longer any safe haven, it begs the question: is this just the way it is? For those trying to search for an explanation in a time of chaos, one has to wonder: is this a sign the end of the world is at hand? This is the third part of our ongoing investigation into Gen-Y. In this study, we explore Gen-Y’s attitudes toward the future, their level of uncertainty in a world of uncertainty: how safe do they feel today amidst a new round of disasters, do they trust our government to protect us, and do they hold an apocalyptic vision to account for the spate of recent disasters?

Student power. A month or so back I posted about the question of students on the school board. Today, an interesting follow-up about a student, Pallas Snider, who sits on the school board in a county in Maryland, as written up in the Washington Post.

According to the article,

Anne Arundel is the only county in the nation, education officials say, with a school board that extends full voting rights to a student. When relations deteriorated between the Anne Arundel board and then-Superintendent Eric J. Smith in a series of bitter, closed-door meetings last summer, Snider was there. Her support for the former superintendent and his projects has placed her on the short end of a five-to-three split on the school board, a stance that has not won her much good will from the five-person majority.

"She came into class the other day," recalled Anya Lamb, a friend and classmate at Severna Park High. "We were reading 'Hamlet' in English, and she was like, 'Wow, I just lived Hamlet.' "

Snider is taking up the issue of the starting time for the high schools in the County. School starts at 7:17AM, meaning that many students have to get up before 6AM in order to get to school. The County saves money with the early start time because apparently it needs fewer buses.

This month finds Snider at the center of another looming boardroom drama. She hopes to convince her colleagues that the school system should spend $4 million to open its 12 high schools almost an hour later, at 8 o'clock.

Read the article here...