Got kids in college?.....financial aid

Member

http://villagevoice.com/issues/0447/kamenetz.php

few weeks after young people stormed to the polls in record numbers and
voted 54 percent to 45 percent against George Bush, the
Republican-controlled Congress is fulfilling their fears. In voting
Saturday, November 20, for a giant spending bill, lawmakers passed a
little-noticed but sweeping reduction in federal student aid, one that
will lay even more of the responsibility for paying for college on
overworked parents and overwhelmed students.

On the chopping block is the Pell Grant, the nation’s largest federal
student-aid program, which currently offers needy college students
grants of between $400 and $4,050 a year. The grant’s purchasing power
has declined steeply in the past 30 years, and it now pays for only a
third of tuition at the average public university. Grants, however
inadequate, are still the most crucial form of aid, because they don’t
need to be paid back.

Studies show that young people from poor and disadvantaged families are
reluctant to take on student loans, rightly fearing that they may not
be able to complete school and repay the money. Grants, then, are the
single most important tool we have to keep the doors of college open to
all. But next year, over 90,000 young people, most from families making
less than $40,000, stand to lose their Pell grants altogether, and with
it their chance at getting a decent education and equal access to the
job market.

How can Congress yank funding away from so many kids without a public
debate? Simple. The Department of Education is changing the formula for
the “Expected Family Contribution,” or EFC, based on income and assets.
A higher EFC means a lower aid award. According to its own estimates,
the Department of Ed plans to save $300 million next year on Pell
grants alone by changing the allowances for state and local taxes. An
amendment backed by New Jersey senator Jon Corzine, a Democrat,
prevented this rule change last year, but now it’s going to go through.
According to The New York Times, a Senate staffer said it was the White
House that insisted on the change.

By some estimates, the new formula will eventually reduce financial aid
by billions of dollars, because state and institutional aid is also
awarded based on some version of the EFC.

This is a harsh blow for the half of all undergraduates who currently
receive financial aid, and the three-quarters of students who must work
while attending public universities or community colleges. The EFC is
already so high that many families, especially those affected by
divorce and the layoffs of the 1990s, are unable to meet it. Some
students wait until they are 24 and legally considered independent
before completing their education, marking the time in low-wage jobs.

These cuts will impact students like Jasmine Donaldson, 21, who grew up
in Bakersfield, California. Her mother has a decent middle-class job
with that state’s welfare department, yet she and Jasmine’s stepdad are
unable to cover both her tuition and her living expenses. To pick up
the tab herself, Jasmine has waitressed 40 or more hours a week
throughout her schooling. She dreams of transferring from community
college next year to finish her bachelor’s degree at Mills, a
prestigious private women’s college in Oakland. She won’t be able to do
it without aid. “I’m an African American woman studying psychology and
dance. Hopefully they’ll slide some money my way,” she says cheerfully.
Without a Pell Grant, it would be that much harder. She might be able
to borrow more and make up the difference, adding to the $2,000 in
credit card debt she has so far accumulated while trying to support
herself.

What's especially galling is that George W. actually bragged on the
campaign trail about his administration's $3 billion in increased
spending on Pell grants. And it’s true that more families have
qualified for them in the past four years, a reflection of the growth
in low-income kids seeking a college education. The message now seems
to be that America just can’t afford that kind of progress.

But the hypocrisy doesn’t end there. It’s hard not to see this callous
cut in aid as part of a larger Bush administration attack on the young,
and by extension, on the principle of opportunity this country was
founded on. Bush and his Republican machine have mortgaged young
Americans’ futures by running up record deficits, even as he has sent
hundreds of us to our deaths in Iraq. Rock the Vote and other
youth-vote organizations successfully excited people’s passions before
the election by raising questions about a possible draft, enough that
Bush was compelled to deny the plan publicly. But with the fires still
burning in Falluja, and the drums starting to beat for Iran and North
Korea, it’s hard to believe that promise won’t be broken, along with so
many others. In Bush’s America, the real opportunity for young people
doesn’t wear a cap and gown—it wears a helmet and boots.

Member

I disagree with the assessment. If the Pell grants were awarded to student's in need, maybe I'd feel differently. The grants never looked at the total picture in my opinion and in my experience. My sister and I attended college at the same time and didn't qualify. We were the tailend of a large family.....so my father, whom would retire when I was a sophomore, had assets (a ten yr old car, a 3-bedroom home, and 40 acres of land). I want to say his assets were $70k, he had no debt and was in his 60s with a child in high school still. My roommate got a full pell grant with two kids in the family, because her father went into debt to buy a restaurant, which he sold after she graduated.

Of course, someone in my situation was leery of taking on loans, shouldn't everyone be?????? Wouldn't the answer be instead of pell grants giving away money........how about interest free loans to students in need?? Or being able to give a loan based on student's finances, not the parents? Again, I couldn't get a loan my first year because of my father's HUGE assets. I had to attend a junior college which I paid for the first semester with a private scholarship (a wealthy family of physicians and nurses found out that a girl graduating in the top ten didn't receive one and felt it was embarassing to the community), and then I worked. I wasnn't "worried" about paying back my loans, I was worried about getting one to be able to get the heck of my depressed community.

Member

crazy cat lady

Got kids in college?.....financial aid

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