Education Reps Defend Federal Financial Aid To College Students

By Adrianna McGinley

Higher education representatives defended federal financial aid programs Wednesday before members of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, told lawmakers that federal financial aid is a necessary “bedrock” for students, specifically those from low-income households, and said it is in the nation’s best interest to sustain it.

“The challenge is that students and families really are at their limit in terms of their capacity in order to be able to deal with these issues… We can’t afford to reduce the capacity of the system to produce graduates,” Merisotis said. “It is very important to our economic future as a country that we increase the number of highly qualified college graduates in this country.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said she disagreed with the claim that there is a need for more federal aid, citing that with three-fourths of all student aid last year coming from the federal government, many students continue to drown in debt.

“Despite this tremendous taxpayer investment, millions of Americans are still struggling with significant student loan debt burdens,” Foxx said. “Clearly, the rise in the cost of higher education in the United States is a problem, but the answer cannot be found in loan forgiveness gimmicks or a federal takeover of the student loan industry.”

Foxx argued that it would be more beneficial for lawmakers to encourage accountability and for students and parents to “educate themselves about the true costs of attending college.”

Tim Foster, President of Colorado Mesa University, said that, despite the success his university has had in cutting costs and increasing transparency, there is a fine line to walk when balancing the two.

“There’s this two-edged coin, which is affordability and quality,” Foster said. “If we slash quality, I don’t care how affordable it is, if it’s not worth experiencing, then it’s not worth spending time and money on, and the reverse, if it’s high quality and you can’t afford it then obviously it’s absolutely meaningless.”

Jane Wellman, Executive Director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability, said there may be a silver lining to the squeeze universities are facing.

“The good thing about this recession has been that we finally, I think, are starting to hit the wall…Institutions have too long believed that more money always was necessary for more quality,” Wellman said. “I think we’re turning the corner.”

Iraqi Refugees need U.S. help, advocates say

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

America must invest more time, money, and human resources to help those displaced by the ongoing Iraq War, according to human rights advocates from the Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International.

The presence of 2.6 million displaced Iraqis persons is overwhelming to neighboring Middle East countries and is “undermining” to the social fabric of Iraq, said Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International, at a speech made today at the National Press Club.

President Barack Obama talked about displacement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.

Bacon is happy at what is being seen as a distinct change from the “little attention” that the Bush Administration paid to Iraqi displacement.

It is estimated that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, 2.6 million Iraqi’s have lost their homes and have fled other parts of the country. An additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Bacon said that greater American and international support in receiving refugees and providing financial-aid can help stop the crisis.

Displacement of that many people “affects the whole region”, said Bacon, which results in educated citizens and specialized workers fleeing the country.

There are only 18,000 practicing doctors in Iraq, down from 32,000 doctors in 2002. There are more Iraqi doctors in Jordan than in Iraq’s capitol city of Baghdad, Bacon said.

Last year Democratic Senators Robert Casey (PA) and Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced a bill to increase aid to Iraqi refugees and allow more of them to enter the United States. Since the FY2010 Budget has been approved by Congress, any appropriated funds to help Iraqi citizens would have to come through additional legislation, Bacon said.

A spokesman for Senator Cardin said it has not been decided yet if similar legislation would be introduced in this Congress.

Refugee International’s Field Report on the Iraqi refugee situation said that the Iraqi government is trying to keep more of its citizens from fleeing their homeland. It is feared by the Iraqi government that the existence of so many refugees tarnishes the image of overall security within the country.

The report also said Iraq violated international refugee laws in 2007 by asking Syria not to accept any more Iraqi refugees.

Many refugees have fears of returning home, the report says, because many of those that returned already have been killed.

Kristele Younes, an advocate with Refugees International, says that security is a major issue in Iraqi neighborhoods, with each little borough acting as its own walled off “fiefdom”.

Younes said that the United Nations is trying to place a tourniquet on the flow of persons out of the country by the end of the year, but significant challenges remain in Iraq, including budgetary shortcomings due to low oil prices, corruption within the government and sectarianism.

The Refugees International’s report on Iraq can be found here.