There is a major debate on the significance of getting a technical college degree and whether it enables one to get a job. More importantly, people are interested in knowing about the academic significance of these degrees. Technical colleges, which are more popularly known as community colleges, offer two-year associate degrees as compared to four-year degree at standard colleges.

Aside from the difference in duration of education, technical colleges are also distinguishable as they offer specialized degrees, diplomas and certificates. A student can enroll at a technical college after completing high school. Spending two years will earn one degree in aviation, mechanics, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and dozens of other fields.

In these two years of education, the first six months are for the basic training in science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics and other fields. After the first semester, one has the choice to select a particular field of education. The method of instruction at a technical college differs from a traditional one as it pays more attention to experiment than course work.

A student enrolled at a technical college will be spending more time in the laboratory, workshops, warehouses and other establishments to gain experience needed for the degree or certificate.Academic course work is also included in the associate degree but generally with a ratio of 40% to 60%.

Some courses involve an equal ratio of academic and laboratory/workshop depending on the requirements of certification or diploma. Admissions in technical colleges follow the same route as traditional four-year institutions. A student is eligible for admission after completing a high school diploma. SAT or ACT scores along with accredited GED scores are required for admission.

Our Minneapolis technical school also offers an opportunity for home-schooled students to take admission as long as their studies have followed an accredited arrangement with their local school district. If a student is applying for a single course rather than a certificate or diploma then he or she will not need these accreditations.

According to data extracted from National Center for Education Statistics, there are 1,045 community colleges in the United States with many states having dozens of them. This makes it easier for students to seek admission at an institution that is closer to their home.

Some community colleges do not offer residential facilities so it is highly important that a student makes accommodation arrangements on one’s own. Tuition fees and other charges are taken at the start of the academic year. These charges can be as much as ten times lower than that of their traditional counterpart. Affordability and shorter duration has made these colleges ideal for those students who do not want to commit to a four year degree or do not have the financial means to support their education.

Employment rates for technical college graduates are at par with traditional colleges and higher in some cases. Specialized courses in aviation, mechanics, dentistry, medicine, and chemical engineering enable students to find employment rather quickly given the high demand in these sectors. On an aggregate scale, the specialized education in technical colleges can be good for those who want to join workforce in the shortest possible time.

Twenty-two years ago, Fredd’s family fled their native Guatemala in the face of death threats and persecution. Needless to say, they haven’t been back since. Despite the clear danger they faced back in Guatemala, an immigration judge denied their bid for asylum in 2000.

Fredd worked hard and earned his Associates Degree from Davidson County Community College and transferred to Guilford Tech to continue his education. As a result, he is eligible for the federal DREAM Act, which would give undocumented youth like him a pathway to citizenship, expected to come up for a vote in the House and Senate before the end of this year. Fredd aspires to utilize his acting and singing skills to become a professional actor and renowned singer, and he’s quite good (see video below). He is neither a criminal nor a threat to this country, and completely undeserving of detention, let alone deportation from the only country he calls his home.

Like others who have faced the injustice of our immigration system and the Stewart Facility, Fredd has an approved green card awaiting him on the other side of the walls that now deprive him of his freedom. The only thing stopping him from being at home with his family during Thanksgiving is a stubborn refusal to open his case.

No family should be ripped apart due to the failure of Congress to pass immigration reform or the DREAM Act in due time. Don’t deprive a family of their son this holiday season. Take action now to bring Fredd home for Thanksgiving.

Photo and Video Credit: Support Fredd Reyes Facebook Group / stanleyreysa21

Student Locked Up for Spending 22 Years in the United States

When a 16-year-girl told an assistant principal on Tuesday that she had just been dragged into a school bathroom and raped, administrators had her sit in the principal’s office for over two hours and told to write down what had occurred. They didn’t bother calling the police or a victim’s advocate, to the dismay of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault (InCASA). When administrators did call the girl’s guardian, she was taken to the hospital and staff there finally called the police. It was then about four hours since the assault had been reported.

Superintendent Eric King defended the school’s irresponsible decision in a television interview by claiming that the girl’s story wasn’t completely consistent and school administrators doubted the allegation, that “the facts in the case were somewhat vague,” and they wanted to investigate themselves. Nothing like attacking rape victims for making up their story without any evidence except that they’re female and girls lie, right? The school officials didn’t even bother notifying any one of the four school police officers. Why bother having school police if you don’t tell them anything? It’s so much better to play make-believe detective and screw up the real investigation.

School administrators had no business deciding not to report a student’s rape charge because they were “vague” on the details. Rape is a serious crime and should be reported to police immediately: the student also should have been transported straight to the hospital, rather than made to wait in the principal’s office for hours. Delaware County deputy prosecutor Eric Hoffman commented that he was “uncomfortable” with school officials deciding to usurp the role of police, which is perhaps a massive understatement. And Detective George Hooper pointed out that there was a serious cost to the unwarranted delay: other students and probably a cleaning crew had been through the bathroom since the rape occurred, so any evidence that could have been available at the crime scene was lost to police.

No matter what the circumstances, the point is this: when a student reports being raped on school grounds, police get called immediately. School pencil-pushers don’t get to make the decision as to whether the rape allegation is true or not and deny the victim a chance at justice. Even if the story seems “vague” or inconsistent, especially since a teen who has just been raped might not have her thoughts at their most coherent or collected. (Police, by the way, say the girl’s story of what occurred has been consistent whenever they’ve spoken to her, once they got the chance.)

The school’s incompetence and lack of regard for the well-being of a student could have cost this girl a chance to have her rapist caught and committed. And the administrators who made that decision have no place running a high school. Central High School Principal Christopher Smith and the assistant principal involved in the failure to report the crime to police should be immediately removed from their positions for demonstrating such an utter lack of good decision-making ability. This isn’t a frivolous error: it seriously undermined a rape investigation.

Despite his defense of the officials decision not to bother notifying police, Superintendent King is considering policy changes in the wake of outrage over the school’s failure. King must apologize to the victim for the school’s action and his own defense of questioning her charge rather than reporting it, and issue a statement of policy that crimes occurring on school grounds, especially something as serious as rape, will promptly be reported to police.

Photo credit: Svadilfari

Police Criticize School’s Failure to Report Student Rape for Undermining Investigation

In an interview with CityBeat, Webber said exotic pet ownership may be shocking, but it’s not an obscure phenomenon. “I started paying attention and that’s when I realized this was the elephant in the living room. This big, enormous thing that’s going on in our country and no one is really recognizing it.”

Until now.

It’s no coincidence that the Dayton, Ohio, filmmaker aimed the camera at his own state. Ohio has some of the weakest exotic animal laws in the country, a flaw which gained national attention this summer when a bear killed his caretaker. Despite obvious and repeated negligence on the part of the bear’s owner, Sam Mazzola, authorities’ hands were tied because you can pretty much own whatever you want in Ohio. And Mazzola isn’t the only one whose choice of pets has caused problems.

“It’s like the wild, wild west in the State of Ohio,” Tim Harrison of Outreach for Animals told WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati. Harrison is a police officer, firefighter and paramedic from the city of Oakwood. He’s also the go-to guy when it comes to exotic animals, fielding as many as 200 calls a year, and he’s one of the stars of The Elephant in the Living Room.

On the other side of the equation, the film follows Terry Brumfield, who keeps two African lions, hand-raised since they were cubs.

Webber says following the personal stories of Harrison and Brumfield “has a completely different effect on people from an entertainment standpoint, from an education and awareness standpoint, you take it personally. When people get affected in that way, that’s when the awareness starts to explode.”

The explosion of The Elephant in the Living Room comes just in time. Although this issue plays out across the country, it’s been stampeding across Ohio politics lately, especially since Governor Ted Strickland promised an exotic pets ban as part of a package deal of animal welfare reforms negotiated with the Humane Society of the United States and Ohio’s Farm Bureau.

The proposal was applauded by several animal welfare groups, but various contingents protested, from reptile enthusiasts to schools with wild mascots. Some, like Brumfield, feel their wild animals are their children; others feel they simply have a right to own whatever animal they want.

It’s likely that an exotic pet ban in Ohio would grandfather in existing animals, with the caveat that troublemakers like Mazzola could finally be held accountable. This Midwest state has been the wild west for too long; it’s dangerous for people and unfair to the animals. Tell Ohio legislators to pass the exotic pet ban.

Harrison’s opinion is clear: “When you bring a dangerous large predator, snake, bear, crocodile, anything of that nature, you’re signing a death warrant for either you or the animal … one of you is going to die.”

The website for the documentary calls it “a movie too big to ignore.” Let’s hope so.

The Elephant in the Living Room is currently screening in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you’re not in The Buckeye State, don’t worry: the movie is due for nationwide release in early 2011.

Photo credit: eMaringolo

Documentary Brings Ohio’s Elephant in the Room Out of the Shadows

But if a school holds an anti-bullying assembly, and the students do nothing more than just laugh it off or make jokes about it, does it have any real teeth?

That’s a question that has particular relevance today, with the word that a 14-year-old Pennsylvania student committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a tractor trailer to escape bullying at his school. The day before his suicide, the school had held an anti-bullying assembly, but as The Daily Item reports in their coverage of the suicide, many students just laughed the program off and wasted the opportunity to really look at the consequences of bullying.

And now another student is dead.

That student is Brandon Bitner, from Mount Pleasant Mills in Pennsylvania. Over the weekend, Bitner walked about 13 miles away from his home, to the intersection of two busy highways, and ran in front of a tractor-trailer. He left a suicide note, and now his classmates are weighing in with commentary on why Bitner was driven to suicide.

“It was because of bullying,” friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item. “It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed.”

Other students sent letters to The Daily Item saying that the school district, Midd-West School District, has typically not done enough to combat bullying and homophobia inside schools.

“Nothing is done,” said former Midd-West student Erin Barnett. “Bullying should be addressed in every school, and should have a punishment.”

The Superintendent of the Midd-West District, Wesley Knapp, said that the district does take bullying seriously, and that the principal at Bitner’s school, Cynthia Hutchinson, feels very strongly about fighting bullying. That’s partly why the school had an official assembly to discuss the subject.

But again, the question comes up: if students aren’t taking anti-bullying assemblies seriously, are they any more than just a waste of time? And who should be held accountable to make sure that anti-bullying programs are constructive, and not something that students can just laugh off as unimportant?

Right now, the Midd-West School District’s Web site has nary any resources on it to discuss bullying in schools. Instead, there’s just a quick nod on their mission statement to providing a safe space for all students.

“Our schools’ effective learning environments require safety, discipline, respect, organization and high expectations for all,” the district says. Great words, but they also require action, too.

Friends of Brandon Bitner have created a Facebook page for him here, to memorialize him. He was a talented musician with a gift for the violin, and judging from the number of letters that people sent speaking out about his death and bullying in local schools, it’s clear he made a huge impact on a number of people.

Take a moment to write the Midd-West School District, and urge them to place a higher priority on combating bullying rooted in homophobia. No student should feel like their only option to escape bullying is suicide. And students should not be allowed to just laugh off anti-bullying programs as if they don’t make a difference.

Photo credit: juliejordanscott

After Students Laugh Off Anti-Bullying Assembly, a 14-Year-Old Commits Suicide

As Change.org’s Health Editor, Brie Cadman, recently reported, for the past five years, McDonald’s has been dabbling in the nutrition education business. Local schools can bring in groups of students, and McDonald’s employees teach the kids about how to make “healthy” choices. As the Connecticut Post recently reported, the Golden Arches sponsors workshops at its restaurants where students “learn about calorie counts, sodium levels, fat content and other information about the important of nutritious foods.” This coming from a fast food joint selling Big Macs that boast more than 500 calories a pop.

Unless McDonald’s is teaching these kids that its fast food is entirely too high in “calorie counts, sodium levels, and fat content,” the restaurant has no business running any kind of nutrition workshop. It’s no secret that the Golden Arches serves up some of the most unhealthy vittles around. An Angus Bacon and Cheese sandwich, for example, holds 790 calories and 39 grams of fat. Even a kids’ meal cheeseburger has 300 calories in it — and that’s before you add on the fries and sugar-y beverage.

Despite the Golden Arches’ obvious agenda-pushing with its “nutrition workshops,” it seems like it’s got schools like Stratford’s Eli Whitney School totally brainwashed. “McDonald’s is providing nutritional information so when they [students] go to a restaurant, they can make healthy choices,” Maureen DiDomenico, Stratford school system’s coordinator of fine arts, health and physical education, told the Connecticut Post.

If even school administrators are buying McDonald’s blatant leanwashing, you can bet that students are eating it up, too. “I learned that McDonald’s can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices,” 11-year-old Shannon Mullings told the Post. “I usually have lots of cheese, but I had less cheese and more lettuce, and I had chicken instead of hamburger because it had fewer calories.” Another student said he was going to choose an Angus Deluxe sandwich for lunch, but instead selected a Big Mac because it had 210 fewer calories.

Substituting one greasy burger for a slightly less greasy burger does not a healthy meal make, but this is the nutritional information that McDonald’s is pushing on impressionable kids. In order to really combat the country’s childhood obesity epidemic, we’ve got to help kids learn how to select fresh veggies, fruits, lean proteins, and unprocessed foods. Leanwashing and predatory marketing practices shouldn’t factor into this health plan. Sign our petition asking Stratford’s Board of Education to stop holding nutrition classes in fast food restaurants.

Photo credit: Heungsub via Flickr

Kids’ Nutrition Classes Brought to You by…McDonald’s?

When pressed on the issue on T.V., Paladino denied that his remarks were sexist and then simply walked out on the interview to avoid further questioning. Paladino insisted that he was simply referring to Gillibrand’s lack of a mind of her own when casting votes, although, as Irin points out at Jezebel, he could have chosen a number of other non-sexist adjectives in that case: “Pawn. Puppet. Pushover.” But he went with “Schumer’s little girl.” Degrading much?

Paladino has already received plenty of Change.org coverage for his various offensive acts: Forwarding emails with the phrase “Run n___ers, run” and depicting the Obamas as “pimp and whore.” Calling LGBTQ people “disgusting.” Saying we should imprison poor people to teach them “hygiene.”

Paladino is big on abstinence-only education and what conservatives like to call “family values,” but had an affair while married that resulted in a child. (Well, he is against contraceptive access, so I guess there’s some consistency there.) His insistence that his private life was off-limits to the press didn’t stop him from alleging sans evidence that his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, had also engaged in an affair, an unfounded smear he later found himself forced to retract. And despite opposing abortion being legal even in cases of rape or insist, he has had no problem being landlord to Planned Parenthood and filing for special tax exemptions over the clinic. It’s not hypocrisy when there’s a lot of money involved, right?

If Paladino wins his race for governor, I might have to consider moving out of the state, so I hope all New Yorkers will cast their ballot against him. You can also demand he apologize for calling a female senator a male colleague’s “little girl.” He might have thought that by walking out on his interview the issue would just go away, but sexist politicians should know their language has ongoing consequences, and they can’t get away with derogatory remarks just before they come up for election.

Photo credit: Tracy_N_Brandon

Gubernatorial Candidate Carl Paladino Calls Senator "Little Girl"

After the Ducks made their first Rose Bowl since 1995, several players, including star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and star running back Lamichael James, were arrested in the off-season. Athletic Director Mike Bellotti, likely sensing trouble, fled his position to become an ESPN analyst, but not before collecting a super shady $2.3 million severance package that was arranged only three days before he resigned.

But now in the midst of Oregon’s latest run,  all of the off-season skullduggery is seemingly forgotten even though little has changed except the quarterback (Lamichael James is still on the team).

Duck fans, like those at most universities,  would rather bask in victory than face an undeniable truth: big-time college sports are bad for higher education, and, in turn, bad for American society.

Here are the myths supporters offer in defense of big-time college sports.

1. They bring in huge revenues that are used for academics.
2. They increase interest and prestige and drive up applications to the schools.
3. They increase contributions from wealthy donors.

But many studies have found that success in athletics has statistically insignificant effects on donations, and this one found a negative effect on donations from non-athlete alumni.

While it’s true that going to a big bowl game or the Final Four can increase applications to a school, the so-called Flutie Effect has been found to be small and fleeting. And, honestly, what does it say about the academic integrity of a student whose primary reason for applying to a school is the football team?

The last, and perhaps most destructive, myth is that big-time college sports make money. Quite the opposite. According to a recent NCAA report, only 14 programs from the Football Championship Division were in the black for 2009 (the University of Oregon lost more than $600,000 despite its success).

How do athletic departments cover these deficits? Largely through student fees and diverting money from academic programs. In 2007-8,  FBS athletic departments on average received subsidies between $8 million and $10 million.

All of this comes at a time when universities, largely driven by the delusional myths mentioned above. are spending lavishly on sports while academic spending stagnates.  A recent report by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics found that between 2005 -2008 average spending on athletics grew 38 percent while it increased only 20 percent for academics. In the last 10 years, UO’s budget increased 250 percent to $75 million, while academically it has struggled through financially hard times.

Stories by the USA Today and Washington Post reveal that many students, especially in Virginia, are paying huge sports fees to cover these budget deficits. Some of these schools go to great lengths to hide this information from their students.

Why should we continue to invest millions into big-time college sports programs that provide nothing to the academic environment of our universities? Aside from money, what messages do big-time college sports send to students? What does it say when the most well known representatives of the universities are athletes, many of whom might coast in watered-down jocks-only curriculums or would never have otherwise qualified for entrance?

It leads to an emphasis on winning, and only winning, which, in turn, lead to off-seasons like Oregon’s that hurt the image of the university. It de-legitimizes academia and undermines the atmosphere of intellectual exploration that campuses should exude. In its place, college sports fill it with not-so-cheap entertainment and what Sperber calls “Beer and Circus.”

We should all know how much universities truly spend and lose on big time college sports. We should also know when athletic department budgets are being covered by students and taxpayers, and how much universities are taking away from academics to support their bloated sports programs.

Urge NCAA president Mark Emmert to make athletic department budgets more transparent and honest by signing this petition on Change.org.

Photo credit: Bobak Ha

Big-Budget College Sports Cost $, Hurt Higher Education

Six L’s has agreed to take all the steps crucial to protecting farm workers, as advocated by the CIW’s Fair Food Campaign. They will increase worker wages which haven’t grown for years, develop a cooperative complaint resolution system, install a participatory health and safety program, and begin worker-to-worker education initiatives to make every employee, including farm workers, part of a company-wide effort to promote social responsibility. Since Six L’s is the largest grower in a state with one of the most significant problems with abuse in the agricultural sector, this victory is a true coup for abolition.

The victory comes on the heels of the launch of the Coalition of Immokalee Worker’s newest initiative aimed at grocery stores who haven’t yet committed to the Campaign for Fair Food. And while Six L’s proactive actions are worth celebrating, grocery chains around the country are still refusing to step up to the plate and protect farm workers from exploitation and slavery.

You can keep the momentum going by asking Trader Joe’s to join the Fair Food campaign and ensure they aren’t selling produce picked by slaves. Or, check out CIW’s supermarket campaign and attend an event near you. Together, we can make all food fair for the people who grow it and the people who eat it.

Photo credit: EikeR

Largest Tomato Grower In Flordia Joins Campaign for Fair Food