In Decembe surprise: Pell grants being slashed

[chomskysright]

In December Surprise, Education Dept. to Issue Policy That Could Remove 90,000 Students From Aid Rolls

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (PS: you have to have a subscription to get the entire article): http://chronicle.com/free/2004/12/2004122201n.htm

About 90,000 students could be disqualified from receiving Pell Grants and other forms of federal and state financial aid under a change, scheduled to be issued on Thursday by the U.S. Education Department, in the formula the government uses to calculate a student's need for aid.

The department plans to announce in the Federal Register that it is, for the first time in a decade, updating the amount it forgives most families for their state and local tax payments when determining how much income the families have left over to pay college costs.

A U.S. senator from one of those states had choice words for the formula change. "I am outraged that the Bush administration is going forward with these punitive cuts in Pell Grants," said Sen. Jon S. Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat who led an effort in the Senate to block the department from making the formula change.

"For these students who are simply working to get ahead," said Mr. Corzine, "this is a scene from 'The Grinch who stole my education.'"

[indepat]

1. We the people get the government we deserve

[GOPBasher]

41. Perfectly said!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Oh boy!

90,000 new Democrats!

No way to pick up a vote. Hope the red states get hammered hard with this one.

[villager]

7. I don't know -- do they apply for Pell Grants at Bob Jones

"University?"

[Robbien]

8. No. The formula was adjusted to exclude

students in blue states.

This is a BushCo punitive measure against liberals.

[hatrack]

3. Hmm . . . details issued two days before Christmas . . .

It's almost enough to get the impression that they didn't want people to notice, don't you think? :eyes:

[leftchick]

28. The Scrooge initiative....

now in in the hell did not see this coming?

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Gee it's getting drafty around here

Can't go to college, oh well, might as well join the military.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

20. The economic draft...

... no job and no money for school so "I have to join the military to feed myself and those I am responsible for".

As long as you and your kids are not needy, no need for you to worry about compulsory military service. There will be enough economically "displaced" persons to fill the ranks. :eyes:

[nashville_brook]

43. so true! n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Gee it's getting drafty around here

Can't go to college, oh well, might as well join the military.

[Sean Reynolds]

6. I didn't get a pell grant for the classes I took this year....

I'm going to have to drop out of school if this continues, I can't afford this crap.

[chomskysright]

9. these are states reported to be hit...

here's some more of that article...don't know how inclusive that is but this gives me an opportunity to say some more: the chronicle is a great paper:

More worrisome, said Brian K. Fitzgerald, staff director of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, is that these same students could find that they are no longer eligible for other types of aid as well. The committee advises Congress on student-aid issues.

"The real concern here," he said, "is that the change will have a significant trickle-down effect because many states and colleges use the federal formula when awarding need-based aid."

According to the ACE's analysis, the 90,000 students will be concentrated in 21 states, including Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia. Students in two states -- Connecticut and New Jersey -- will actually see their grants increase.

[purduejake]

10. Uneducated people are not a threat...

Education brings knowledge and often tolerance.

Besides, why in the hell would somebody want to go to college when a degree doesn't get you a job anymore?

edit: clarity

[slor]

11. This should be no surprise...

to those that follow this maladministration.

[gottaB]

12. Putting the "Jesus H. Christ!" back in Christmas

How many reasons do Murdoch and company have for not spreading the news about this little bit of Christmas cheer?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. Bushco: Bringing us all to the lowest common denominator.

The New Equality.

No one shall be smarter than the current President.

Sigh.

[celestia671]

16. Ha!

My three year old is smarter than the nimrod in charge!

[AlCzervik]

14. Bush doesn't like educated people

Merry Christmas kids and remember, the world needs ditch diggers too!!!!

[fob]

39. Please up date your cliche/metaphor/similie log, in bush*s amerika

the saying is; the world needs grave diggers too.


/madness

[Cobalt Violet]

15. Why edjumacate them if they end up turning into liberals.

NeoCons need hoards of stupid or uneducated people.

[Dulcinea]

17. History repeats itself.

St. Ronnie cut student aid in the '80s.

Now Boy George is doing it too.

[VegasWolf]

18. bush don't speak no good. awol say's happy hollidays.

[KansDem]

19. Hmmm...One month's expenditures in Iraq divided by 90,000 students...

equals $22,222.22 per student...

Decisions, decisions...priorities, priorities...

What's a Prez to do???

(Remember, that's ONE MONTH in Iraq, or about $2 billion)

[LynnTheDem]

22. Iraq is costing us $4 billion/mth

And another $1 billion/mth for Afghanistan.

[KansDem]

40. Sorry for the wrong numbers...

So $4 billion plus $1 billion would provide $55,555.55 for each of the 90,000 students who stands to lose his/her Pell Grant...

I'm not certain: how much is the average Pell Grant?

Again, "priorities, priorities..."

[LynnTheDem]

44. $5,500, I believe.

Isn't it just too sickening to see all those hundreds of $ billions for bullshit going into bushCartel's pals' pockets, when there was so much we could have done for Americans with that money. WITHOUT killing anyone.

We have American children starving in this country. We have old folks eating pet food. We have people who lose their homes and every cent they have to pay for medical treatments. We have a third-world powergrid, a rapidly expanding poverty level and a rapidly declining middle-class.

And how bloody ECSTATIC the entire world would be if we put Americans IN AMERICA first, and stopped meddling in everyone else's nations.

[KansDem]

45. Hmm? 5,000,000,000 divided by 90,000 equals 55,000

If I read my calculator correctly...

But you're right, it is sickening to think how much good this money would have done to improve life in these United States, as well as elsewhere in the world.

Thinking about the Mesquite Mafia makes me ill...

But whether it's $5,000 or $55,000, I defer to the quote popularly given to the late Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen:
A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money.
http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_emd_billionhere.htm

[LynnTheDem]

21. NO "surprise"; Kerry said bush was cutting Pell grants in the debates.

bush called Kerry a liar.

And yet again, we know who the liar really is.

[rodeodance]

24. I recall kerry's comment. well the rooster is home to roost!!

[kapp]

32. :'(

That makes me so very, very sad.

[VegasWolf]

23. let's have a whole nation that can speak like the prez. n/t

[rockedthevoteinMA]

25. Thank you Senator Corzine!!

And nooooo :mad: :cry: .... Why are they doing this?

They are attacking everything - when will this madness stop?

[rppper]

26. heheheh....guess those outsourced IT guys........

.....won't be going to the community college to get re-edjumacated after all.....i seem to recall the moran in charge telling that to kerry in the debates.....

merry christmas america...you are now reaping what you've sewn.....

[Child_Of_Isis]

27. How are the unemployed

to pay for community college? Wasn't this shrubfucko-s answer to outsourcing, lost jobs, and such?

[agincourt]

29. If you were unemployed,

Hee Haw stressed during the debates that the solution was education,education, education. Gee willikers! Could the president be a low down dirty liar?? Gasp!

[Disturbed]

30. Poor people don't need no edukasion.

The U.S needs more working poor servants so the immigrants pouring over the borders have some competition for those jobs Amerikans now won't do.

[kapp]

31. I look forward to it all.

The pessimist in me wants a word.

Social Security reform, religious initiatives, and this latest attack on the education of our youth...these are only a few measures among a slew of others. The more I read about what this administration feels necessary, the more I enjoy it.

Let us receive fully what they wish. We deserve it.

[xchrom]

33. that's funny!

and bush said he wasn't going to do that.
hope everybody gets the joke.:wtf: :mad: :wtf:

[robbedvoter]

34. In the debates - it was W's one "accomplishment"- edumacation - Pell

grants....he kept repeating it over and over. Little did we know it that he even knew of them because they were next in line.

[phasev]

35. don't be sad

at least the Iraqi people are going to have their puppet free market democracy soon. While Americans won't be able to afford college the Iraqis will have their Wal-Mart.

[biftonnorton]

36. Dumbing Down America Continues

Getting our kids ready to fit into those rapidly-growing service-sector jobs as other jobs move overseas. Military service will look like a great alternative when college is out of reach financially. In the meantime, there's plenty of work in hospitality services, fast food, cleaning services, etc. :-(

[Art_from_Ark]

38. DDOA (Dumbing Down Of Amurka) is enough to drive one crazy

Meanwhile over here in Japan, people are wringing their hands because Japanese 15-year-olds slipped a couple of notches in some areas of academic performance.

[fortyfeetunder]

37. But at least we have moral values and gays can't marry

Well let's see how those two help folks pay for school..

[ucmike]

42. hmmm....

as someone who used pell grants to offset some college costs this makes me vomit.

this country loves to shout about education but does nothing to further it unless there's a financial benefit to it. I always thought that rising college costs were due to the universities grabbing up gov't dollars that were available to students. basically, the schools raised their tuition so dramatically because there was a lot of money to grab. they would entice students with gov't grants and low interest loans then the schools and lenders would make huge profits on students financing the balance that wasn't covered by gov't loans and out-of-pocket.

they will still encourage everyone to go to college, but now it will be even more burden to students and parents. its the biggest racket in america. they tell us we have to go to college, then bait students with gov't money (usually loans not grants-another aspect that is not really discussed) and jack up costs. you graduate college with a mountain of debt into a job market that's usually not sufficient to cover your student debt and living expenses. (don't even get me started on the criminal enterprise that sell text books)

then limbaugh gets on the radio and criticizes the "slackers still living at home". no regard for the conditions that put them there.

it makes me furious that with all the money in this country we have to virtually bankrupt students who want an education. i want to scream every month when i send the federal govt $350 a month for my degree, especially when i realized that the money is most likely part of the national debt. they borrowed money from me to loan me money, then i repay it with my taxes and my payments. its a scam. they loaned me money they didn't have, which i repay with interest on my student loan. i loaned myself money but the govt gets the interest.

and we spend billions on iraq and i lay awake wondering if my job will be there tomorrow.