------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 26, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WITH THE STROKE OF A PEN: STUDENTS TO GET LESS FINANCIAL AID
By G. Dunkel
Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to flow out of the pockets of the poorest students in this country because of a tweak in a table in a federal financial aid form. This sneaky change will affect those who qualify for Pell Grants.
Almost all students who want to apply for a portion of the $90 billion of financial aid available from U.S. colleges have to fill out this form, even if they don't qualify for a Pell Grant. So this change is going to cost a majority of college students a significant amount of money.
The federal form is a complicated, multi-page equation that determines how much money a family has available to spend on education. The "tweak" lowers the amount of money students can keep to offset state, county and city taxes. The government is using tables based on what these local taxes were three years ago, when they were at historic lows. They have increased considerably since then and will increase more.
Because state and local taxes vary by where you live, how much you earn and what other deductions you have, it is impossible to give a figure for what a typical family will pay. Human Capital Research, a consulting firm that helps colleges set their aid policies, has come up with some estimates. In some states, families making $50,000 a year will have to pay $700 more; in states like Michigan, Delaware, South Carolina or Wisconsin, families earning around $25,000 will be expected to pay an extra $220. Families making $80,000 will pay an extra $1,500.
Families whose income is high enough to let them take out a private loan may manage to keep their students in school, but, for a family making $25,000 a year, even an extra $220 is going to increase the pressure to drop out. It certainly means students will spend more time working and less studying.
This increase came at the stroke of a federal official's pen, without comment, hearings or even much notice, unlike the tuition and fee increases that have been hitting public higher education all over the United States. The latter are clearly announced, passed by state legislatures and imposed by boards of trustees or governors.
The median increase in fees and tuition in state schools from the school year 2001-2 to 2002-3 was 10 percent. The increases ranged from 24 percent in Massachusetts to 2 percent in New York. (See accompanying graph.)
While these figures are accurate, they do not always reflect the real cost of higher education. For example, in New York and California some of the more prestigious state universities charge over $1,000 in "fees" required for all students. Commu nity colleges have the same general financial problems, but their statistics are harder to come by.
The coming fiscal year is going to be even worse for the states and their local governments. The Bush tax cuts on the federal level will cause deep service cuts and produce large tax hikes on the state and local levels. As the current "jobless recovery" deepens, public higher education is going to become more and more costly.
As a college degree becomes more and more important in getting a decent job, it is becoming harder and harder for all but the wealthy to afford it. Even families with a so-called middle-class income are being squeezed.
There is a very simple solution to this problem of ever more expensive public universities--don't charge tuition at all. In every socialist revolution, one of the first measures taken has been to make education free. Even in capitalist countries where there is a strong working-class movement, it is possible to win free and universal education. The capitalist bosses need trained, skilled and educated workers. They should pay for producing them.
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