The NCAA men’s basketball tournament carries the right nickname, but not because of the excitement it generates. The madness is the big-money pursuit of top basketball talent by colleges and universities where education takes a back seat to victory on the court. Globe columnist Derrick Jackson has made a mission of the issue – with a particular focus on black players, whose graduation rates badly lag behind their white counterparts. His Saturday column was the latest installment, and Jackson is hoping some attention to the problem at very high places might make a difference.
“With his love of basketball and education, President Obama should turn his March Madness brackets into a bully pulpit,” writes Jackson. “He may be the last person who can shame a sport corrupted on the men’s side with abysmal graduation rates.”
The scandal is that scads of top teams that vie for glory in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament seem to pay little attention to the academic qualifications of black players they admit or to the students’ success at completing a degree once they are on campus. It’s hard not to conclude that these schools are exploiting teenage basketball dreams for short-term university gain, with many players winding up in the discard pile with neither an NBA contract nor a college degree.
Of the 32 top seeded teams this year, only half of black male players will graduate (90 percent of white male players will get degrees). Of the original 68 teams, 21 have graduation rates for black players of 44 percent or less.
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said schools that don’t graduate at least half of their players should be ineligible for tournament play. As low a bar as that is, his comments have drawn sharp rebuke from some coaches. Jackson says the Syracuse coach, whose team would be disqualified under such a cut-off, told USA Today the proposal was “completely nuts.” The Tennessee coach blamed bad K-12 schools.
For more than 20 years the problem has been the focus of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Progress has been elusive. Jackson suggests that the president refuse to invite any NCAA men’s champion team with subpar grad rates to the White House for the usual winners’ visit. For a president who has said we need to be celebrating science fair winners, not just sports stars, that should be a slam-dunk.
–MICHAEL JONAS
HEALTH CARE
Blue Cross Blue Shield is walking a fine line between multimillion dollar company and “nonprofit public charity,” the Globe reported on Sunday.
UNIONS
The Nation‘s editors think the Wisconsin union battle provides an opening for a resurgent US labor movement, but concede that it won’t come easily.
NUCLEAR POWER
Attorney General Martha Coakley is renewing her warning that federal officials have under stated the dangers from spent fuel rods at the Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants, the Globe reports.
Talk about bad timing: Pilgrim Station owner Entergy is looking to cut back on its funding used to train volunteers in four cities and towns where evacuees from Plymouth would go if anything happened at the nuclear plant.
EDUCATION
Individual grade levels could be eliminated at one Salem elementary school, which is experimenting with a new school design as part of the state’s “Innovation Schools” grant.
Women faculty are making gains at MIT, according to a report being released today, though there is still a long way to go.
In US News & World Report, Harvard junior Alexander Heffner laments his choice of schools and says a Harvard education isn’t all its cracked up to be.
REDISTRICTING
Two former area congressmen will chair the Congressional Redistricting Working Group, which aims to keep the North Shore congressional district intact during the upcoming redistricting process.
MUNICIPAL
The Eagle-Tribune reports that the 85-year-old head of Lawrence’s anti-poverty agency spends as little as 15 hours in the office each week, with his afternoons generally spent at a local Elks Lodge. He is now under investigation by the agency’s board of directors.
Fitchburg mayor Lisa Wong ties her city’s turnaround to Fitchburg State University.
The chairman of Newbury‘s board of selectmen is turning to the State Ethics Commission after being hit with a critical report from Inspector General Gregory Sullivan.
A Lynn city councilman is heading up an after school program to teach local high schoolers about politics and current events.
TRANSPORTATION
The Lowell Sun reports on the possibility of commuter rail service extension to Concord, New Hampshire.
The MBTA triples the number of three-car trains it runs on the green line, NECN reports.
Forget Snowmageddon: Cheshire complains that its roads have a decade’s worth of potholes and other issues that need attention.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
WBUR reports on the second St. Patrick’s Day parade, made up of GLBT and anti-war groups who are excluded from marching in the main parade.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Patriot Ledger business editor Jon Chesto says Fidelity’s move to shift jobs out of state is going to open the door for all tax credits to get heightened scrutiny.
MEDIA
Dan Kennedy does the math and it looks like a digital subscription for access to all of the New York Times is cheaper than buying just the Sunday paper, which gives you access as well.
ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
A federally-funded project using thermal imaging to measure the energy efficiency of homes in metro Springfield raises concerns about privacy.
A Springfield Republican editorial calls a University of Massachusetts geoscientist the “Bill Buckner of climate change.”
A Hyannis ferry company that once opposed Cape Wind joins forces with the energy company to design eco-tours of the planned wind farm.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A MetroWest Daily News editorial says Gov. Deval Patrick and the Legislature need to go back to the drawing board on public defenders.
BOSTON POLITICS
On Chuck Turner‘s to-do list before checking in for a three-year prison stint: Headline a Northeastern University lecture entitled “Framing the Innocent.”
WASHINGTON
Paul Krugman examines the war on Elizabeth Warren.
The New York Times reads the tea leaves around weeks-long spending bills in Congress.
Harry Reid and Charles Schumer can’t hold a united front on Social Security.
FISHING
A Boston Herald editorial notes the political overtones in the Senate showdown between John Kerry and Gary Locke, the current Commerce secretary who is looking to take the ambassadorship to China.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Nuns pledge unquestioning obedience to God, not to the Cardinal or archdiocese bean-counters. Thus, does the Boston archdiocese find itself in court, defendant in a lawsuit over pension funding brought by the Boston order of the Daughters of St. Paul.
BEACON HILL
Joe Battenfeld wants to trade in Jeff Mullan for Peter Blute.
On Keller@Large, state Sen. Jack Hart of South Boston defends Evacuation Day as an important holiday and his annual St. Patrick’s Day breakfast as an exercise in bonding and coalition building.
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