When finishing my Texas government research paper, I stumbled across an article from the Austin American Statesman that highlighted some growing concerns pertaining to higher education. Although it is from 2010, the information is still rather up to date because it discusses the worries of the universities about the appropriations they are receiving. Also, it has a good summary of the issues at hand: public colleges, without partial government funding, cannot keep up with the financial need they are dispersing to satisfy Affirmative Action.
College today, lets be honest, is very pricey. In some institutions, the price to attend is unfathomable; the majority cost over $30,000 and many cost even more. Take SMU, for instance: it's one of the colleges I'm looking at and it would cost me about $56,000 a year to attend if I didn't receive any scholarships. Or Oklahoma State University, which would practically cost the same because it is out of state. The colleges get so much money from each individual student, so it seems hard to understand why they need more funding.
Well, every college gives out scholarships in the form of financial need or merit-based. Many pay for full-ride scholarships, so that alone is as much as the student would pay out of their pocket. The amount of merit-based scholarships is generally lower in universities, so the primary loss of money is from financial need scholarships. Since the U.S. government declares what financial aid a student needs, the funding is supposed to come from the colleges, and, in turn, the state governments.
This wouldn't be a problem if there was more money available to disperse, but, as everyone has probably seen, the state programs are already being cut by a large margin. Schools are having to lay off hundreds of teachers in order to keep in line with their budgets, so it is hard to imagine how the higher education institutions will receive the necessary increase in appropriations in order to keep up with the financial need. Also, the institutions themselves are not culpable because this issue came from attempting to help more people get a higher education. That is a good reason! In response to these, the article shows that the schools are ready to develop a plan in order to facilitate any necessary cuts.
As the freshman class for colleges rise and as more and more individuals choose to attend them, the problem will only grow larger until a fool-proof plan is devised. For my sake, and for the sake of any future college students, I hope that plan doesn't include raising tuition, lowering scholarships, or even converting into private schools because that would only make things worse.
Clay pat – I would like to say that I agree that higher education is indeed a major issue in America. Government funding in my opinion is limited. When I decided to return to school recently, I ran into a little bit of a dilemma. I work full time, because I have full time bills. After I pay all my expenses for the month, I do not have very much left over. To make a long story short, I only qualified for student loans since I choose to work full time. When I looked into the student loans and I was terrified by the interest rates and the pay back requirements. This is only financial aid for a community college, when I transfer – I will run into a bigger issue.
ReplyDeleteAs you pointed out – There is also the issue of individuals being laid off from working in schools due to budget cuts. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Obama’s plan will help both of these issues. After researching the topic of improving education, I found the plans that are in place to eliminate (or fix) the higher education issues. Helping Middle Class Families by doubling investments in Pell Grants, Helping students manage student loan debt, Expanding education tax credits, and lower interest rates on student loans. Some other ideas in place are reforming student aid; strengthen community colleges, and strength the teaching profession. Obama also extended the “No child left behind” act. It seems like there is great interest in education. I hope that these programs and incentives will help the present and improve the future.
http://diverseeducation.com/article/49760/
http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/drupal/content/top-5-issues-2012-education
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education
This is a very important issue to me. It has affected my life in some major ways. When I was a senior in high school, I moved from the city I had lived in for my entire life to Georgetown so that I could attend Southwestern University. It is a wonderful private school with an amazing teaching program. I worked hard in school, got everything taken care of that was needed and ended up getting accepted in early decision to the college. My family and I were so happy. Then I got the information on my financial aid and scholarships. Now, neither of my parents went to college and both work terrible jobs and barely make the bills each month, so they couldn't help me. The tuition for one school year at Southwestern is around $45,000. But even after my scholarships and grants it was going to be at least $15,000 in loans from me a year to attend. That would mean by the end of school I would have at least $60,000 in loans after college. A teacher makes an average of $30,000 a year. How was I supposed to ever pay that off? By the time I figured this all out, it was too late to apply to any other colleges except for the community college. So I am now attending ACC until I can transfer to another University.
ReplyDeleteI know that was long, but I wanted to explain why this issue is so important to me. Luckily, it seems that Obama realizes that this is such a huge problem, and he has a couple of things in mind to try and help with the problem. He has plans set up to lower the cost of college, help middle class families afford school, strengthen community colleges, and making the government more transparent so they can be held accountable for the things that they do.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education