posted January 07, 2005 03:41 PM            

We're spending billions upon billions fighting a war that should never have been started and lavishing billions upon billions on giving the least needy people in America breaks on their income taxes.

As is almost always the case, the people who can afford it least wind up bearing the burden. How many times in our lives have we heard it? The rich get richer...

Americans are going to become brutally aware this year that their country cannot afford a costly war and massive tax cuts at the same time.

Although they maintain that the $7.5 trillion national debt is really not a problem, the Bush financial gurus are admitting that the annual budget deficit - now a record $435 billion - will have to be trimmed. The president himself has promised to cut it in half within the next few years.

We're already seeing how that's going to happen. Support to the states will be cut back in expensive programs like Medicaid, for example, thereby shifting part of the federal problem to the already cash-strapped states. And other domestic programs from environmental protection to education are going to get squeezed. In other words, we can't have both guns and butter - as most everyone has known for decades. Then throw in massive tax cuts and you've got the mess we're witnessing today.

The Pell cutbacks merely scratch the surface of what is yet to come.

Some 1.3 million college students - 2,000 of them right here on the UW's Madison campus - will have their education aid benefits cut by about 13 percent. Close to 90,000 others will lose them entirely.

This comes at a time when fewer and fewer children from low-income families are able to afford college as tuition costs skyrocket to make up for yet other cutbacks in education support from the state governments. For the kids of ordinary American working families, coming up with the money to earn a college degree is becoming a nightmare.

And let's put the blame where it lies - at the feet of this federal government that somehow managed to get another four years to continue down this disastrous path.

When the feds give trillions of dollars in tax breaks at the federal level, they're merely passing the burden to the states and local governments and to the people who can least afford to pay more taxes.

Some day, we've got to wake up.

posted January 14, 2005 09:23 PM            

Since I put myself through school, received grants and scholarships and STILL ended up with a student loan of over $50,000, I understand the frustration of trying to get money for college (not to mention I worked almost full time at the university to help pay my rent). I also was witness to students using that grant money and loan money (that was in excess) for beer and parties. The Money is available, but you have to work for it and find the scholarships / grants available. What is especially hard is when these schools, even though they are receiving Gov funding, keep hiking up their tuition to pay for professors that NO LONGER teach but instead have their TA's do the teaching for them.

I had to go to a private school to ensure that I would actually be taught by professors with MD's and PhD's versus their newly graduated "undergrads". LOL....which is why my tuition was so insane.

We need a revamping of the college system in order to make it more accessible to all those students that want to attend- that is the only way we can be sure that people that want to succeed can and will succeed.

______________________________

Bush to Call For Raising Pell Grant Awards

Friday, January 14, 2005

WASHINGTON — To ease tuition sticker-shock, President Bush (search) wants to raise the maximum Pell Grant (search) award by $500 over the next five years and fix a persistent shortfall in the nation's chief college aid program.

That would put the maximum grant at $4,550 by 2010, up 12 percent from the $4,050 offered today.

The White House declined to say whether the president wants to increase the grants received by more than 5 million low-income students, but congressional and education officials familiar with the details of his proposal said Bush will call for raising the Pell Grant award $100 a year for five years.

"The president has been strongly committed to Pell Grants and ensuring that more students are eligible," deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy said about remarks Bush was making Friday at Florida Community College at Jacksonville. "There is a serious shortfall in the program and the president is committed to addressing it."

News of an increase comes as Bush prepares to send a new budget to Congress next month that the administration promises will include cuts in domestic programs. Presidents frequently emphasize spending increases for politically popular programs in order to take the sting out of painful trimming they've done in the federal budget.

Pell Grants, the government's largest form of financial aid, help low-income students afford college. The grants range from $400 to $4,050, depending on students' financial need, their cost to attend school and whether they are enrolled part-time or full-time.

Norma Kent, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges (search), said an estimated 2 million students, or about one-third of all community college students, receive Pell Grants. Higher grants would be welcome relief from rising costs, she said.

In 2004, the average in-state tuition (search) at public, four-year colleges rose 10.5 percent to $5,132, according to the College Board. Tuition at two-year public colleges rose 8.7 percent to $2,076, and at private colleges rose 6 percent to $20,082.

The Pell Grant increase Bush was expected to propose, however, was shy of his pledge during the 2000 presidential campaign to raise the maximum award to $5,100. Despite soaring college costs, it's been stuck at $4,050 for three years.

"Four years after making — and breaking — a campaign promise to raise the value of the Pell Grant, I hope President Bush is finally willing to make good on that promise," Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee, said in a statement issued Thursday.

"I also hope he is ready to offer a serious solution to the shortfall in funding for Pell Grants," Miller added. "My concern is that the president will rob Peter to pay Paul - increase money for Pell Grants by cutting funding for other important education programs. That is not a workable solution."

Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents colleges, said his group would be happy with any increase in the Pell Grant award, especially if it was coupled with eliminating a growing deficit in the program.

"If true, these proposals would mark the most significant development in the Pell Grant program since it was created 30 years ago," Hartle said. "The higher education community would vigorously applaud this action."

Regardless of congressional allocations to the Pell Grant program, all eligible students get the grant money they are entitled to receive each year, Hartle explained. Because the economy has not been robust in recent years and more people have gone off to college, the deficit has grown to roughly $4 billion, he said.

"It's a shortfall on paper, but when Congress looks to increase the Pell Grant they do so with the knowledge that the program is roughly $4 billion in the hole," he said. "Eliminating the shortfall would make it much easier for Congress to increase the maximum grant."

Although Congress did not raise the maximum grant last year, lawmakers did increase Pell Grant money by $458 million, to about $12.4 billion. However, Congress also decided not to block the Education Department from updating the tax deduction tables it uses to calculate aid eligibility.