2008 Woodie Awards
Bush Policies Cheat College Students
Restrictions on Financial Aid Makes Life Harder For Many
Sara Mayti
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 2 next >
What has the Bush administration done for university students in the past four years? The answer to this question is simple: made our lives a lot more difficult. The current price of higher education in this country is astronomically higher than any other developed country in the world, and the price increases every year.
This past year, the tuition of universities nationwide increased 14 percent, and over the last four years, it has increased 35 percent. That number rises, while jobs for college graduates become more exclusive, and job salaries, except for executive positions, are not rising.
Yet, this administration floods tax payers' money towards this catastrophe of a war. Last counted, $200 billion - tax payers' dollars - we spent on the war. That could have paid for seven million students' full ride scholarships to a public university. To put into perspective, seven million students are 50 percent of undergraduate students enrolled in both private and public colleges nation-wide.
Furthermore, the Pell Grant, one of the most important financial aid benefits helping college level students, has been capped for the past three years by the Bush administration.
The maximum amount a student can receive for one academic year is $4,050, about 35 percent the average one year tuition, and that's the maximum amount. Bush has even proposed a cut of the Pell program by $260 million. This is a grant that four million students, some of the most impoverished students in this country, depend on for their college education.
At Montclair State University, 2,935 students depend on the Pell Grant; that is 25 percent of our undergraduate student body.
Interestingly, four million people have lost their jobs in the past four years; in fact, the only president with a job loss rate as high as Bush was Hebert Hoover, the President when the stock market crashed in 1929.
Here we are today, 2004, with more and more students who qualify for the Pell grant, while funding remains fixed, and efforts to cut funding are being pushed through the senate.
This past year, the tuition of universities nationwide increased 14 percent, and over the last four years, it has increased 35 percent. That number rises, while jobs for college graduates become more exclusive, and job salaries, except for executive positions, are not rising.
Yet, this administration floods tax payers' money towards this catastrophe of a war. Last counted, $200 billion - tax payers' dollars - we spent on the war. That could have paid for seven million students' full ride scholarships to a public university. To put into perspective, seven million students are 50 percent of undergraduate students enrolled in both private and public colleges nation-wide.
Furthermore, the Pell Grant, one of the most important financial aid benefits helping college level students, has been capped for the past three years by the Bush administration.
The maximum amount a student can receive for one academic year is $4,050, about 35 percent the average one year tuition, and that's the maximum amount. Bush has even proposed a cut of the Pell program by $260 million. This is a grant that four million students, some of the most impoverished students in this country, depend on for their college education.
At Montclair State University, 2,935 students depend on the Pell Grant; that is 25 percent of our undergraduate student body.
Interestingly, four million people have lost their jobs in the past four years; in fact, the only president with a job loss rate as high as Bush was Hebert Hoover, the President when the stock market crashed in 1929.
Here we are today, 2004, with more and more students who qualify for the Pell grant, while funding remains fixed, and efforts to cut funding are being pushed through the senate.