Higher Education - Economic Aspects

CQ Researcher Reports

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Humanities Education:Are humanities degrees worth the cost?" CQ Researcher 6 Dec. 2013: 1029-52. CQ Researcher. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Billitteri, Thomas J. "The Value of a College Education: Is a four-year degree the only path to a secure future?" CQ Researcher 20 Nov. 2009. CQ Researcher. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.
President Obama's $12 billion American Graduation Initiative — announced in July — aims to help millions more Americans earn degrees and certificates from community colleges. The president wants the United States to have, once again, the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Along with the administration, economists and many students and parents embrace the notion that higher education offers the most promising ticket to financial security and upward mobility. However, some argue that many young people are ill-prepared or unmotivated to get a four-year degree and should pursue apprenticeships or job-related technical training instead. The debate is casting a spotlight on trends in high-school career and technical education — long known as vocational education — and raising questions about the ability of the nation's 1,200 community colleges to meet exploding enrollment demand. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.


Articles

EBSCOhost

Subject Search:

• Community Colleges AND United States
  • Subtopics: Enrollment, Tuition OR Costs OR Finance
• Student Loans AND Debt*
• SU college graduates and SU ( wage* or employ* or economic ) and united states

Books

Romano, Richard M. and Hirschel Kasper. Occupational outlook for community college students. New directions for community colleges, no. 146. Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print. Main Collection. LB2328 .N472 2009 no.146

Kamenetz, Anya. Generation debt : why now is a terrible time to be young. Penguin, 2006. Print. Main Collection. HQ799.7 .K36 2006

Draut, Tamara. Strapped: why America's 20- and 30-somethings can't get ahead. Anchor, 2007.  Print. Main Collection HQ799.7 .D73 2007.

Mooney, Nan. "College Promises: Real Debt and False Expectations." in Not Keeping up with Our Parents : The Decline of the Professional Middle Class. Beacon, 2008.


Web
America’s Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have-Nots. (2016)

College Scorecard. (A search tool created by the Department of Education for looking up average cost of colleges, debt levels, and average salaries of graduates.)  



Carnevale, Anthony P. and Ban Chea. Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings 2013 : Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal.  Center on Education and the Workforce. Georgetown University. 29 May 2013.

Carnevale, Anthony P., Jeff Strohl and Michelle Melton. What's it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors. Center on Education and the Workforce. Georgetown University. 24 May 2011. "The report finds that different undergraduate majors result in very different earnings."

United States. White House. "Investing in Education: The American Graduation Initiative." by Katherine Brandon. White House Blog, 14 July 2009.

United States. Library of Congress. Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R.3221).

Washington State. Board for Community & Technical Colleges. Academic Year Report. A "snapshot of funding, facilities, staffing, and enrollments . . . expenditures, personnel and students."


updated 10/2016 yy

Income Inequality & the Minimum Wage

Articles

Mantel, Barbara. "Minimum Wage: Would raising the rate be good for the economy?" CQ Researcher 24 Jan. 2014. Political pressure is building on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Polls show a majority of Americans support the idea;
low-wage workers have staged protests demanding higher pay; and 21 states have set their own hourly minimums at more than $7.25.

Government Surveillance

McCutcheon, Chuck. "Government Surveillance: Is government spying on Americans excessive?" CQ Researcher 30 Aug. 2013: 717-40. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.  How tightly the government should keep tabs on citizens has long been fiercely debated. But concern about surveillance intensified in June after National Security Agency computer specialist Edward Snowden revealed classified details of agency electronic snooping programs. Civil liberties advocates, lawmakers and others also have cited growing unease with other surveillance measures, including the use of unmanned “drone” aircraft and tiny video cameras. Congress, along with state and local governments, is expected to take up a variety of bills this fall to protect privacy and increase transparency about government activities. But the Obama administration maintains that internal safeguards — including a federal civil liberties oversight board created in 2004 — have prevented the federal government from becoming “Big Brother.”From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Articles

 su(privacy and ("national security" or "intelligence gathering")) AND (united states) - 900+ articles on the subject of privacy as it relates to national security in the United States.

"Edward Snowden" AND PUB(Washington Post) - 1300+ articles mentioning former NSA contractor turned leaker Snowden, from one of the papers he worked with.

Books

National Security Agency - United States
 
Web

NSA FIles: Decoded - What the revelations mean for you.  The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Ltd. Web. 1 Nov. 2013  6 part interactive site with documents, graphics, and video interviews with multiple perspectives/viewpoints,

Immigration - United States

Karaim, Reed. "Border Security: Is the buildup in border protection effective?" CQ Researcher 27 Sept. 2013. The United States has poured unprecedented resources into securing its borders, spending billions of dollars on surveillance technology, fencing and personnel. Today more than 21,000 federal agents guard the borders, nearly 10 times the total in 1980. The buildup, particularly strong along the 1,933-mile-long Mexican border, also includes new measures at so-called ports of entry

Plagiarism and Cheating

Glazer, Sarah. "Plagiarism and Cheating: Are they becoming more acceptable in the Internet age?" CQ Researcher 4 Jan. 2013. Cheating scandals among some of the nation's best students at Harvard University and New York City's Stuyvesant High School have highlighted a problem experts say is widespread. In surveys, a majority of college and high school students admit to cheating on a test

Mexico's Drug War

Katel, Peter. "Mexico's Future: Can the country's new president stop the drug cartels?." CQ Researcher 26 Oct. 2012. Following years of grisly drug-related violence, Mexico's next president, Enrique Peña Nieto, is hinting that he will adopt a new anti-crime strategy when he takes office Dec. 1. Instead of using a military-style offensive to kill or capture the leaders of Mexico's drug cartels

Legalizing Marijuana

This post offers links to issues of the CQ Researcher, additional articles from EBSCOhost and ProQuest (including newspaper articles on the 2012 Washington initiative), as well as print and online books in our collection.

Distracted Driving

Drive Safely Work Week is Oct. 1-5, 2012

Hosansky, David. "Distracted Driving: Should driver texting and cellphone use be banned?" CQ Researcher 4 May 2012. Drivers have long tried to manage any number of distractions ranging from eating a snack and reading a map to dealing with unruly children in the backseat and putting on makeup. But with the increasing popularity of cellphones and texting, distracted driving has emerged as a central concern of safety experts. Studies indicate that distractions are involved in more than 5,000 traffic fatalities every year. Most states have enacted laws to restrict texting or talking on handheld cellphones, and policymakers face calls for a near-total ban even on hands-free communications devices — including those that are built into the dashboards of new cars and heavily marketed by automakers. But even if more restrictive laws were passed, many motorists would find it hard to set aside the devices they have come to rely upon to make business and personal calls and also to check websites or update their Facebook pages. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Websites:
distraction.gov - Official U.S. Government Website for Distracted Driving. U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Natl. Highway Safety Administration. Offers news, facts, research and an overview of state laws.

Alcohol Abuse

Price, Tom. "Alcohol Abuse: Can underage drinking be curbed?" CQ Researcher 8 June 2012. Americans are abusing alcohol less than in the past with one exception: college students, who drink more and binge drink more often than nonstudents of similar age. And alcohol continues to extract a high toll from those who abuse it at any age, killing 80,000 Americans a year and draining more than $220 billion from the economy. Although high school students drink and binge less, bingeing accounts for 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by teens who drink. Health experts also worry about the effects of new products, especially flavored alcoholic drinks, which seem to encourage young women and girls to drink and drink more. To combat alcohol abuse, many educational institutions, community organizations and government agencies are stepping up efforts to promote abstinence among the young and responsible drinking by adults who do imbibe. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Books: We added several books recently on alcohol abuse, including Getting wasted : why college students drink too much and party so hard by Thomas Vander Ven (click linked title to check availability).


links updated - 5/21/2013 cs

National Debt

FACTS.com

• Key Issue: Budget and the National Debt. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. Last updated Aug 2012.
• Focus On: The U.S. Federal Budget and National Debt (Research Feature)." World News Digest. Facts On File News Services, May 2011.
• Reuters News (search Federal Budget in title). Reuters. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services.

CQ Researcher

• Clemmitt, Marcia. "National Debt: Are higher taxes needed to reduce the debt?" CQ Researcher 18 Mar. 2011.Washington is wracked this year by intense budget politics. Spurred by the conservative Tea Party movement, Republican lawmakers point to the federal government's $14 trillion debt as an emergency that demands big cuts in domestic programs, including Social Security, plus tax cuts they say will spur economic growth. But Democrats say government spending is needed to sustain the economy while the private sector struggles back to health.

Guns

Mantel, Barbara. Gun Control: Should lawmakers tighten firearm restrictions? CQ Researcher March 8, 2013. The debate over gun control has been inescapable since last December, when Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., before taking his own life in one of the nation's most horrific mass shootings. There have been marches and protests, Super Bowl advertisements, emotional and contentious congressional and state hearings and a new, tough gun-control law in New York state. Polls show broad bipartisan public support for expanding background checks to include private gun purchases, although support is weaker and more polarized for a ban on assault-style weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. Yet momentum may be fading in Congress for passage of any new gun-control legislation as members grapple with the federal government's looming debt limit and this month's automatic budget cuts.From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Jost, Kenneth. "Gun Rights Debate." CQ Researcher 31 Oct. 2008. The Supreme Court gave gun rights advocates a major victory on June 26, recognizing for the first time an individual right under the Second Amendment to own and possess firearms. The 5-4 decision struck down a handgun ban adopted by the District of Columbia in 1976. Gun rights advocates the very same day began challenging

Pakistan

Articles

EBSCOhost

pakistan [Subject Terms] - over 4200 full text articles

Add terms to second search line to focus on subtopics - for instance:

• military or armed forces
• taliban or qaida
• school* or education

ProQuest

Login to Proquest to construct this search: pakistan - over 35900 full text articles; note that this search is limited to the keyword 'pakistan' as 'Location' rather than subject. As above, add topic keywords to other search lines to narrow: Login to Proquest to construct this search: GEO(pakistan) AND (school* or education)

Books

CBC Library Catalog - su:pakistan or ti:pakistan

Ebrary - subject search pakistan - 12 ebooks

Reference

Country Profile: Pakistan Facts on File World News Digest. Includes many links to articles as well as facts and history. Long, Roger D. "Search for this in Oxford Reference: Pakistan" Oxford Encyclopedia of Modern World. Ed Peter N. Stearns. Oxford UP, 2008.
Articles on Pakistan (primarily background) from 4 encyclopedias in the History & Culture subcollection of Gale Virtual Reference, including an 18 page article from the Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations 11th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
Clemmitt, Marcia. "US-Pakistan relations: Is the rocky alliance worth saving?" CQ Researcher 5 Aug. 2011.
 

 Last updated - 5/13/2013 cs

Mental Health in America

Mental Health America. May is Mental Health Month - "created more than 50 years ago to raise awareness about mental health conditions and the importance of mental wellness for all."
Mantel, Barbara. "Mental Health Policy: Can access to mental health services be improved?." CQ Researcher 10 May 2013. An estimated 58 million American adults, or one in four, suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. Eleven million live with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression. Yet it can take years for some individuals to see a mental health professional.

Gay Marriage

Articles:

EBSCOhost Subject Search: same-sex marriage OR (gay rights AND marriage) - 2900+ full text articles

ProQuest Subject Search: Login to Proquest to construct this search: (same sex marriage) OR (gay* and marriage) - over 6900 full text articles

"States Debate Marriage Rights (Research Feature)." June 2009. Facts On File World News Digest - issue summary with links to key news events and other features.

Gay Marriage Showdowns: Will voters bar marriage for same-sex couples? CQ Researcher 29 May 2012.

Books:

Catalog - search su:Same-sex marriage or su:gay couples or gay marriage

Ebrary
Sullivan, Andrew. Same-Sex Marriage : Pro and Con. Knopf: 2004.

Alderson, Kevin and Kathleen Lahey. Same-Sex Marriage : The Personal and the Political. Insomniac Press : 2004

Reference Article:

"Defense of Marriage Acts." National Survey of State Laws. Ed. Richard Leiter. 6th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2008.

Web:

State By State: The Legal Battle Over Gay Marriage. NPR.org. 16 Apr. 2009.