Krugman writes today about the fiscal mismanagement
that Bush2 is pushing onto our children and grandchildren and the global
credibility gap this will cause American interests.. See Passing it Along @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/opinion/18KRUG.html
Another tactic is making higher education
less accessible. KWC
Tens of Thousands Will Lose College Aid, Report Says
By Greg Winter, NYT, July 18, 2003 @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/national/18GRAN.html?hp
and attached in full. The first report to document the impact of the government's
new formula for financial aid has found that it will reduce the nation's
largest grant program by $270 million and bar 84,000 college students from
receiving any award at all. The report, by the Congressional
Research Service, the research arm of Congress, does not calculate
the full effect of the changes, since it does not consider the further cuts in
student awards that will probably occur once the new formula is applied to
billions of dollars in state awards and university grants. But it does settle some uncertainty
over the initial consequences of altering the intricate federal formula that
governs the vast majority of the nation's financial aid. Word of the changes has kindled a small storm in Washington
in the last month. Members of
Congress have put forward legislation in hopes of either gauging the toll of
the new formula or stopping it; they have characterized the change as a way to
cut education spending without facing the public. … Just as with income tax, families can deduct some of what
they spend on state and local taxes.
The deductions vary by state but this
year, with few exceptions, the department reduced the amounts, sometimes
cutting them in half or more.
Because of that, families will often appear to have larger incomes, at
least on paper, and will thus be expected to contribute more toward their
students' college educations. … Though few doubt the department's authority to change the
state tax tables, critics in Congress question why it chose to do so now, after
nearly a decade of leaving them untouched and at a time when state taxes are
going up, not down. Beyond that,
tuitions are rising and the economy is strained. Senator Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey, called it an
inconceivable time to enact the changes. And from an
earlier article on the same subject:
Excerpts: Change in Aid Formula Shifts More Costs to Students
By Greg Winter, NYT National desk, June 13, 2003 @ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/13/education/13COLL.html …“How much more money this may require of students and their
parents will vary widely, changing with every set of circumstances that make
families unique. Some families may be expected to pay an extra $100 or less
each year, while others may owe well over $1,000 more. "The seemingly insignificant
publishing of an obscure table in the Federal Register has serious consequences
on the individual,"
said Joe Paul Case, dean of financial aid at Amherst College. While many college administrators characterized the change
as a backdoor way to cut education spending,
without public discussion, the Department of Education says it was simply
executing its responsibilities under federal law. Whether furnished by colleges, states or the federal
government, the vast majority of the nation's $90 billion in financial aid is dictated by a single, intricate
equation known as the federal need analysis. Its purpose is to
decipher how much of a family's income is truly discretionary and therefore
fair game for covering college expenses. |
WINTER Tens of Thousands Will Lose College Aid.doc
Description: MS-Word document
