In the third and final presidential debate, the topic of education got a fair amount of discussion. Barack Obama and John McCain had substantially different ideas about how to improve American education. Hopefully President-elect Obama will draw lessons from the 50 states currently serving as laboratories of education reform.

Florida, in particular, has enjoyed enormous success in boosting both early childhood literacy and the percentage of minority students prepared for college. Florida’s education reforms have slashed fourth grade illiteracy by 32 percent in 10 years. During the same period, the percentage of Florida students scoring “Proficient” on the Nation’s Report Card’s fourth grade reading test increased by 54 percent and the percentage scoring “Advanced” doubled.

Minority students have been a large contributing factor to that success. Florida’s Hispanic students now outscore the statewide averages for all students in 15 states on national fourth grade reading tests, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Florida’s African-American students outscore two statewide averages — Louisiana and Mississippi — and are within striking distance of several others.
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HOMES: Jumbo mortgages will be defined as $625,500.

People looking to buy more expensive homes next year will have fewer options to find financing because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have lower limits on the size of loans they can buy.

The changes, effective Jan. 1, will lower the limit in Los Angeles and other high-priced real estate markets to $625,500, down from $729,950. Consumers who need to take out mortgages above that amount typically pay higher interest rates for a so-called jumbo loan, which can price some would-be buyers out of the market.

For example, jumbo loans typically used to finance more expensive homes remain hard to obtain.

Before credit standards were tightened in August 2007, some 40 percent of Southern California home sales were financed with jumbo loans. In September, they accounted for just 13 percent of loans used to finance homes costing more than $417,000, said San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

Loan limits vary by metro area and are based on the local median house price. So falling home values in some markets have pulled the loan limits down with them.

In the Boston area, for example, the limit will fall to $465,750 from $523,750. In the Baltimore area, it is scheduled to drop to $494,500 from $560,000.

And while the limit in the Los Angeles metro area will drop to $625,500 it will fall to $598,000 in neighboring Ventura County.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which egulates Fannie and Freddie, kept the limit for lower-cost metro areas at $417,000.

Lawmakers temporarily raised the loan limits for Fannie and Freddie in an economic stimulus bill passed in February and revised them in a housing bill passed over the summer.

There are fears that the reduced limits will hurt the housing market next year. Fannie and Freddie have become the dominant source of mortgage funding since last year’s collapse of the subprime lending market.

The National Association of Realtors is pressing lawmakers to keep the limit at $729,950.