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President Barack Obama’s recent proposal to “train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job” barely scratches the surface of one of the nation’s most vexing labor problems.

The “skills gap” between what employers need and job applicants offer already has become a drag on the economy, with nearly 3 million jobs unfilled even at a time of high unemployment.

More hard times ahead at the Washington Post, which you may recall is the money-losing newspaper division of the Kaplan test prep and for-profit education empire. This morning, editors sent staff a memo offering a voluntary buyout, at least the fifth since 2004. All the staff reductions have apparently taught the Posties a lesson in efficiency; editor Marcus Brauchli reports that the latest cuts "won’t affect the quality, ambition or authority of our journalism.

Thanks to evolving technology, online degree programs are taking off. Today, parents as well as those who are already working, are able to complete the work required for the degree at times convenient to them, but does this convenience come with a cost? Are online degrees as respected as traditional college degrees?

Although some hiring managers still prefer a traditional degree over an online degree, those rules are rapidly changing. If you attend a college or university that has a large traditional student body, it's impossible for hiring managers to know if you have satisfied the requirements for the degree by completing online or traditional work.

Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (NASDAQ: COCO), one of the largest post-secondary education companies in North America, is transitioning its procurement operations to cloud computing, using technology from Ariba, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA), the world’s business commerce network. Once implemented, the new system will allow Corinthian to more efficiently manage the entire spectrum of procurement activities, from sourcing and orders to invoice and payment.

“Corinthian has consistently invested in technology to enrich and expand its course offerings,” said David Beaver, Vice President of Procurement and Supply Chain, Corinthian. “By applying the same principles to our procurement operations, we can improve our overall operational performance.”

For-profit-college advocates and state regulators in Texas are taking on the U.S. Department of Education over its interpretation of federal rules for determining what classifies as a “clock hour” academic program.

Students typically qualify for fewer federal financial aid dollars when a college measures their academic progress on an actual clock rather than in credit hours. So the arcane legal definition of clock hour status can have big bottom-line repercussions for both students and colleges.

President Obama’s account of what has happened, is happening, and will happen in higher education; his various policy statements; and his administration’s agency initiatives deserve to be considered as a whole. They add up to a large and energetic attempt to recast the role of American colleges and universities. But while each of his major statements and every one of his administration’s actions has been well publicized, somehow the larger picture gets relatively little attention. I’d like to attempt a synthesis in the next several posts, first going through what I take to be the eight major points, one by one, and then reassembling them as a whole. His eight major points seem to be:

President Barack Obama’s plan to make college more affordable is noble in intent but misses the mark in design. If the president and Congress were to focus on the real culprit of high college costs — poor college completion numbers — they could find rare common ground and make substantial headway on a problem that threatens to sink U.S. economic competitiveness.

The president was right when he noted college is rapidly becoming unaffordable for many. Yet his threats to reduce federal funding to schools that don’t cut tuition could open the door for opponents to push back against reforms by invoking accusations of “price controls” and another “big-government takeover.”

Downtown-based Education Management Corp. has argued in court filings that a 2011 policy change by the Department of Education proves that EDMC didn't previously break rules for compensating college recruiters.

EDMC filed a brief filed late Friday, supporting its effort to have dismissed a federal lawsuit accusing it of improperly paying recruiters based on the number of students they enrolled. Two whistleblowers, the Department of Justice, five states and the District of Columbia have accused for-profit educator EDMC of compensating recruiters to its 106 facilities in ways that could have encouraged the misuse of federal student aid.

Mitt Romney's otherwise extensive web site has no obvious link to his positions on education. That makes it all the more curious why he has been plugging for-profit colleges such as Full Sail University near Orlando, Florida, which trains students in film and entertainment, and the ubiquitous University of Phoenix, which claims to have a campus “within 10 miles of 87 million Americans.’’

Romney claims that Full Sail officials “hold down the cost’’ of education “by recognizing they’re competing.’’ He said, “I look at places like University of Phoenix and others, I think you’re going to find students saying you know what? That’s not a bad deal.’’

A little-known California law has dealt a blow to nearly half of the for-profit college campuses in the state, barring them from offering students a coveted Cal Grant this year.

The law cracks down for the first time on schools with high student loan default rates, meaning graduates aren't paying back the money they owe even three years after leaving school.

"It's a sign that the institution did not prepare them for a job so they could repay their loan," said Robert Shireman, who, as deputy undersecretary of education in the Obama administration, oversaw reforms in student lending.

Now, California is tying participation in the Cal Grant program to colleges' three-year student loan default rates.