Fwd: Bush: Cuts to Help College Loans

[Victor Steinbok <Victor.Steinbok@VERIZON.NET>]

Well, well, well... The Big Bad Wolf is in the house again looking
for another treat. So much for compromises on education, on budgets,
on just about everything. SURPRISE! We are cutting education again!
At least there is an excuse of Pell Grant falling short.

This is actually related to the college education thread, since
shortage of Pell Grant money means one or both of two things: the
number of college students is up and students are more poor than
expected, so they qualify for more money. No amount handed out
through Pell Grant will be sufficient to allow a poor family to foot
the bill for a private college--not for four years. Hence the
suggestions to shuffle them all into community colleges--get the
working stiffs into a habit of keeping their kids out of the 4-year
colleges and leaving them for those who can afford them, then hope
that the grades are good enough to get them in for the last year or
two, to have that prestigious diploma. If you think I'm just being
sarcastic, think again.

       VS-)


http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ELECTION&STORYID=APIS7HCNJQ00

JANUARY 31, 12:07 ET

Bush: Cuts to Help College Loans

By GREG TOPPO
AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration wants to put hundreds of
school and community programs on the chopping block so it can pay for
a deficit in a popular college student grant program.

When he submits his 2003 budget on Monday, President Bush will ask
Congress to scrap hundreds of small programs that lawmakers agreed to
finance last year, including after-school, childcare and mentoring
programs, literacy and computer programs, theater and dance programs,
teacher training, scholarships and construction projects on
government property, among others.

One of the more unusual projects he wants Congress to trim is an
education program at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cleveland.

The effort could set up a battle among lawmakers, who fight for such
projects for their constituents.

Education Secretary Rod Paige said Wednesday that hundreds of
programs should be sacrificed to glean money to pay off a deficit in
the 30-year-old Pell Grant program.

Because the program does not turn away eligible students, it has had
to give out more than its budget allowed. The result is a $1.3
billion shortfall Bush wants to eliminate. Savings from the programs
he wants cut would erase the deficit.

For 2003, Bush is also expected to ask Congress to raise the Pell
Grant budget from $10.3 billion to $10.9 billion to accommodate an
increasing number of applicants.

Eighty-five percent of Pell recipients come from families with
incomes below $30,000. The grant often pays a large share of a
student's college expenses, but its purchasing power has dropped
steadily over three decades.

Education Department officials at first offered few specifics of what
they would like to see cut. Later, they provided a long list,
including $200,000 for ``Rockin' the Schools,'' a program at the Rock
Hall.

On the hall's Web site, the program is described as a set of
interdisciplinary workshops for students in grades 6 through 12 that
offers ``the opportunity to learn about the history, poetry and
culture of rock and roll music.''

Terry Stewart, the museum's president, said the program has been
taught to thousands of school children from northeastern Ohio over
the past two years.

``Given that education is a significant part of our mission
statement, we will be very disappointed if this program becomes a
casualty of budget reduction,'' Stewart said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, said the
move ``is inconsistent with the stated intentions of the president''
to fund education fully.

``We shouldn't be cutting education programs, and we shouldn't be
forced to make a choice between cutting education programs,'' he said.

Another program for which funding could be cut is Classika Theatre in
Arlington, Va., which teaches history through drama.

Alyona Ushe, Classika managing director, said the program has been
``extremely effective'' in after-school settings, raising
fourth-graders' scores 75 percent last year on Virginia's state
history test. Classika this month begins taking the program to
regular classes, at the schools' invitation.

Charles Patterson, superintendent of the 30,000-student Killeen,
Texas, school district, said a $2 million dollar grant that also is
on the chopping block would help the district repair 50-year-old
school buildings at nearby Fort Hood.

``We've got some major construction and renovation needs,'' he said.

The Pell program deficit grew because of an increase in the number of
students entering college last year.

``When the economy started to slow down over a year ago, enrollments
in post-secondary education grew,'' said Terry Hartle, senior vice
president for the American Council on Education, a trade association
representing 1,800 public and private colleges.

The $10.3 billion program has run deficits before, Hartle said, but
none this large since 1992.

Education Department officials said the $4,000 maximum grant was at
stake if they did not ask for more money, but Hartle said it was
never in jeopardy.

More than 4.4 million students receive Pell Grants, which average
about $2,400. The grant has risen steadily for most of the past 30
years, but rising college costs have reduced its purchasing power.

---

On the Net:

Education Department: <http://www.ed.gov>http://www.ed.gov

Rockin' the Schools: http://www.rockhall.com/programs/forstudents.asp?id594
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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