University of Phoenix Google's Biggest Advertiser

University of Phoenix, Ask.com Are Google's Biggest Advertisers [STUDY]

Lauren Indvik Oct 31, 2012

As an industry, finance may be the biggest spender on Google search, but it's the University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college in the U.S., which is Google's single biggest paid search client.
According to a search marketing firm WordStream, the university spent an average of $200,000 per day advertising its on-site and online coursework with Google, making it the search giant's number-one customer in its third quarter.

The University of Phoenix could not be reached to confirm those figures.

Ask.com, Amazon.com, Zappos.com Hotels.com and Geico rounded out the top five. The study was based off of data from 2,600 AdWords accounts, representing $250 million in annualized spending. (For more on WordStream's methodology, see here.)

Collectively, Google makes $100 million per day on advertising served through its Paid Search and Display Network products. Facebook, by comparison, generates around $21 million in advertising revenue per day, $3 million of which is from ads running on mobile devices.
Average cost-per-clicks (CPCs) declined significantly in the third quarter — down 16.5% for Google Search, and 18.2% for Google's Display Network — while click-through rates declined 12.4% for Google Search and increased 13.8% for Google Display. The total number of impression and clicks were up considerably: 21.6% for Google Search, and 29.1% for Google Display, which more than made up for declines in CPC pricing.

For advertisers, the decline in CPC rates is a very good thing: They can now get more click-throughs for less money.

The study found that CPC rates were still most expensive for advertisers in the financial industry, which averaged $3.09 per click for search and $1 per click for display. Jobs and education commanded the second-highest CPC rate, at $1.80.

Shopping, with a CPC rate of $0.25, enjoyed the highest click-through rate for search: 5.23% of impressions lead to a click, compared to 0.23% for display. Jobs and education garner the least for search, at 1.72%. Internet and telecom companies enjoy the highest conversion rate for both search and display at 6.27% and 8.59%, respectively. Travel has the lowest conversion rate for search at 1.45%.

Those stats and more are made visible in the infographic below.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Ken Lund

The Gainful Employment Ruling

Continuing efforts to improve financial literacy for borrowers

By:

Jessica Sondgeroth

University Business, September 2012

Despite Federal District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras’ ruling that negates a primary metric of the U.S. Department of Education’s “gainful employment” regulations, the DOE still has authority to regulate gainful employment programs and schools should continue to look for ways to promote the financial success of their students.
While it remains unknown what will become of the gainful employment regulations, it doesn’t hurt to continue operating as though the gainful employment measures are in effect by strengthening default prevention, financial literacy, counseling and other efforts to reduce borrowing and improve loan repayment.
The Obama administration published the gainful employment metrics last year, amid criticism that some for-profit colleges were piling students with debt in exchange for low-value or incomplete credentials and degrees. The DOE established these regulations to tie an academic program’s eligibility for Title IV federal student aid funds to whether it can “prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.” The rules were due to be implemented July 1, 2012, with the first set of meaningful metrics to be released during 2013.
The rule included three metrics to evaluate the performance of academic programs. Contreras’ ruling overturns the loan repayment rate, on the basis that the 35 percent repayment rate threshold was too arbitrarily contrived by the DOE as a performance standard for compliance.
“The Department does not identify any expert studies or industry practices indicating that a repayment rate of 35 percent would be a ‘meaningful performance standard,’ but rather emphasizes that the number was chosen because approximately one quarter of gainful employment programs would fail a test set at that level,” Contreras writes in his ruling. “Because one of the debt measures lacks a reasoned basis, that regulation will be vacated as arbitrary and capricious. Because the majority of the related rules cannot stand without the debt measures, they will be vacated, as well.”
The ruling leaves the DOE with the choice to appeal the decision or create new metrics, but it does not overturn its authority to regulate certain programs and institutions to ensure they are preparing students for gainful employment.
“Concerned about inadequate programs and unscrupulous institutions, the Department has gone looking for rats in rat holes [sic.]—as the statute empowers it to do,” Contreras wrote in his ruling.
Institutional leaders would be prudent to continue to address the gainful employment requirements by establishing a default prevention plan, either adopting the DOE’s sample plan (available at www.ifap.ed.gov/ifap) or customizing their own. Schools should also engage borrowers, work to better identify at-risk students and improve loan counseling efforts.
Research shows that many factors affect borrowers’ chances of successfully repaying their student loan and avoiding default. These factors include:

• Borrower characteristics like family income and academic preparedness in high school.
• In-college variables like student success, counseling and level of loan debt.
• Post-college variables like employment and income.

While institutions cannot control issues such as unemployment rates and family income, they can improve student loan repayment rates by helping struggling students succeed academically, setting realistic expectations in terms of salary and work goals, and counseling students on smart borrowing, repayment options and avoiding default.

Nine Key Actions

Administrators can take a number of small measures to improve student success after graduation, such as beefing up financial literacy efforts, ensuring enrollment reporting is accurate and sharing student information among different student services departments.
These steps help institutions increase student and borrower success, which will help them meet gainful employment metrics, even if they change due to the court ruling.

1. Create buy-in. A successful default management plan will require the interest and commitment of the campus administration and other student aid services departments. Developing your plan will mean reaching out to other departments and the administration to inform them of the issue and the consequences of high default rates.
2. Appoint a default prevention manager. If possible, appoint a member of the financial aid office to handle default prevention. Ideally, this person would serve as a liaison between the financial aid office and other departments, work to track borrowers at risk of defaulting and identify students most likely to default. Other efforts would include promoting campus-wide awareness of default, as well as developing financial literacy programs.
3. Create a default management team. A default management team should consist of staff from a variety of departments to help ensure that students have access to default prevention resources at the institution. Positioning academic affairs staff and faculty to raise red flags for low grades or poor attendance will give financial aid offices an opportunity to intervene before a student drops out and enters repayment. The registrar’s office could signal a warning when a student failed to enroll or withdrew from classes. Alumni affairs can help locate hard-to-find borrowers.
4. Partner with outside entities. The aim here is to track borrowers or upgrade the existing campus technology used to track borrowers. Sometimes an upgrade can better allow you to identify borrowers at risk of default and provide assistance.
5. Innovate your financial aid process. As stated, research showing family income, academic preparedness in high school, and level of loan debt can help in identifying students at risk of default. This research can be used to provide more assistance to students before they borrow. This could include providing additional information about borrowing too much, the choice between private and federal loans, and the consequences of default.
6. Connecting retention and default prevention. Many times, students at risk of default share the same characteristics of those at risk of dropping out. For large schools with open enrollment policies, this means being realistic about admitted students’ deficiencies and providing support such as tutoring, which offers another opportunity to counsel students and discourage them from dropping out. 
7. Create early alert systems. Early alert systems can also enable a school to provide repayment notifications during the six-month grace period to students who drop out. 
8. Improve communication with borrowers. Schools should collect multiple forms of borrowers’ contact information—phone numbers, email addresses, social networking accounts, and family contact information—and engage the borrower during grace periods and repayment. This portion of the plan should include direct contact with borrowers, whether by phone or through in-person exit or entrance counseling. A 2012 report by Education Sector, “Lowering Student Loan Default Rates” (available at www.educationsector.org/publications) details how a consortium of institutions used a variety of unusual tactics to reach out to delinquent borrowers. The schools sent out perfumed envelopes, colored Easter bunnies and Valentine’s Day hearts, and brightly colored paper with the words “CHECK INSIDE” stamped on the outside to get borrowers’ attention. 
9. Improve financial literacy. Repetition helps retention. Schools should employ financial literacy development as far and wide as possible, using social media, campus events, orientation materials, and perhaps “free pizza” workshops to spread the word. Some schools have even begun incorporating financial literacy in core curricula.

Success Is Possible

Colleges and universities can’t prevent every borrower from defaulting, but they can have a strong influence. While the Education Sector report shows that student demographics can indicate a risk of default, those demographics are not the sole, or even the primary predictor of a school’s default rate.
When institutions work to address default and provide students with financial literacy resources and information, they see results.

Is it possible to consolidate your student loan debt?

 

Student loan debts are spiraling out of control as the recent research shows that the average students are graduating with more than $22,000 debt approximately every year. Most of the students have credit card debt along with student loan debt that makes their financial situation further complicated. The credit card companies are luring their new young clients with various lucrative offers. But these young students fail to exercise financial discipline and end up incurring insurmountable amount of debt. Therefore, it is advisable for students with multiple debts to enroll in a credit card debt consolidation programs to eliminate their financial woes. When you consolidate your multiple high interest debts into a single monthly payment then you can save a significant amount of money. You can settle your credit card debts but know the trick to eliminate your student loan debt.

Identify your student loan debt:

Before you plan to consolidate your student loan debts it is advisable to know whether you have taken out a private or federal loan. If you have federal student loan then you need to be careful that there a few restrictions associated with this type of loans. Remember that you are eligible to consolidate your federal student loan when you are still attending you academic institution. The Department of Education allows you to consolidate your federal student loan if you default on your payment. The government shall be willing to negotiate if you agree to repay the loan on the basis of your income under the Income Contingent Repayment Plan.

Can you merge your federal and private loans?

The consumers consolidating their federal and private student loan has been warned by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC considers it to be a wrong decision. If you merge these two different loan programs then you might not be eligible for few benefits offered by federal loans. Some of these benefits are like lower interest rate as well as assured deferment if hardship arises. Therefore, consolidate your private and federal loans without merging these two different loan programs.

Are you eligible for student loan consolidation?

If you have private student loan then you might be successful in getting a consolidation loan. But if you have a federal loan then you can easily consolidate your student loan debts. You should be aware that it might be difficult to qualify for consolidation loan if you have poor credit score. If your credit score is above 720 then you can obtain loan on favorable terms. Therefore, it is advisable to consolidate your private student loans as you can make you monthly repayment terms affordable to pay off. In case of a federal student loan you have fixed interest rate and by lower the monthly payment you can pay off the loan effortlessly with consolidating it.

Article submitted by Guest Blogger Allen Smith 

Learn What Obama's 10/10 and Student Loan Forgiveness Means For You

 

Normally we don't go into the findings of particular pieces of legislation, but the Student Loan Ranger thinks findings like this are refreshing and show Rep. Clarke is living in the reality most of us inhabit, including:

Total outstanding student loan debt officially surpassed total credit card debt in the United States in 2010, and is on track to exceed $1,000,000,000,000 during 2012;
Excessive student loan debt is impeding economic growth in the United States. Faced with excessive repayment burdens, many individuals are unable to start businesses, invest, or buy homes;
Because of soaring tuition costs, students often have no choice but to amass significant debt to obtain an education that is widely considered a prerequisite for earning a living wage."

If you want to hear more from Rep. Clarke, you can watch him introduce the bill in the House. But right now we're going to do what the Student Loan Ranger does best: explore the details.

The act would create a new 10/10 Loan Repayment Plan (with new forgiveness provisions), cap interest rates for all federal loans, greatly improve Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and convert some borrowers' private loans to federal loans. That's a lot! Here's more information on four key parts:

1. 10/10 Loan Repayment Plan: Cleverly called 10/10, the plan caps payment amounts at 10 percent of a borrower's discretionary income (the same 10 percent cap as President Obama's Pay As You Earn proposal in terms of payments) and can provide forgiveness in 10 years.

The forgiveness provision kicks in after a borrower makes 120 payments, which must be either payments under the 10/10 plan; payments that were not less than they would have been under the 10/10 plan; or "payments" of $0 during a month the borrower was in deferment due to an economic hardship.
[Learn more about deferment.]
For borrowers on or after the date of enactment, forgiveness is limited to $45,520 in principal and fees plus the interest accrued on the principal and fees. That's a huge amount!

There is no forgiveness cap for borrowers who predate enactment. And because prior payments can count, many borrowers who have been repaying their loans for 10 years or more could be eligible for complete forgiveness right away.

One of the Student Loan Ranger's reservations about the plan is that it currently requires borrowers to agree to have their payments electronically debited from a bank account, which could penalize low-income borrowers who may not have bank accounts. We're also concerned that requiring borrowers who leave the plan to repay on a standard plan could put some into a catch-22 where they can't afford payments in 10/10 but also can't afford to leave.

Finally, we're hoping that the plan will be open to help all borrowers with federal loans, without having to meet a threshold like the "partial financial hardship" required for Income-Based Repayment.

2. Capping interest rates for all federal loans: The act would cap the interest rate on federal loans at 3.4 percent. This is great news for borrowers, since the interest rate is set to be 6.8 percent for all federal Stafford loans as of July 1, 2012.
[Find out more about changes to graduate Stafford loans.]

3. Improving Public Service Loan Forgiveness: The act would also provide for Public Service Loan Forgiveness after 60 monthly payments instead of 120. It is impossible for us to overstate how much this would help borrowers who have committed to careers at relatively low-paying public interest jobs, who could actually start saving for their kids' education and perhaps owning their own home half a decade earlier than they anticipated.

4. Refinancing private education loans: Certain eligible borrowers would be able to obtain a Federal Consolidation Loan to discharge private loans (which lack the protections of federal loans). While we have a few questions about the details, such as whether this would be open to borrowers who had to borrow private loans in addition to federal loans, overall, this would be an incredible help to borrowers struggling with private loans.

This is an act that really needs public support if it is going to move out of the House Education and the Workforce, House Armed Services, and House Foreign Affairs committees it has been referred to. If you agree with the plan, the Student Loan Ranger urges you to sign the SignOn.org petition and to personally call your Representative and Senators. And use the Twitter function on this post to tell all your friends about the act.

Of course, you can also keep in touch with us via Twitter (use #studentdebthelp) and Facebook. And register for one of our upcoming student debt relief webinars to get the details you need to know on existing student debt relief programs.

Isaac Bowers is a senior program manager in the Communications and Outreach unit, responsible for Equal Justice Works' educational debt relief initiatives. An expert on educational debt relief, Bowers conducts monthly webinars for a wide range of audiences; advises employers, law schools, and professional organizations; and works with Congress and the Department of Education on federal legislation and regulations. Prior to joining Equal Justice Works, he was a fellow at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP in San Francisco. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Tags:

paying for college,

debt,

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paying for graduate school,

student loans,

students

School of the Week - Victory University

Victory University is a Christian University offering both online and campus degree programs. They offer an amazing grant for the Military, and several scholarships.

They value faith and learning in the arts and sciences. We value diversity, unity, and maturity. We value wisdom, service, and leadership. Victory University’s mission is to educate students to think critically, grow spiritually, and change our world.
Victory University is a Christian liberal arts college committed to academic excellence and the joining of faith, rigorous academic inquiry, and action guided by a biblical worldview. Building upon a challenging curriculum in the classroom, Victory embraces the richness and diversity of its urban community as an extension of its campus. Our students benefit from development opportunities in dynamic partnerships with cutting edge businesses, nonprofit organizations, and experts in the professions and sciences. Victory seeks to be recognized as a center of excellence in leadership development where students gain life experiences that equip them for responsible positions in their communities, to become civic and professional leaders, and to honor God in their chosen fields. Victory strives to set the standard among Christian colleges as a place where students are mentored by a strong and caring Christian faculty and Christian area leaders learn that knowledge and faith can transform communities and advance God’s purposes in the world.

Core Values

WE VALUE FAITH AND LEARNING IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.
We at Victory University seek to gather a community of faculty and student scholars to unite serious inquiry in the liberal arts and sciences with authentic faith and redemptive action, and thus together strive for a kind of excellence rarely found in higher education in the United States.
We affirm the central, unifying beliefs of historic Christianity, and our starting points for academic inquiry and service are unapologetically biblical. We seek nothing less than the restoration of the liberal arts and sciences to their place of submission to Christ’s authority and to their prominence as the crucial and defining experience of higher education. Our intent is to educate and encourage spiritual formation in men and women who know, love, and profess truth, and who confidently can apply reason as focused by the Christian view of life to any vocation they pursue or problem they encounter.
WE VALUE DIVERSITY, UNITY, AND MATURITY.
Given our location in a major urban center, we believe that Victory University is uniquely situated to model diversity and unity within a single institution. We delight in the richly diverse ethnic and Christian traditions that mark life in our city and in our classes. We believe that cultural and generational differences, instead of dividing and hampering us, serve rather as powerful sources of stimulation toward Christian maturity: a benefit to students, the community, and generations to come.
WE VALUE WISDOM, SERVICE, AND CHRIST-LIKE LEADERSHIP.
We believe that God will use the education we provide to impart His wisdom to faculty and to students alike, and that our graduates will seek opportunities for idealistic and creative leadership, continuous learning, and responsible service in their professional, civic, and church-related spheres, fulfilling their calling to engage the surrounding culture with a Christian mind, and spreading the salt and light of truth to every area of life and throughout the world. Encouraging voluntary service and internships, we develop partnerships between the college and the businesses, professions, churches, schools, and other organizations comprising the external community.
Together as a community, we are learning to apply our faith and resources to serve the needs of a major urban center. Together we endeavor to make Victory University a center for the development of urban professional leaders—men and women who have put on wisdom with knowledge and, animated by faith, will transform communities and advance God’s purposes in the world.

Regional Accreditation

Victory University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, and masters degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Victory University. For more information click here.

Military and International Student Approval

Victory University is chartered by the State of Tennessee and approved by the State Department of Education for the training of veterans and their dependents and by the State Board of Education for teacher education licensure and by the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Victory is also authorized under Federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.

State Authorization

Victory University is authorized for operation as a postsecondary educational institution by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. In order to view detailed graduation information on the programs offered by Victory University, please visit www.state.tn.us/thec and click on the Authorized Institutions Data button.

Memberships and Affiliations

Victory University is also a member of the American Library Association, Association of Christian Librarians, Service Members Opportunity Colleges, the Tennessee Library Association, and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO).

Academics

 

Victory Pledge

Our pledge to every student is to provide strong Christian values, sound educational leadership, and fiscal responsibility. Our sincere hope is that every student finds their educational home at Victory and together we work towards graduation. We strive to provide every student with an exceptional student experience and support throughout their educational journey, and upon graduation every Victory graduate will be prepared to take their place in our nation’s leadership and corporate roles.
Thank you for considering Victory University in your search for a college home. We realize you have many choices but ask you to consider what we think makes Victory unique from other colleges you may be considering. Whether you’re pursuing an associate, bachelor, or master’s degree Victory may have a degree program that fits your specific needs.
Consider that the unemployment rate for individuals with Bachelor’s degrees is approximately half of that compared to those with only high school diplomas, and that college graduates earn an average of 67% more than high school graduates. (1) We encourage you to read more about the benefits of the Victory edge and compare them to other colleges or universities you may be considering. We look forward to welcoming you to Victory University.

Financial Aid

All students are required to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each Academic Year they are applying for Financial Aid. You can do so at www.fafsa.ed.gov. The Federal School Code number for Victory University is 009982.
Victory University accepts all Federal financial aid including the Federal Student Loan Program and the Federal Pell Grant.

To Request Information Click Here

Comparing student services at for-profit and not-for-profit institutions

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Rhonda Stabler

I have had the pleasure of working both in the for-profit and traditional higher learner environments and through my experience I have learned that Student Services has a different meaning and purpose depending on the organization. Student Services in a for-profit organization usually operates under the mission to retain students through providing personal and professional development, counseling. Student Services as it pertains to traditional or non-profit settings usually encompasses Career Services, Admissions, Academic Advising, and Registrar.

While in the employ of MedTech, a for-profit technical medical school, I served as a counselor and guide to students who were first generation college students, older and middle-aged adult learners, and those who have been displaced in the workforce through downsizings and lay-offs. These were people who never imagined they would have to get a college education in order to procure a job. Due to the change in the economy jobs are not as secure and far and few between to find. These were students who were pursuing a degree that often did not have the means to go to school. They did not have transportation, homes, jobs, finances, families that supported them and it was my job to help them in these areas. I could help the student create a budget, give them a bus pass, help the look for work. I also tutored them in their studies. My main function was to ensure that MedTech retained the student.

The traditional and non-profit schools in my area fit the above description for Student Services as the culmination of Admissions, Career Services, Academic Advising and Registrar. While these departments help students with their educational and professional development they do not usually assist students to remain in school through offering tutoring, mentoring, transportation assistance or personal counseling.

More and more adult learners are attending traditional schools; as such there is a greater demand for traditional and non-profit schools to accommodate the busy lives and careers of their adult students and to offer some non-traditional additional services. Because of this trend, I am not sure that either for-profits or non-profits and traditional schools could stake a claim on offering a better Student Services system. However, it is my opinion that traditional and non-profit schools have more complete Student Services offering, they are missing that one component that at this time in our economy they need to add if they have not already; a component of student services that provides all-around support to the student, as they do within the for-profit schools.

In conclusion, times are changing and with that the student in colleges and universities—whether traditional, non-profit or for-profit—are changing as well. As such, it would be sensible for all higher education institutions to stay with the times and offer services that are pertinent to the retaining and eventually graduating of their students.

Student Services in my opinion is one of the most important departments on any campus… as long as it serves all the needs of the students.

Cross-posted from The EvoLLLution, originally published August 30, 2012.

Taking On Higher Ed

Taking On Higher Ed

August 29, 2012

By Paul Fain

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Republican Party’s 2012 platform has strong words for higher education's alleged failings, on ideological bias as well as unsustainable tuition hikes. The lengthy document, approved here today at the party's presidential convention, also draws a hard line on standard party litmus tests affecting colleges, such as immigration, public employee unions and embryonic stem cell research.

The GOP’s playbook praises colleges for their research clout and recruitment of foreign talent. But the overall tone about the sector is combative.

“Ideological bias is deeply entrenched within the current university system. Whatever the solution in private institutions may be, in state institutions the trustees have a responsibility to the public to ensure that their enormous investment is not abused for political indoctrination,” the platform said. “We call on state officials to ensure that our public colleges and universities be places of learning and the exchange of ideas, not zones of intellectual intolerance favoring the left.”

Bias also harms university research, the Republican plan said in an apparent reference to climate change. “We must restore scientific integrity to our public research institutions and remove political incentives from publicly funded research,” according to the document, which did not specify what those incentives are.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and now official presidential nominee, arrived here today. His public statements on higher education have been limited, including vague praise for the for-profit sector and criticism for President Obama’s inability to curb rising college tuition prices.
The platform runs with that criticism, and takes on colleges for being out of touch with the job market. “It is time to get back to basics and to higher education programs directly related to job opportunities” -- language likely to trouble those who are worried that a vocational tilt in federal higher education policy would be exacerbated under a President Romney.
New rivals to traditional four-year colleges can help drive down the price of degrees, according to the document, including: “expanded community colleges and technical institutions, private training schools, online universities, life-long learning and work-based learning in the private sector.” And public policy should advance “affordability, innovation and transparency” to tackle higher education’s challenges, partially through requiring the release of more information for students and their families about institutional graduation and loan repayment rates, as well as average wages of alumni.

The platform describes the federal financial aid system as being on an "unsustainable path," and calls for an end to the federal government's direct loan program for student loans, and a return to bank-based lending. The shift to 100 percent direct lending has been the centerpiece of President Obama's higher education policy, as his administration used savings from ending subsidies to private lenders to bolster Pell Grants for needy students.

Unsurprisingly, given the platform's overall tough stance on immigration, the document calls for federal funding to be denied to public colleges that charge illegal immigrants the lower tuition rates they charge to in-state students. But it also encourages an open door approach to foreign students, with a call for “strategic immigration” by granting more “work visas to holders of advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math from other nations,” and for allowing more of those students remain here after their studies are over.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who famously battled his state’s public employee unions, got more than one sustained ovation when he spoke at the convention Tuesday. The platform strikes a similar note to Walker, with its aggressive stance of cracking down on unions.

“We salute the Republican Governors and State legislators who have saved their States from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions,” the platform said. “We urge elected officials across the country to follow their lead in order to avoid State and local defaults on their obligations and the collapse of services to the public.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that could determine the future of affirmative action in college admissions. There will be no doubt where a President Romney would stand on affirmative action when appointing justices to the top court, at least if the platform is any indication.

"We support efforts to help low-income individuals get a fair chance based on their potential and individual merit; but we reject preferences, quotas and set-asides as the best or sole methods through which fairness can be achieved, whether in government, education, or corporate boardrooms,” it said. “Merit, ability, aptitude and results should be the factors that determine advancement in our society."
On K-12 education, the document echoes former President Bush’s language on school reform, arguing against the “crippling bigotry of low expectations." However, it also said the federal government must defer to states.

Further excerpts from the party’s platform follow below:
Research funding: "We also support federal investment in basic and applied biomedical research, especially the neuroscience research that may hold great potential for dealing with diseases and disorders such as Autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. If we are to make significant headway against breast and prostate cancer, diabetes and other killers, research must consider the special needs of formerly neglected groups. We call for expanded support for the stem-cell research that now offers the greatest hope for many afflictions -- with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells -- without the destruction of embryonic human life. We urge a ban on human cloning and on the creation of or experimentation on human embryos."

Job training: "It is critical that the United States has a highly trained and skilled workforce. Nine federal agencies currently run 47 retraining programs at a total cost of $18 billion annually with dismal results. Both the trainees in those programs and the taxpayers who fund them deserve better. We propose consolidation of those programs into state block grants so that training can be coordinated with local schools and employers."

State spending: "Scores of entrenched federal programs violate the constitutional mandates of federalism by taking money from the states, laundering it through various federal agencies, only to return to the states shrunken grants with mandates attached. We propose wherever feasible to leave resources where they originate: in the homes and neighborhoods of the taxpayers. We call on the federal government to do a systematic analysis of laws and regulations to eliminate costly bureaucratic mandates on the states and the people. With every right comes a responsibility. A few states and their political subdivisions are currently in dire fiscal situations, largely because of their spending, debt and failure to rein in public employee unions. In the event those conditions worsen, the federal government must not assume the state governments’ or their political subdivisions’ financial responsibility or require the nation’s taxpayers to pay for the misrule of a few state governments. Nor shall the states assume the federal government’s financial responsibility."

Visa policy: "Highly educated immigrants can assist in creating new services and products. In the same way, foreign students who graduate from an American university with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math should be encouraged to remain here and contribute to economic prosperity and job creation. Highly skilled, English-speaking and integrated into their communities, they are too valuable a resource to lose. As in past generations, we should encourage the world’s innovators and inventors to create our common future and their permanent homes here in the United States."

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/29/gop-platform-harshly-critical-higher-education#ixzz254itNdcQ
Inside Higher Ed