When databases and disenchantment collide, the results can be explosive – as the debate over "value-added" grading of teachers showed this week.

Even before the economy hit the wall, community colleges were already a vital part of the American dream, enrolling about half of all college students in this country.

There are people who wait until the last minute, and then there are people like high school student Cree Bautista, who holds the honor of being the being the first student in the United States to apply to college this year, a mere three hours and thirty minutes after the "common application" form went online.

President Obama heads to Austin, Texas, today for a speech in which he is expected to talk about the goal of the U.S. regaining its position as the nation with the highest percentage of college graduates (we're now #12 for citizens aged 25 to 34). For a preview of the speech, see http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/09/obama.education/; you can also watch it live at 3 p.m.

Keeping score on the federal budget is more complicated than it needs to be. Take today's official report on the status of the Medicare and Social Security programs. There's positive news, in that Medicare's financial situation is projected to improve as a result of the new health care plan.

As a kid, I was always in awe of Marie Curie: just imagine, a woman and a world-renowned scientist, wife and mother. Despite that early imprint, I found glasses and microscopes awfully hard to use at the same time, and accordingly focused my talents in the world of words, which brings me here to you today.

"If we don't think we're going to have to reinvent ourselves, we are delusional." That's Liz Grobsmith, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Northern Arizona University, in an Inside Higher Ed interview at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities "Re-Imagining Undergraduate Education" conference last week in Chicago.

The teeth of Arizona's new immigration law were blocked in court this week, but the debate is undoubtedly going to continue. Arizona is already appealing the decision, as other states considering similar laws watch how the case progresses.

The drive for common core education standards is gaining steam, with 26 states and the District of Columbia already signed up. Public Agenda's research has found Americans like the idea of standards – but low standards are not their most pressing concern about schools.

For the first time, the Pew Research Center survey reports reducing the deficit is a higher priority than spending to stimulate the economy – but that may say more about public attitudes toward the stimulus than it does about the deficit.

As recently as February, the Pew survey found the public evenly split on reducing the deficit versus spending more to help the economy (47 percent each). Now the deficit comes out ahead, 51 percent to 40 percent.