The Rising Cost of Tuition

I have found more information and resources on my topic. As I was reading chapter 5 of my textbook entitled Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism, by Tim Harrower, I found the address to the National Education Writers Association. The address is www.ewa.org.
The association was created by newspaper reporters in the United States in 1947. It now has over 1,000 members in this country and in Canada. Associate members include public information officers in schools and colleges. This website and the resources found there will become a valuable source of information in my search for relevant issues.
Another website with lots of resources is that of The Chronicle of Higher Education. It’s address is www.chronicle.com. This site even has a section for students.
So, thus far my two issues are those of assisting students who are English language learners in public K-12 schools and of high school exit exams. Today I’ll share an issue relevant to public universities. The issue is about the rising cost of college tuition. In a Jan. 28 story from The Washington Post, “Forget Yale – Go State” by Kathleen Day, financial planners say that people who are too affluent for government aid, but not wealthy enough to not suffer a dent in the pocketbook from high tuition costs (otherwise known as the middle class), have to keep three things in mind. They are that they need to be able to think realistically, be honest about the real goal of going to college, and be willing to choose value over prestige. There are just so many factors that must be taken into account. As it is right now, the best way to save for a child’s college tuition is to start saving money in a state-sponsored 529 plan. These plans are run by individual state governments which then hire asset management companies to run the plan. The plan gets its name from its section in the Internal Revenue Service code.
The best way to save in one of these plans is to start before the child is born under a parent’s name. Then, when the child is born, the name for whom the plan is intended replaces the original one. Some information for this post came from an article from howstuffworks.com. The URL for it is:
http://money.howstuffworks.com/5292.htm
I will continue to post more information as it is made available to me. For now, I know that I have my third issue: the rising cost of college.

The Plan

Hello. My name is Anthony. I am a sophomore at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). This web log is a result of an assignment for my journalism class. Jour311 is about the information gathering process and how it leads to publishable news stories in a variety of media. I selected a news beat on Jan. 29. My beat is education. My plan is to investigate various issues regarding the educational system in the nation, state, and local area. I have thus far identified two interesting topics. The first has to do with students who are English language learners. According to a Christian Science Monitor story published last month, there are 5.8 million such students in the nation’s schools. Since the story focused on elementary school students, I assume this does not include university students. The next issue has to do with exit exams. In many states there is a controversy going on regarding whether or not they should be given. My plan is to learn lots more about the nation’s and state’s schools. I also intend to see how CSULB is preparing future teachers to confront these and other issues. Above all, I’ll keep it as accurate as I can and have a good time with my reporting.