Cheryl Hines spent her summer at school. Make that several schools. But the star of HBO ‘s Curb Your Enthusiasm wasn’t sitting at a desk. Instead, she was cleaning up run-down schools. The project became School Pride , a seven-episode series that premieres tonight at 8 ET/PT on NBC . Think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for schools. But don’t expect to see much of Hines, who is School Pride ‘s executive producer, in front of the camera. She will “pop up here and there to try and guide people who might be inspired by the show,” she says. The gig is different. “When I go to work as an actress, I show up in an air-conditioned, nice place and somebody gets me coffee, and they do my hair and do my makeup until somebody tells me to go to the next air-conditioned room. On this project, I might have a toilet-bowl brush in my hand. I might be painting a classroom. At the end of the day, I just feel dirty and good.” A feeling she might not have if it weren’t for daughter Catherine Rose, 6, who started first grade this year. “Before I had my daughter, I really didn’t think about schools at all,” Hines says. “When she started school, it made me think about other parents and children, and made me feel like it does take a village. The idea of a child going to a school where the lights don’t work, where the toilets don’t flush, it makes me sad. “I know that it’s not because parents don’t care. … Most of the time the resources aren’t there. What I’ve learned and what I’m still learning is how to connect all the resources to the right people.” School Pride began with a “cold call” a few years ago to the principal of a school in Compton, Calif., where she volunteered. “I said, ‘I was wondering if your school needs any help,’ ” Hines says. “I thought I could donate some soccer balls and jump ropes. So she said, ‘Why don’t you come over and I’ll show you around.’ ” What she saw was “a bigger project than jump ropes and soccer balls. The school hadn’t been painted in 28 years.” The playground couldn’t be used because the sand was infested with bugs. After renovations were completed, the series idea sprouted. “I was just in a camera truck crying,” says Hines, who is calling from the site of her last school “reveal.” “I’ve cried a lot of tears of joy in the past five months.” This summer included the end of her nearly eight-year marriage to Paul Young (father to Catherine Rose), so the project’s timing “has been helpful,” Hines says. “My ex-husband is truly a good friend of mine. I still talk to him every day. He was part of the inspiration for this show.” Despite going through an amicable divorce, “it’s hard to go from being married to not being married,” Hines says. “Paul and I have so much respect for each other that it’s been difficult, but positive. We really do care about each other, and we’re going to be great parents to her.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to make permanent a $2,500 college tuition tax credit that’s set to expire at the end of the year. The American Opportunity Tax Credit was included in the $814 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed last year. He had proposed making the tax credit permanent in his 2011 budget proposal, but Congress has not acted on his request. YOUR MONEY: Some tax benefits for college expire at end of 2010 COSTS: Student loan program changes affect rates, repayment Obama appeared in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday with three families who have taken advantage of the tax credit. Obama says the credit is worth $10,000 over four years and will help families invest in their children’s future. A Treasury Department analysis says 12.5 million people used the credit last year, for an average of about $1,700. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Graduate schools are seeing steady growth as both recent college graduates and people already in the workforce seek to boost their job prospects in a still-dragging economy. “We see an increase in graduate school applications and enrollments whenever the economy really turns south,” says Nathan Bell, director of research and policy analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools. In its report last month, it said the number of applications to U.S. graduate schools grew 8.3% from 2008 to 2009. The council has tracked grad school enrollments annually since 1986 and surveyed 699 schools in 2009. Total enrollments increased 4.7% in 2009, compared to 3% the previous year. Last year more students than ever took the GRE, the exam required for many graduate programs, and this year may set record highs again, says David Payne, vice president of Educational Testing Service , the non-profit that develops, administers, and scores the GRE. Concern about the job market — and wanting to put off paying back student loans — were major factors for University of California-Davis senior Daniel Yeshiwas, who says he changed his plans to work for a few years before attending graduate school. He plans to apply for fall 2011. “I don’t really know exactly what I want to do yet, but going to graduate school, it’s still moving me towards a career, and it’s something to further put off that question of what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life,” says Yeshiwas. Danielle McManus, a pre-professional and pre-graduate program advisor at the UC-Davis, says reasoning like Yeshiwas’ is not uncommon; she adds that many students apply to grad school as a backup plan, in case they can’t find a job. “Graduate school seems better than the specter of aimless unemployment. If these students do manage to find a job, however, they might prefer to start making money right away,” she says. In just the past two years, “students have become so hyper-focused on career opportunities that these programs can provide for them,” says Rob Franek, publisher of The Princeton Review test prep and research company. “They are thinking about the value of professional experience through a recession lens.” The Princeton Review’s new guidebooks, The Best 172 Law Schools , The Best 300 Business Schools , and The Best 168 Medical Schools , can help students evaluate whether a graduate program’s value is worth the investment, says Franek; a “career prospects” rating, is included in both the law and business school guides. That rating combines several employment statistics, such as how many students are employed upon graduation, average starting salaries, career services offered, and the number of students employed a year after graduation. Advice for those considering grad school: •Leave at least six weeks to study before any qualifying exams like the GRE or the LSAT, says The Princeton Review’s Rob Franek, and consider different schools’ admissions criteria, (includeded in the company’s guides). •Trying to decide which program to pursue? “Think about which classes you’ve done best in and what you are most interested in, particularly because graduate school is so targeted and so specific,” says UC-Davis adviser Danielle McManus. She also recommends that students ask professors for advice. •Get free practice GRE questions through the ETS website; many MBA programs now accept the GRE, not just the GMAT, says ETS’ David Payne. “With employers, the undergraduate degree is becoming pretty much a required certificate or credential for entry level positions. To advance, a masters degree is becoming more the preferred,” he adds. “Best Career Prospects” Law schools 1. University of Pennsylvania 2. Northwestern University 3. New York University 4. Vanderbilt University 5. Harvard University 6. University of Chicago 7. University of Virginia 8. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 9. Boston College 10. Boston University Business Schools 1. Harvard University 2. Stanford University 3. Northwestern University 4. Georgetown University 5. University of Pennsylvania 6. University of Virginia 7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 8. Duke University 9. University of California-Berkeley 10. Carnegie Mellon University Source: The Princeton Review’s Best 172 Law Schools and Best 300 Business Schools 2011 Editions (Based on institutional data on graduates’ employment and average starting salaries, and student survey data on how much practical experience and career services support their law and b-schools offered.) More details on the rankings at The Princeton Review .

Dropping out of college after a year can mean lost time, burdensome debt and an uncertain future for students. Now there’s an estimate of what it costs taxpayers. And it runs in the billions. States appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two, a report released Monday says. In addition, the federal government spent $1.5 billion and states spent $1.4 billion on grants for students who didn’t start their sophomore years, according to “Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First-Year Student Attrition in America’s Four-Year Colleges and Universities.” The report takes into account spending on average per-student state appropriations, state grants and federal grants, such as Pell grants for low-income students, then reaches its cost conclusions based on student retention rates. The dollar figures, based on government data and gathered by the non-profit American Institutes for Research, are meant to put an economic exclamation point on the argument that college completion rates need improvement. But the findings also could give ammunition to critics who say too many students are attending four-year schools — and that pushing them to finish wastes even more taxpayer money. The Obama administration, private foundations and others are driving a shift from focusing mostly on making college more accessible to getting more students through with a diploma or certificate. Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research and former commissioner of the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, said the report’s goal is to spotlight the costs of losing students after year one, the most common exit door in college. “We’re all about college completion right now, and I agree 100% with the college completion agenda and we need a better-educated adult population and workforce,” Schneider said. The cost of educating students who drop out after one year account for between 2% to 8% of states’ total higher education appropriations, Schneider said. He said the report emphasizes state spending because states provide most higher education money and hold the most regulatory sway over institutions and can drive change. Ohio, for example, has moved toward using course and degree completion rates in determining how much money goes to its public colleges and universities instead of solely using enrollment figures. “We recognize an institution is not going to be perfect on graduation and completion rates,” said Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. “But at the same time, we know they can do better than they’re doing. And if you place the financial rewards around completion, then you will motivate that.” The AIR report draws from Department of Education data, which Schneider concedes does not provide a full picture. The figures track whether new full-time students at 1,521 public and private colleges and universities return for year two at the same institution. It doesn’t include part-timers, transfers or students who come back later and graduate. The actual cost to taxpayers may run two to three times higher given those factors and others, including the societal cost of income lost during dropouts’ year in college, said Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor. And tying state appropriations to student performance could just cause colleges to lower their standards, he said. Robert Lerman, an American University economics professor who, like Vedder, questions promoting college for all, said the report fleshes out the reality of high dropout rates. But he said it could just as easily be used to argue that less-prepared, less-motivated students are better off not going to college. “Getting them to go a second year might waste even more money,” Lerman said. “Who knows?” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

When Ada Brown went to her first Dallas Mensa meeting, she half expected it to be full of slightly awkward geniuses with pocket protectors. Instead, the former judge found a “lively, articulate cross section of people” she meets for dinner, aspiring author workshops, parties and game nights, says Brown, now an attorney who joined Mensa as an undergrad at Spelman College . “Honestly, it doesn’t look like a convention out of Revenge of the Nerds ,” she says with a laugh. “We do have that, but that’s not all. There’s a little of everything.” DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? Take the Mensa quiz Brown, 34, is part of a growing and increasingly visible younger contingent of Mensa, the 58,000- member “High-IQ Society.” American Mensa says 42% of new members in 2009-2010 were ages 29-49; in the past decade, membership of people under 30 has grown 63%. American Mensa, now 50 years old, “is getting up there in age,” says national chair Elissa Rudolph, a Mensan for 35 years. But it aims to get “more people involved and younger people more involved,” she says. It hopes to attract some with National Mensa Testing Day this Saturday; an estimated 6 million people in the USA (about 1 in 50) could qualify, Mensa says. To qualify, a person must score in the top 2% of the population on an accepted, standardized test. That score can come from Mensa’s own admission test or one of 200 others, such as the Stanford-Binet, the Miller Analogies Test, the GMAT or the GRE. What’s in it for members, besides bragging rights? A network of people with whom to share a wide range of social and intellectual activities, says Rudolph, who joined in 1975 when she was a single mother in Pittsburgh. Andrew Heffernan, 33, a reliability engineer in Albany, N.Y., appreciates the variety of people. “It’s not a professional organization, so we’re not all interested in the same thing,” he says. “Everybody has something new to add.” He was also familiar with Mensa’s “nerd” reputation but put it aside after checking out his local chapter, one of 135 across the country, three years ago. “It’s not about segregating myself into a highly intelligent group, but learning and trying new things,” he says. Adds Brown: “You know that the person standing beside you is going to be bright and interesting, even if you don’t share their politics or beliefs. I know I can count on having a lively discussion about something.” Educating gifted children is of special interest to Mensa, Rudolph says; more than 1,300 members are under 18. In addition to local activities and excursions, there is a national college scholarship program (for members and non-members alike), resources for gifted children, a quarterly online magazine, Fred , and a group for teens. Alexis Wise, 19, a member since age 14, coordinates that group via text messages, Facebook and other forms of communications, and she helps plan activities for teens at Mensa’s annual national gathering. Now a sophomore at Yale, she says: “I have the coolest group of friends, and that’s only grown over the years. I’ve learned so much. Not the type of academic learning we’re used to in school, but learning though conversation, interacting.”

NEW YORK — Do public school teachers get tenure just by breathing? It’s a claim made by a charter school leader in the education documentary Waiting for Superman , which places much of the blame for bad schools nationwide on union rules that protect incompetent teachers. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on national television last week that he would overhaul the way city teachers are granted tenure, linking their advancement to improving student test scores. “Just as we are raising the bar for our students through higher standards, we must also raise the bar for our teachers and principals — and we are,” Bloomberg said. But city teachers say that if bad teachers have won tenure protection it’s the fault of the administrators who gave it to them. “We don’t make that decision. Whoever the principal is makes that decision,” said LezAnne Edmond, a Manhattan high school teacher with 15 years of experience. Teacher tenure has its roots in academic tenure, which was intended to protect academic freedom; once granted, professors are rarely fired. Tenure rules for K-12 teachers vary from state to state, with some operating more like universities and others that offer no stronger protection than job security laws that prevent people from being fired without cause. States including California, Florida and Colorado have passed or proposed legislation to change tenure laws in hopes of securing education funding under President Barack Obama ‘s ” Race to the Top ” program. New York City teachers can win tenure after three years. Once they are granted tenure they cannot be fired without an administrative hearing. What the teachers union calls due process, Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein call a system that has protected incompetence. The issue gained prominence with the Sept. 24 release of “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” opening to wider release on Friday. The documentary from ” An Inconvenient Truth ” director Davis Guggenheim suggests that kids receive a superior education in charter schools without unions. NBC ‘s Sept. 27-28 education summit covered much of the same ground. Bloomberg used a 15-minute MSNBC segment to announce a tenure crackdown. “We’ll do more to support teachers and reward great teaching, and that includes ending tenure as we know it,” he said. Bloomberg said principals must start denying tenure unless their students have made two years of progress on state tests. Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers , responded that principals can already deny tenure “for any reason” and that teachers “would welcome an objective tenure-granting process based on agreed-upon standards.” But the union has opposed using state test scores — the city’s preferred benchmark — to measure teacher performance. City Department of Education spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said the union is being disingenuous. “On one hand, they seem to be blaming principals for too many teachers getting tenure,” she said in an e-mail. “On the other hand, they don’t want principals to take into account student performance when making tenure decisions.” This year, 3.7% of teachers who reached the end of their three-year probationary period were denied tenure, up from 2.3% the year before. Another 7.2% saw their probation extended by a year. Ernest Logan, president of the union representing New York City principals, said his members take student achievement into account. “I don’t think people are just granting people tenure because they’ve been there three years,” Logan said. Veteran city teachers say they need tenure for job security and to protect the First Amendment rights it was designed to safeguard. “I need tenure to speak out,” said Arthur Goldstein, a union chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. Goldstein said he has complained publicly about overcrowding and other issues. “I’m standing up for the kids of Francis Lewis High School and I absolutely need tenure,” he said. Katharine Dawson, who retired last summer after 12 years as a city schoolteacher, said tenure “protects you from favoritism, it protects you from all kinds of things.” Asked about tenure protecting bad teachers, she said, “Maybe there’s two bad teachers per school. Is it worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater?” One teacher whom Bloomberg would like to throw out is Melissa Petro, whose essay about using Craigslist to sell herself as a prostitute was published in the Huffington Post on Sept. 7, the same day she was awarded tenure by the principal of her Bronx elementary school. Bloomberg demanded that Petro be pulled from the classroom, but she has tenure and cannot be fired without due process. She has been assigned to an office job pending an investigation. A phone number for Petro could not be found. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — In her senior year, when Joanne Johnson-Shaw was named Miss Football at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, she envisioned wearing a ball gown fit for a princess. Her hopes were dashed, though, when her classmates voted for a ceremony featuring traditional African dress. Johnson-Shaw ended up wearing a long, patterned skirt and matching head wrap, and her football-player escort, instead of a suit and tie, wore a loin cloth. “I look back at the queens in ball gowns, and I’m still envious,” Johnson-Shaw says now. She graduated from college in 1972 and lives in Ahoskie , N.C., where she retired following a career with the Internal Revenue Service . In the past week, Johnson-Shaw has been reliving her collegiate memories because she can now access a digital archive of the Hawk yearbook back to 1959, the inaugural edition. THE HAWK: Browse issues online Scanned images are available for free online and let readers browse through a yearbook cover to cover or search by name. The grainy images from the yearbooks are full of period hairdos and clothes. They also show the school’s evolution from a tiny, historically black college into an institution that now offers doctoral programs and enrolls 4,500 students. “It’s fascinating when you look back, not just at the changing hairstyles but also at who was in the classrooms, the activities people were involved in and the new buildings,” said Jennifer Neumyer, the college’s special collections and outreach librarian. The 1960 yearbook includes a picture of Martin Luther King Jr . He spoke at commencement and is pictured in a cap and gown with a procession of soon-to-be graduates strolling behind him. Nationwide movement Colleges across the United States have been making digital copies of old yearbooks, student newspapers and course catalogues, said Laurie Gemmill, program manager of the Mass Digitization Collaborative at LYRASIS. The Atlanta-based group for libraries and information professionals has helped 100 colleges and universities create digital archives of materials that include yearbooks. Preserving the documents is only part of the benefit, she said. “Institutions are more interested in sharing their materials. So many materials are hidden from people. You have to go in and request it. The special collections are there for people to use, but it can be intimidating to some,” Gemmill said. Among the colleges that have created digital archives of yearbooks: Penn State University in State College, Pa.; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte; St. Mary’s College of Maryland in St. Mary’s City, Md.; and the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. Penn State’s yearbook, La Vie , goes back to 1890. Kimberly Conway Dumpson, director of alumni affairs and planned giving at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, said digital yearbooks are another way for her to connect with alumni and raise money for the school. This week while meeting with alumni in Florida, she pulled out her laptop and showed one man his yearbook photo from 45 years ago. “He was just blown away, so excited. He couldn’t stop reminiscing about friends and alumni,” Dumpson said. Sandra Odoms Hawkins, a 1976 graduate, said she checked out her old yearbook online and isn’t the least bit embarrassed by her clothing choices. The 56-year-old lives in Edgewater, Md., and works in the information technology department for the U.S. Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper. “Some of the styles have started coming back around. You should have kept those platform shoes,” Hawkins said. Horatio William “Bill” Jones III graduated in 1978 and is now an employee of CBS News in Charlotte He finds it neat that one photographer, Thomas Wiles, took almost all of the yearbook pictures from 1959 to 1989. The 60-year-old Jones said he grew up in Princess Anne and remembers when jazz greats Lionel Hampton , Count Basie and Duke Ellington played at the college. He said he’s been so busy clicking through the yearbook online to see how the college has changed and to see old friends and faculty members, that he hasn’t looked at his own picture. “I don’t need to. I know what I look like,” he said.

NEW YORK — Earning a degree online seems like a cheap, convenient way to expand professional skill sets. But do hiring managers take virtual educations seriously? The stigma associated with taking classes over the Internet can be a nagging concern for those about to invest serious time and money to advance their careers. Such fears may be fueled by recently released federal data that suggests graduates of for-profit schools aren’t finding as much success in the job market. These schools, which are known for their online career education programs, had lower repayment rates for student loans, according to data released last month. CONTROVERSY: For-profit colleges under fire over value, accreditation DISGRUNTLED: More lawsuits target for-profit colleges The Department of Education plans to enforce new regulations starting in July 2012 that will restrict federal aid for career education programs, of less than two years, with too many graduates who can’t repay student loans or carry unmanageable debt loads. In the meantime, here are some points to remember about online degrees. • The Virtual Elephant in the Room Before you even start looking into online programs, there’s the matter of the stigma associated with them. As unfair as it may seem, those fears aren’t entirely without base. Only about half of respondents to a Society for Human Resource Management survey this summer said online degrees are just as credible as traditional degrees. The human resource professionals also said online credentials were less acceptable for higher-level positions; just 15% said online degrees were acceptable for an executive position. That said, keep in mind that this is a highly subjective area and that your schooling is just one factor that employers look at. The field of work you’re entering and a company’s culture will also influence how online degrees are regarded, notes Lynn Berger, a career counselor in New York City. “It may be that the person interviewing you got their degree online too,” Berger said. The matter may not be as big a concern if your online degree is from a traditional college. The same is true if you earned your degree from a school that isn’t widely known as a provider of online education. That’s not to say you should hide that you earned your degree online, but you don’t have to make it the dominant description of your education. • The Cost is Anything But Virtual A common assumption is that online schooling will be cheap. That assumption is wrong. At the University of Phoenix, one of the most well-known for-profit schools, each credit for a master’s in business administration costs $685. So earning the 36 credits required for the degree would cost a total of $24,660, not including application and other fees. But keep in mind that for-profit schools don’t have a monopoly on Internet courses. The majority of community colleges and four-year public schools now offer at least some online courses as well, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. “Many for-profit schools try to create the impression that they’re the only schools offering courses online or at convenient times,” said Pauline Abernathy of The Project on Student Debt. And the average tuition and fees at community colleges last year was $2,500. Traditional colleges typically charge the same amount whether students attend classes online or in person. With loan repayment rates at for-profit schools a hot topic right now, it should be noted that the majority of students at community colleges do not have student loans upon graduation. Of those that do, the average debt is $10,000. By comparison, nearly all graduates of for-profit schools have student loans and the average debt is $17,000, according to The Project on Student Debt. • Picking a For-Profit Program A few points to keep in mind if you’re considering a for-profit school. To start, check that the school is accredited at www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation . You can also check the site of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation at www.chea.org . Even if a school is accredited, be wary of aggressive sales tactics or reluctance to disclose information about pricing. Recent undercover tests by the Government Accountability Office found some for-profit schools used deceptive recruiting tactics and encouraged applicants to falsify financial aid forms. For-profit schools also tend to do a lot of handholding through the application process to make it easy for students to enroll. Don’t let this prevent you from shopping around for other options, rather than signing up for the first school you see advertised on TV. To gauge how well graduates of a particular for-profit school are doing, check the Education Department’s list of student repayment rates . Click on the link for “Cumulative Four-Year Repayment Rate by Institution.” Keep in mind that rates may differ for particular programs within the school. Finally, talk to mentors or professionals you know in the field to get their thoughts on your plans to pursue an online degree. They may have some recommendations on a well-respected program or one that others have had a good experience with.

BOSTON (AP) — Federal officials and the Boston Public Schools have reached an agreement over allegations that the school district violated federal law by not providing English instruction to students with a limited grasp of the language, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday. Under the agreement, Boston Public Schools agreed to assess the English proficiency of an estimated 7,000 students who were not previously tested in how well they understand, speak, read and write English. The district also agreed to provide the students with extra English language help during other classes including math, social studies and science. In addition, the Boston Public Schools must monitor the academic performance of current and former English language learners and provide English language learner services at all schools. The Boston Globe , citing documents obtained under a public records request, reported in July that the federal scrutiny began after Boston schools revealed during a routine state review that 42% of the district’s nearly 11,000 English language learners were not receiving the legally required help. In a statement Friday, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the federal Department of Education ‘s Office for Civil Rights said that since 2003, Boston Public Schools had failed to properly identify and adequately serve thousands of English language learners under federal law. Officials said the settlement came after federal authorities examined the district’s policies and visited schools. “All students who are not proficient in English are entitled to language acquisition services to overcome language barriers that impede their equal and meaningful participation in educational programs,” said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. For months now, Boston schools have made changes in anticipation of settlement agreement. “This agreement outlines the work that is already underway in Boston for students learning English,” Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson said in a statement Friday. “Within the last two years we have made significant investments for ELL students and their families that will ensure they are receiving a quality education in any school they choose in Boston.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Determined to energize dispirited Democrats, President Barack Obama told New Mexico voters on Tuesday that Republicans would reverse the progress he’s made on education reform and student aid. Addressing a small group in an Albuquerque family’s front yard, Obama shifted from his recent focus on the economy, which has run headlong into the grim reality of continued high unemployment. Instead, five weeks ahead of midterm elections that could turn into a Democratic bloodletting, the president told voters to think about education when they head to the polls. “Who’s going to prioritize our young people to make sure they’ve got the skills they need to succeed?” the president said. “Nothing’s going to be more important in terms of our long-term success.” Obama argued that Republicans would cut education spending to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Later in the day, Obama was heading to a big rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he hopes to replicate the raucous, youthful, big-stage events for which he became famous in the 2008 presidential campaign. Democrats will host hundreds of watch parties nationwide, and Obama will hold other campus rallies before Nov. 2 to warn young voters that the “hope and change” they embraced two years ago is at risk if Republicans sweep the midterm elections. The president is aiming to close the enthusiasm gap that pollsters say separates discouraged liberal voters from energized conservatives who might lift Republicans to huge gains in congressional and gubernatorial races. But Obama got a quick reminder from his audience of about 40 in Albuquerque that education might not be at the top of the agenda for recession-weary voters. “If we don’t have homes to go to, what good is education?” one man asked. A high school principal read a letter that he said was from a class in his school. “What assurance will we have that we will be rewarded for good work?” the students asked. “There seems to be less money that banks lend our families, and most of all no jobs.” The president acknowledged the anxiety of the younger generation. “They’re growing up in the shadow of a financial crisis that we hadn’t seen in our lifetime,” he said, arguing his administration has sought to save jobs for teachers and others by closing tax loopholes, and is working to making it easier for kids to attend college. Republican leaders, Obama said, “fought us tooth and nail … That’s the choice that we’ve got in this election.” The event at the stucco home of Andy and Etta Cavalier in a small farming community south of Albuquerque comes as Obama tests out a relatively new format of backyard visits that give him time to explain his policies in cozy, unhurried settings. He’s coupling those with college campus rallies in four states Tuesday and Wednesday, trying to tackle Democrats’ two biggest needs: to pump enthusiasm into young supporters who may stay at home this fall, and to persuade undecided voters that Republican alternatives are unacceptable. In a magazine interview, Obama admonished Democratic voters, saying it would be “inexcusable” and “irresponsible” for unenthusiastic Democrats to sit out the elections because the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years. “People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up,” Obama told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview being published Friday. Making change happen is hard, he said, and “if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.” Obama wants Democratic loyalists to be less apologetic and more forceful in asserting that he and the Democratic-controlled Congress are trying to move the country forward and Republicans would return to the policies of former President George W. Bush . Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.