Good Entrepreneurs

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS, April 25—The U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship has awarded its 2002 innovative entrepreneurship course award to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The winning course, “Christian Faith and the Management Professions: An Entrepreneurial Perspective,” has been team-taught by professors in theology and entrepreneurship, for the past two fall semesters.

Same-Sex Schooling

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, May 2—Elementary and secondary students who learn in same-sex classrooms score higher on tests, stay out of trouble and are more willing to explore a broader range of subjects, said researchers at a single-sex instruction seminar hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington daily reported.

Single-sex instruction especially benefits poor students. “For at least some students, a more effective way to achieve an ideal end is to offer them an education separate from the other sex for at least a portion of their schooling,” said Rosemary Salomone, a St. John's University law professor in New York.

Unrestricted Gift

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY, May 3—Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., has received an unrestricted gift of $5 million from Robert and Miriam Smith, according to the trade publication that specializes in philanthropy. Some $2.7 million of the gift will be dedicated to the Benedictine college's $50 million capital campaign.

Rising Costs

THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 2 -The cost of public higher education for poor and middle class students is rising, according to a study outlined by the Times. The reason: a decades-long trend of steep rises in tuition as states are less inclined to subsidize public institutions.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that, on average, poor families spent 25% of their annual income for their children to attend public four-year colleges in 2000, compared with 13% in 1980.

For middle-class families, the percentage of annual income required to attend public colleges nearly doubled as well, to about 7% from 4%.

Graphic Sex Ed

THE ARIZONA REPBULIC, May 2—A sex-education bill before the Arizona State Senate was roundly defeated earlier this month after opponents quoted directly from federal sex-education materials that could be used in Arizona schools if House Bill 2249 passed. The bill would have eliminated a portion of state law that bars teachers from promoting homosexuality. The federal sex-education materials included “graphic descriptions of sex devices and sex acts,” that caused many in the Senate gallery to gasp, said the Republic.

School for China

ST. CLOUD VISITOR, April 30—Catholic and other youths in central Minnesota are working to raise $15,000 to build a school in Hai Cheng, China, for up to 35 students who otherwise would be working in one of that city's factories, reported the newspaper of the St. Cloud Diocese.

Laura Hann, project coordinator for the local chapter of Free the Children, an international organization of “children helping children,” said the school would employ a single teacher and open in 2007. A high-school student, Hahn is a Sunday-school teacher at St. Augustine Parish in St. Cloud.