Friday, February 8, 2002
Grade Inflation: Too Many Honors Students?
Last week, Harvard proposed not giving out honors to students who only have a B average. Grade inflation at universities is a great topic.
Since last fall, The Boston Globe has been reporting and following up on a scandal at Harvard: "Since the Vietnam era, rampant grade inflation has made its top prize for students -- graduating with honors -- virtually meaningless," the Globe reports. "Last June, a record 91 percent of Harvard students graduated summa, magna, or cum laude, far more than at Yale (51 percent), Princeton (44 percent), and other elite universities, a Globe study has found. While the world regards these students as the best of the best of America's 13 million undergraduates, Harvard honors has actually become the laughingstock of the Ivy League."
The Globe found, "Yale, Brown, and many other elites now limit honors as a way to preserve its value. Yale caps universitywide honors at 30 percent of graduating seniors -- though, when comparing various types of honors with Harvard's, a total of 51 percent of Yale seniors earned some form of honors last spring. Behind Harvard and Yale is Princeton, where the honors rate this year was 44 percent; Brown, 42 percent; Dartmouth, 40 percent; Columbia, 25 percent; and Cornell, 8 percent. The University of Pennsylvania denied requests for the data, saying furnishing it would violate student privacy. Elsewhere, 28 percent of Duke University seniors received honors last spring, while the rate was 20 percent at Stanford and 35 percent at Johns Hopkins. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology doesn't award honors, saying the sheer value of its degree is distinctive."
Others have taken a look at this issue:
University of Texas
An Eastern Kentucky University prof
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Instant Tax Refunds Costly
It is the time of year when people start filing their tax returns. Many tax prep companies offer instant refunds, but the consumer may not know the instant refunds are really loans, sometimes with a very high interest rate.
Knight Ridder news service reported last year, " The loans are couched as fees ranging from $29.95 to $86.95 for tax refunds on returns processed by H&R Block and other such tax preparers. The problem is that these fees can amount to 10 percent or more of a refund that will likely arrive quickly anyway. For H&R Block, these loans are big business. In 2000, Block said it made 4.8 million 'Rapid Refunds,' averaging $2,400 apiece."
An alternative. The IRS says that if you file electronically this year you should get your refund within 10 days.
It seems that every year somebody e-mails me information that the U.S. tax system is not what it seems to be -- that it really is voluntary. This is what the IRS says to that.
Granny Cams
Should families have the right to plant Internet connected cameras in the nursing home rooms of their loved ones to protect them from abuse?
A Senior Aid site says, "Eleven state legislatures have at least debated the use of Granny Cams. Although the Maryland legislature has twice defeated "Granny-Cam" legislation, it has agreed to conduct a two-year study on their effect in nursing homes. Massachusetts and Florida have not take formal legislative action, but have also endorsed similar studies. On the other hand, Texas has passed legislation specifically allowing "Granny-Cams" in nursing home rooms. On June 15, 2001, Texas SB 177 when into effect. This bill, requires a facility to notify residents at admission that they may conduct authorized electronic surveillance, including both visual and audio. In order for surveillance to be authorized, the resident must let the facility know prior to placing it in the room.
Good Morning America reported last year, "The nursing-home industry objects to the so-called "grannycam" proposal, calling it an invitation to lawsuits. Industry spokesmen say such monitoring would discourage people from seeking nursing-home jobs. Dr. Charles Roadman, president of the American Health Care Association, says that the cameras endanger the trust between caregivers and patients. "Placing a camera in a room is often the action of someone looking to sue," he said in a statement issued last year. "Moving a patient to a safe location or taking other immediate steps is the reaction of someone who cares. Cameras can also have the effect of unduly disrupting a positive, trusting relationship between a patient and caregivers and can interfere with their therapeutic relationship as well. It is important to understand that in a nursing home a great deal of intimate care takes place at the patient's bedside." "Grannycam" advocates say that if nursing home personnel do nothing wrong they will have nothing to fear. Critics say cameras will make it even harder to attract and retain qualified people in an industry where the work is demanding, pay is low, and the turnover rates high.
This fight has been cooking since 1999. USAToday reported back then, "Nursing home officials say cameras invade the privacy of residents at times when they're most vulnerable, during bathing and changes of clothes. And cameras could hinder the already complicated task of finding qualified help to work a demanding job for low wages, they say. The presence of cameras, and the implications for lawsuits, would heighten employee stress."
