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Dollars-and-cents tabulations like one which was compiled by Washington Monthly, are the fastest-growing sector of the college rankings industry. The reason…to zero in on high school students and their parents who are anxious about finances. In other words, this is a list of colleges that offer the “best bang for the buck.” President Obama emphasized this in August with a plan to rate colleges on their value and affordability and to tie those ratings to the $150 billion in financial aid that the federal government supplies each year. U.S. News and World Report as well as Princeton Review now publish “best value” lists as well. Some of these analyses approach value as largely a function of cost: How much is tuition? What subsidies are available? Others define it as return on investment: How much do graduates earn? Some factor in student satisfaction or academic ranking, all in varying quantities. As for the federal government, no one yet knows how it will perform its evaluation. The plan though is to compile the ratings by the start of the 2015-16 school year and to link those ratings to federal aid by 2018.
In Other News • According to recent reports, the White House learned this summer that the National Security Agency had tapped the phones of world leaders and ordered a halt to some of the eavesdropping. Quoting unidentified U.S. officials, the newspaper's website said the wiretapping of about 35 foreign leaders was disclosed to the White House as part of a review of surveillance programs ordered by President Barack Obama after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified details of the NSA's phone monitoring systems. The White House ordered a halt to the monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and unspecified other leaders, Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal report did not specify who gave the shutdown order or the date it was issued. • Lou Reed, who was a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist for the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, died Sunday, his publicist said. He was 71. No details were released but Reed had undergone a liver transplant in May. Rolling Stone ranks the group's debut album, "The Velvet Underground and Nico," as the 13th greatest of all time. Tunes like "Sweet Jane," from the group's 1970 album "Loaded," have become rock standards. Performers from David Bowie to R.E.M. and U2 have cited them as inspiration, and the Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. He had his only Top 40 hit with "Walk on the Wild Side." In 1982, Reed told The New York Times that his goal wasn't just to make music, but create literature. • Dr. Conrad Murray, who served two years of a four-year sentence for causing Michael Jackson's death, was released from the Los Angeles County jail under sheriff's escort. • Four inmates made a clean getaway from an Oklahoma jail Sunday after prying open a maintenance hatch in their shower.
