The ABCs of federal tax breaks for college education expenses

Yesterday we showed the good side of college by presenting those majors that result in the best starting salaries fresh out of college. Now the bad side.

Aspiring engineers might want to consider Florida’s public universities for their education.   The state is considering a three-year tuition freeze for students studying engineering and other “strategic areas” such as science, technology and health care, even as prices for other majors could rise.  

It's college decision season, a time when students across the country watch their email with bated breath, waiting for the electronic harbinger that will inform them that (hopefully, thick) envelopes are on the way.

It is common knowledge by now that the US has a student loan problem. Specifically, a subprime-sized, student loan default problem, which as was reported last year, has now surpassed a 23% default rate at "for profit" institutions. Yet as all statistical measures, this one too deals in means and medians: very boring, impersonal metrics.

By Dylan Matthews jkrantz1 asks:

While watching the myriad of college bowl games this holiday season, many of them between teams that have no business being in bowl games at all, please step back and ponder who the winners and losers of this system are. My high-school friend David Wise takes a critical look at college football in a Real Clear Sports article proclaims it's Time for Colleges to Rein In Football

From yesterday's Census report