21st Century Scholar

I can’t tell if this is the best time to bring this up, but I am going to anyway. By the time you read this blog, USC graduation will be about a week old. This means that within the next three months or so, most graduates, except those who are continuing on to new academic [...]

Mr. Mathis, has any school ever told you ‘no’? The above question was posed by a high school junior enrolled in my Collegiate Academic Scholars course in an Early College High School. In a recent conversation regarding my educational career, the student asked if I was ever denied to any of the colleges I applied [...]

“The loan you save may be your own.” –#dontdoublemyrate “If Congress doesn’t act, it’s the students who pay.” It’s almost like the April 24 skit by President Obama. Jimmy Fallon and Black Thought of the Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was made for my blog! If you haven’t had a chance to watch [...]

Did you know that April was “Financial Capability Month?” Me neither! President Obama made this declaration on April 2, but somehow I missed it among the many news outlets I visit everyday. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was mentioned as one of our main governmental sources to learn about financial literacy and capability. When you [...]

In an age of rampant capitalism we have the capacity to direct every dollar in a particular direction that the capitalist state desires. In my last blog I wrote about the ability of the state to change its financial aid system so that public universities can get more state aid while the private institutions get [...]

Let’s assume we’re friends and you’re hungry and out of money. You come to me and say, “I need some money for lunch.” I look in my wallet, pull out a 10, and say, “Keep the change.”  You come back in an hour and sheepishly say, “I need another five bucks.” I shake my head [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I received Facebook messages from a few friends about the FAFSA—one of them was really disappointed because she believed that after going to a couple of financial aid workshops and starting to work on the FAFSA, that she and her family were going to have to pay a lot of [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the FixUC plan. The February 2 article in Inside Higher Ed titled No Money Down! about the plan inspired me to look into it even more. I get the basics: You go to a UC and then graduate. You pay nothing while in school. You only have to pay 5% [...]

I do not see the current environment as a viable option. If we want to maintain the status quo two actions would need to occur. First, state governments would need to provide many more resources to higher education than they are currently doing. Second, consumers would need to be willing (and able) to pay much [...]

The Thursday Pop One of my favorite quotes from the reality prison show Lockup on MSNBC is from an inmate who said: “We control everything but the gates.” I thought that was a powerful quote because this inmate really did believe (or at least wanted the viewer to believe) that he had an immense power [...]