World Education News

Quatari Diar and Canary Wharf Group Plc, whose London history dates to the 1500s, are joint-venturing a $1.6 billion (one billion British pounds) redevelopment of London's South Bank area where the noted Shell Center Tower will continue to be the centerpiece of the 880,000-square-foot undertaking. Completion is tentatively scheduled for 2019.

The project is expected to include 800,000 square feet of office, 80,000 square feet of retail and 790 residences. The developers contracted with Royal Dutch Shell in July 2011 to redevelop the Shell Center site. They each spent 150 million pounds to take the 5.25-acre site on a 999-year lease.  Shell remains the site's owner.  One British pound equals $1.61 U.S.

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Macquarie Betting on Mexico With $1.15 Billion Stake

Macquarie Group of Sydney, Australia, one of the world's biggest commercial real estate investment organizations, has launched a $1.15 billion real estate investment trust on the Mexican stock exchange. Shares were priced at 25 pesos ($1.96).  Macquarie Mexico Real Estate Management said the offering raised MXN14.72 billion. One peso equals 7.8 cents U.S.

Macquarie said the REIT, known in Mexico as a Fibra, expects net proceeds of MXN13.57 billion if over-allotments are exercised. The trust will use the money to acquire its initial portfolio of 244 industrial properties spread over 21 cities in 15 Mexican states. The properties had an average occupancy rate of 91% at the end of September.

The properties are being acquired from real estate firms GE Capital Real Estate Mexico and Corporate Properties of the Americas.

Ireland is a feast for the senses.

The sight of winding country roads lined by thatched cottages, with generations of "the ancestors" buried in the back. The sounds of the local pub on "Traditional Music Night," when happy singing and laughter echo into the night. The aroma of the ubiquitous peat soil, which warms many an Irish hearth in those cottages. The overwhelming presence of a history burdened by sadness, but also buoyed by creative and literary genius. The feel of the damp, cold stones in the ancient Roman towers of the Wicklow Mountains. And the fragrant aroma of thick wet grass...everywhere.

Ireland is a country of myth, of heroes and kings and saints, of bagpipes and step-dancing and story-telling and friendly faces.

This year, the country is staging "The Gathering," a year-long festival of Irish culture, history, and folklore, with special events taking place from the storied Cliffs of Moher in the West to the literary alleys of Dublin in the East, from Cork by the Celtic Sea in the South to Aran Island in the windswept North.  

A company called Brendan Vacations, located in Los Angeles and with an office in Ireland, is offering unique "The Gathering" tours, with special features such as lunch in a private home with a local expert on W.B. Yeats, or a Bodhrán (Irish Drum) lesson in one of Ireland's oldest pubs.

In the capital city of Dublin, you'll visit Trinity College, where you'll stop into the Gothic library to see the magnificent Book of Kells, an ancient religious manuscript that's hand-painted. You'll stop at St.  Stephen's Green, where it seems all of Dublin comes to play on nice days. You'll browse the shops of Grafton Street, where you'll find everything from clan kilts to antique books to cashmere sweaters to Waterford Crystal.

You'll ponder Ireland's tumultuous history as you stand before the Customs House and the statues of famous Irishmen such as Daniel O'Connell and Charles Parnell (along with a statue of a mythical Irish "every-woman" named Molly McGuire). You'll pause at one of the bridges going over the River Liffey, and take in the 360-degree street-life swirling around you. And you'll probably stop at the Guinness factory, home of Ireland's most popular export.    

During the Gathering, the country will be staging hundreds of special events and festivals. 

Not far from Cork, in the south, there'll be plenty of celebrating going on at Blarney Castle, where visitors will be assisted in leaning over backward and kissing the Blarney Stone. 

In the rural west, where some people still speak Gaelic, there'll be story-telling and limerick events in the town of Limerick, and the echoes of the ancient past will be re-awakened at Bunratty Castle. 

In the beautiful Wicklow Mountains, you'll travel on winding, high-country roads in and out of mountains bathed in fog one minute and sunshine the next. In County Clare on the west coast, you'll stand atop the Cliffs of Moher, reddish-brown walls looking down on the Atlantic from 700 feet above.

In a year filled with special events, the most special one - of course - is St. Patrick's Day. The Irish will celebrate the day Saint Patrick chased the snakes out of Eire with marching bands, spirited dancers, bagpipers, colorful floats, and just plain old fun - "craic."

One of the best places to celebrate St. Patty's Day is at that most Irish of institutions - the pub. It's a place to catch up on gossip; to argue about whether Oscar Wilde was a better writer than James Joyce; to enjoy "Traditional Music Nights"; or to just sit back with a couple of "mates" and savor a "pint Stout" (Guinness) and a pack of "crisps" (potato chips).

During the Gathering, you'll probably make a lot of new friends here. And you can toast them with a hearty Slainte! - "To your health!"

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
How much does a college education cost? In the United States, the College Board releases yearly reports on prices at colleges and universities. The group bases its findings on “published” tuition and fees, meaning the prices officially listed by the school. Students might pay less — for instance, if they receive scholarships.
Nationally, tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose more than 8 percent during the academic year that just ended. The increase was seven percent if you exclude California. California has about ten percent of the nation’s full-time students in public four-year colleges.
In-state tuition and fees averaged more than eight thousand dollars nationally. The average total charge — which includes housing and meals — was seventeen thousand dollars. The total charge for students from out of state was thirty thousand dollars.
Tuition and fees increased four and a half percent at private nonprofit four-year schools. That was still higher than the inflation rate. The average was twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars.
For-profit schools charged an estimated fourteen thousand dollars in tuition and fees. That was up 3.2 percent from the year before.
One way for parents in the United States to start saving for college when their child is still very young is called a 529 plan. The plans are named for the part of the federal tax law that created them in nineteen ninety-six. All fifty states and the District of Columbia offer them.
Private investment companies operate most of these plans, and each state has its own rules. Many plans are open to families from other states.
Five twenty-nine plans offer different investment choices. Families must decide how aggressively they want to put money into stocks, bonds or other investments that can rise or fall in value. There are limits on how much families can put into 529 plans.
Another choice is called a prepaid tuition plan. Parents can pay for an education at a public college or university in their state while their child is still growing up. But what if the child decides to go to school out of state, or not at all?  The money can go to educate another family member, or the parents can withdraw it and pay taxes on the gains.
There are other ways to save for college while also saving on taxes. One way is to put money for a child into what is called a custodial account until the child becomes an adult.

Marialena Rivera learned a lesson growing up in San Antonio, Texas, when her family struggled to make ends meet before her parents went to college.
“As soon as my parents got their degrees, everything changed for us,” said Rivera, 27, who’s seeking her Ph.D. in education policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “They got better jobs. We moved into a gated community. We had a pool in our backyard.”
Rivera’s studies come as the number of Hispanics with doctorates jumped 161 percent from 1990 to 2010, almost double the non-Hispanic rate of 90 percent, according to U.S. Census data. People of Latin American or Spanish ancestry have emerged as a powerful voting bloc, courted by President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney on job-creation and economic issues.
“The growth that we’re seeing in Hispanic doctoral degrees is largely a product of the growth in the Hispanic population generally in the last 20 years, and to a lesser degree reflects some improvements in the economic situation and opportunities,” said John Moder, senior vice president and chief operating officer at the San Antonio-based Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
Nationwide, the Hispanic population more than doubled to 50.5 million in 2010 from 22.4 million in 1990, according to Census data. Hispanics comprised 16 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, America’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic group because of high immigration and birth rates, according to an August 2011 report by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.

Student Growth

Since 2000, Latinos and Asians have driven the growth among young adults going to college, said Richard Fry, senior research associate specializing in education trends at the Pew center. Hispanics with a college degree increased to 13 percent in 2010 from 10 percent in 2000, according to Pew.
“There’s growing evidence that more young Hispanics are eligible for college because more are finishing high school,” Fry said.
Hispanics tend to be concentrated in states hit hardest by the housing meltdown, including California, Nevada and Florida.
“For some young adults, they’d rather work than go to college but they can’t find work because of the recession,” Fry said. “The dropout rates have declined because jobs are not available.”
Latino students credit teachers and advisers with steering them toward higher education by helping them find fellowships and scholarships.

Research Career

“When I went to college, I did not even know that I could have much of a research career,” said Felix Perez, 27, who is in his fifth year of doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
As an undergraduate at California State University, Fresno, a professor helped Perez get a fellowship with funding that allowed him to focus on research.
“For Hispanics, that’s where they need help the most, is to be exposed to the field,” Perez said in a telephone interview.
U.S. immigration exploded from 1880 to 1920 as the industrial revolution drew about 20 million foreigners seeking manufacturing jobs and economic advancement. After the 1960s, the bulk of immigrants shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia, with Hispanics composing the largest group. In 2010, Mexican-Americans made up 63 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to Pew.

Second Generation

Second-generation Hispanic-Americans are more likely than their immigrant parents to have college degrees, higher-paying jobs, and be homeowners, according to a 2010 report by the Center for American Progress in Washington.
While white students seeking Ph.D.s at Berkeley outnumber Hispanics almost 7 to 1, their numbers are going in opposite directions. There were 385 Latino students pursuing doctoral degrees in the fall of 2011, a 46 percent increase in 20 years, according to Berkeley data. White doctoral students fell 25 percent to 2,529 in the same period.
“You have a combination of population growth and an increase in the pool of students available to consider getting a Ph.D.,” Lisa Garcia Bedolla, chairwoman of the Center for Latino Policy Research at Berkeley, said by telephone.

PLEASANTON, CA, Jul 24, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — KlabLab, the company leading the education revolution one song at a time, today announced the upcoming release of its first album, “One Night in Cell City,” debuting on iTunes Aug. 21. The seven-song album features educational songs related to astronomy, geology, biology and physics. The first single, “Newton’s Laws,” covering Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, is available on iTunes now for 99 cents. Learning about the solar system, cellular structure or the scientific method can be fun and easy when singing along to KlabLab’s original rock, pop and hip-hop tracks.
About KlabLab KlabLab is leading an education revolution one song at a time. Through collaborative learning and a powerful mashup of educational content and contemporary music, classroom experience and online engagement, KlabLab creates a new way to inspire today’s hyper-connected, super social students. KlabLab engages students to actively learn, create new educational content, share it with their peers and get rewarded for their efforts. The angel-funded startup is located in Pleasanton, Calif. and on the Web at http://www.klablab.com

The report released in late September by the department’s Office of the Inspector General also singled out state education departments in California, Florida and Arizona for lax monitoring of what charter schools do with the funds and whether their expenditures comply with federal regulations.
The education department’s Office of Innovation and Improvement spent $940 million from 2008 to 2011 on charter schools, which are autonomously operated public schools. Most of the money is funneled through state education departments, although some is given directly to charter schools.
The funds are administered through competitive grants aimed at helping launch new charters and replicate successful charter models.
The inspector general said the innovation office has not given proper guidance to states on monitoring the use of the money and does not have policies to ensure that states corrected deficiencies when they were found.
Additionally, the audit, which was conducted by San Francisco-based education research company WestEd, found that the office did not review expenditures to ensure they met with federal disbursement requirements.
The office has agreed to beef up its procedures to track federal funds and ensure states are adequately overseeing charter schools, the report said.
WestEd also examined state charter oversight policies in California, Arizona and Florida, which collectively received $275 million in federal funds for charter schools from 2008 to 2011.
Among the findings:
— In California, which has received nearly $182 million in federal charter grants from 2008 to 2011, auditors found “significant weaknesses” in charter oversight, such as school reviewers being unqualified to conduct on-site school visits. One reviewer felt “awkward” conducting site visits because of a lack of knowledge and experience, the report said.
— In Florida, state officials had no records of which schools received federal grant money nor which schools received on-site monitoring and audits. Florida received $67.6 million.
— In Arizona, which received about $26 million, reviewers lacked a monitoring checklist and thus collected inconsistent data when they visited schools.
The office has agreed to beef up its procedures to track federal funds and ensure states are adequately monitoring charter schools.
California Department of Education spokeswoman Tina Jung said officials in Sacramento had just received the report and were reviewing it, but she acknowledged that the department had been aware of oversight deficiencies.
“Even before this review, we recognized the need to build our monitoring capacity, and that effort has already begun,” she said.