Angry Russians stand up to Putin
MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of protesters thronged central Moscow in a drenching rain Tuesday, voicing renewed fury at President Vladimir Putin and defying recent efforts by his government to clamp down on the political opposition movement.
The large turnout, rivaling the big crowds that gathered at the initial antigovernment rallies in December, suggested that the tough new posture adopted by the Kremlin against the protests was emboldening rather than deterring Putin’s critics.
On Friday, Putin signed a new law that imposes steep financial penalties on participants in rallies that cause harm to people or property.
On Sunday, officials arrested five more people on charges related to the last protest, which ended in a melee between demonstrators and riot police officers.
And Monday, the authorities searched the homes of several opposition leaders and issued summonses ordering seven of them to appear for questioning Tuesday so they could not attend the rally.
Despite these measures, organizers said more than 50,000 people joined in Tuesday’s protest, braving the rains that soaked many participants beforehand and the claps of thunder and lightning that dispersed the crowd about four hours later.
The police, who typically offer a muted estimate of crowd size, put the official tally at 15,000.
Even the physical absence of some of the opposition’s most prominent leaders seemed to strengthen rather than weaken the protesters’ resolve, and organizers said the attendance showed that people would not be intimidated.
“It means that we were not afraid of the tough actions of the powers and the police,” said Dmitry Gudkov, a member of Parliament and a leader of the opposition, adding that the government could achieve more through negotiation.
When those college tuition bills come in, be prepared for sticker shock.
The average tuition at a four-year public university climbed 15 percent between 2008 and 2010, fueled by state budget cuts for higher education and increases of 40 percent and more at universities in states like Georgia, Arizona and California.
The U.S. Department of Education’s annual look at college affordability also found significant price increases at the nation’s private universities, including at forprofit institutions, where the net price for some schools is now twice as high as Harvard.
At Full Sail University, a film and art school in central Florida, the average price of tuition, fees, books, and other expenses totals $43,990, even when grants and scholarships are factored in. The average net price for an incoming Harvard student: $18,277, according to the department. Net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said students need to be smart consumers and states needs to do their part by making higher education a priority in their budgets. Forty percent of states cut higher education spending last year, the most important factor in tuition increases.
Pennsylvania State University had the highest instate tuition for a four-year public university at $15,250 during the 2010-11 school year. When the costs of room, board and other expenses are factored in, the total rises to $19,816, the fourth-highest net price nationwide.
The College Affordability and Transparency lists were first published last year to ful- fill a reporting requirement passed into law in 2008. The lists track tuition and fees as well as the average net price at public, private and for-profit colleges and universities.
It’s one of several recent initiatives by the Department of Education to increase student and parent awareness on the costs of higher education. President Barack Obama also issued a mandate to streamline the application process for those who want to enroll in income - based repayment plans, which set a cap on loan payments based on discretionary income.
The data released Tuesday show increases for four-year, public institutions that are similar to what has been observed over the last decade, though Duncan said costs have increased faster in recent years. Between 2001-02 and 2011-12, in-state tuition and fees at public, four-year colleges increased at an average rate of 5.6 percent each year, according to the College Board’s 2011 report on trends in higher education pricing.