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Several elements in today's news caught my eye.  Here are things worth watching more closely... ... A Tennessee bill that would link Temporary Aid to Needy Families to poor children's school performance. Senate Bill 132, which appears to have legs, would cut up to 30% of a family's cash assistance if a child in the family failed to meet satisfactory academic progress in school.  This approach is consistent with a policy trend towards individualizing societal problems and blaming victimless children and their families for collective failures to protect "we" the people. ... Trends in student fees . While most of the country is tracking rising tuition, how many people realize that institutions can fairly easily raise revenue while escaping scrutiny by leaning on fees? What are the links between rising student fees and efforts by colleges and universities to " pay for the party " that they think upper-class students demand? ... Year Up . According to a new ...

The following is the second post in a two-part series by Robin Rogers, associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). For more about Robin and her first post, click here . Before I jump into policy experiments, I want to reflect on the enthusiastic response that I received from last week’s Part One of Billionaire Education Policy . If I could summarize the response with one word, it would be relief. A lot of people who work in education, philanthropy, and government are wary of the rise in billionaire policymaking, but are reticent in voicing their concerns. Perhaps this is fear of retaliation -- what Edward Skloot calls the “ Brass-Knuckles philanthropy ”of the Gates Foundation. But I see another, more heartening piece to this puzzle. People in the philanthropic and advocacy communities don’t want to harm the mission of philanthropy. We fear that revealing the pitfalls of billionaire philanthropy might have some u...