Anya Kamenetz

Student loan debt has become a defining issue of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The nation's cumulative student loan debt surpassed our cumulative credit card debt in 2010, and is heading north of $1 trillion; currently two-thirds of graduates take out loans, an average of $27,000 a head....

Although I live in New York, I stopped by Occupy Seattle on Tuesday night--I was in town for a launch event for The Edupunks' Guide, my new free ebook for independent, free and open learners.

Seattle is no stranger to street protests. About 100 people were...

Seven years ago I wrote a cover story for the Village Voice headlined "A Sleeping Class: Young Americans Fight for Every Cause But Their Own."
Starting with that story, which later became a book, my beat was the economic headwinds young people are facing: mounting...

If colleges weren't so provincial, the education system could become a lot more productive and stop wasting so many peoples' time and potential.

Jim Hooper, a father of five, earned his first bachelor's degree in 2009 from Thomas Edison State College. The public university in New Jersey has liberal transfer...

I just returned from a swing around some more or less non-elite colleges in the Midwest where I faced a common objection to DIY U:

You talk about access. But the students being left out of the current system are the ones who need more one-on-one support, so how...

UPDATE: A new news article published on 10/7 gives details: The UMW's president is now proposing an additional up to 15.5% increase for 2010-2011, on top of an 8.2% increase announced in May, for a total 25% increase over last year, but it's not a done deal yet.

I've been thinking a lot about e-mentoring lately.
Probably the most common objection to the DIY U vision is the supposed lack of personal connection when people are learning online. This is an important concern. No matter where you are on your educational journey, having a mentor...

I can't believe we're going through this again.

In January 2005, Time magazine featured on its cover a photo of a young man in a shirt and dress slacks sitting in a sandbox. The headline: "They Just Won't Grow Up." The article featured the research of one Jeffrey...

A strange milestone was marked this week in the history of student loans. The total balance of all outstanding US student loans (given as $730 billion in DIY U, based on OMB estimates) is now estimated by Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org at more like $830 billion --...

Lately the New York Times has been alive with stories and commentary about college students cheating using amazing new technological techniques like CTRL-C and CTRL-V.

I came across Goodhart's Law in my web wanderings several weeks ago, and it's been knocking about in my mind ever...

I had an excellent, thought-provoking discussion last week at UC San Diego courtesy of iGrad with a really well-chosen group of professors: Dr. Beyer of National University, a nonprofit online university that is the second-largest private institution in California; Dr. Allison Rossett, a professor of Educational Technology...

Yesterday the University of California made a groundbreaking announcement that has the potential to break the tuition cost crisis and finally deliver the crucial benefits of higher education to millions of Americans and to tens of millions who demand it and deserve it around the world. They are...

The case for for-profits: They concentrate on students who are nontraditional (aka the new normal: working adults) and underserved by traditional colleges. They offer them help filling out the FAFSA forms, more convenience and better customer service. They aggressively pursue growth in enrollment -- growing at an estimated rate of...

Probably the most common question I get about the future of higher ed is "But what about credentials?". In the words of Ezra Klein:

"So in Kamenetz's world -- a world that I agree would be far better for pure learning -- what steps into the role played by...

"Opportunity to create a commercial webisode series for New York City's most renowned Sports store."
"[Assist] a Brooklyn-based visual artist/art director/blogger/tastemaker with several upcoming projects."
"MODELING AGENCY --You will be required to do hands on work with assisting models and staff with the company."
"Exciting lingerie...

Since I started covering student loan debt in 2004, one fact has been abundantly clear: Giving away taxpayer money to banks so they can make student loans is bad policy.

Not only does it cost billions of dollars, not only is it unnecessary, but I argue in my

This month's issue of The Atlantic contains a long, thoughtful and depressing article by Don Peck about the possible effects of long-term unemployment on the American national character.

One section in particular is very much up my alley: about how the shifting job market and how it...

Crossposted from DIYUBook.com. I'll be moving most of my posting over there for the next few months around the book launch.

Chronicle of Higher Ed

Here is the propaganda website of Sallie Mae and the other jerks (Hi, Kevin Bruns!) who want to keep collecting public subsidies for the favor of giving out student loans.

Here are the...

Obama's main man Rahm Emanuel hinted at a big announcement that's coming from the administration soon to get 5 million extra students through community college in the next 10 years. Mainly the new funding will go toward vocational programs, likely through the reauth of the Workforce Reinvestment Act.

Obama's...