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"With a vegetated 'green' roof, a 10-lane swimming pool and a cyber cafe."

4:41 PM, May 2, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

President Obama on Friday will "speak with juniors and graduating seniors and their parents about the need to prevent interest rates on federal subsidized student loans from doubling on July 1" at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the White House announced earlier today. Juniors and seniors, of course, are the only current high school students who might be eligible to vote in November's election.

What the official announcement left out was that this isn't just any public school ... it's a luxury school.

"Arlington's new Washington-Lee High School is nearing completion," the Washington Post reported in August 2007. "In January, students at the school will begin a transition into a $95 million building with a vegetated 'green' roof, a 10-lane swimming pool and a cyber cafe. Some parts of the old school will remain in use after January while construction is completed on the new building."

According to the school's website, the building is LEED certified: "Designed by Grimm+Parker Architects and constucted [sic] by Hess Construction, Washington-Lee achieved a gold LEED certification with 69 points."

It's buildings like these--that cost an alarming $95 million--that raise questions about whether money that is supposed to go for education is being properly spent.

The building was built to fit 1,600 students.

3:52 PM, Apr 27, 2012 • By MICHAEL WARREN

The House of Representatives voted 215-195 to keep federal student loan rates at their current level of 3.4 percent, offsetting the cost by eliminating a $5.9 billion fund created by Obamacare. The Associated Press reports:

The Nation Bemoans Plight of OWS Protester $35K in Debt for Puppetry Degree

2:31 PM, Nov 3, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

I know what you're thinking. But he did everything right!:

11:45 AM, Nov 3, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

Via the Twitter feed of Fareed Zakaria, a brief snapshot into the terrifying future of higher education. Currently, more American students are majoring in visual and performing arts than engineering:

12:30 PM, Oct 28, 2011 • By JOY PULLMANN

President Obama announced Wednesday he will issue an executive order for the federal government to reduce student loan payments with measures that almost surely will have taxpayers picking up the tab.