The World in Brief

Teen marriage law to be enforced in Kansas

Adam Hanks, Kansas State Collegian (Kansas… Teen marriage law to be enforced in Kansas

Adam Hanks, Kansas State Collegian (Kansas State U.)

(U-WIRE) MANHATTAN, Kan. – In an announcement made last week, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said that she would attempt to enforce a strict ban on marriages involving anyone under the age of 16.

Kansas currently allows anyone under the age of 18 to marry with the consent of a parent or judge. The law has been the subject of national attention since a 13-year-old Nebraska girl and her 22-year-old boyfriend went to Hiawatha, Kan., to be wed with the girl’s mother’s consent earlier this year.

“As governor, I have the responsibility to protect the rights of young Kansans and ensure their safety,” Sebelius said in a press release. “The fact that criminals have used marriage to conceal their abuse is appalling. We must take action to stop this abuse.”

Kansas is one of 13 states that does not currently have a minimum marriage age of 16.

Sebelius sent a letter to Stephen Morris, chair of the Legislative Coordinating Council, to request the topic be added to the legislature’s agenda.

“It should be against the law for any Kansan younger than 16 to marry,” Sebelius said. “And we must continue to require parental or judicial consent for anyone 16 or 17 years old to marry. Kansas must change our law, and we must do so as soon as possible.”

Mexico City university is free with right number

Laurence Iliff, The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – There are no entrance exams at the Autonomous University of Mexico City. No checking of school records. No interviews. No financial aid forms, since attendance is free.

Prospective students need only a high school diploma, proof of residency and a little luck. Applicants are assigned a number that is fed into a computer which randomly selects the new freshman class. The fall term began in mid-October.

The university and its system of 16 feeder high schools were launched in 2001 by then-Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who resigned in July to run for president. Supporters say it is an example of his vision for Mexico, in which bad neighborhoods have good schools and poor young adults go to university. Critics see the university as a diploma mill and a return to the failed big-government policies of the past.

The city university “is a factory producing the future unemployed,” said Salvador Abascal, a former City Council member from the conservative National Action Party, who opposed the debt-financed project.

The slogan for Lopez Obrador’s 2000 mayoral campaign was, “The poor come first.” He established city pensions for the elderly and disabled and has promised 200 new high schools and 30 new universities should he become president in 2006. He is the leading candidate in early polling.

Bill would audit colleges for tuition increases

Doug Carlucci ‘ James Riley Thompson, The Maneater (U. Missouri)

(U-WIRE) – An amendment to the Higher Education Act being considered this session would penalize colleges for consistent, large tuition increases.

U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon of California proposed the amendment, which would set penalties for universities that consistently raise tuition at a rate higher than the “College Affordability Index” established by the law.

The amendment defines the index at twice the rate of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index, which measures the cost of consumer goods in major urban areas.

Under the bill, “an institution that increases its tuition and fees more than two times the CPI for an interval of three years would have to provide an explanation of the factors contributing to the increase and a management and action plan on how to reduce increases in its costs and tuition fees,” according to a news release by McKeon’s office.

According to the U.S. House of Representative’s bill status and summary Web site, two House committees are still considering McKeon’s bill.

If the university failed to comply with its plan to lower costs, it could be audited by the U.S. Department of Education, according to a summary of the bill by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.