Education Reps Defend Federal Financial Aid To College Students
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 4:07PMBy 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.”
Obama Wants You to Go Back to School
President Barack Obama
Photo by Michael Ruhl
Obama’s plan, detailed at opportunity.gov, would help the unemployed go back to school to build new skill sets, with the goal of helping them gain future employment through specialized technical training.
“The idea here is to fundamentally change our approach to unemployment in this country, so that it’s no longer just a time to look for a new job, but is also a time to prepare yourself for a better job,” Obama said. “Our unemployment system should be not just a safety net, but a stepping stone to a new future.”
Among the barriers to success that the President wants to break down are state programs in which a worker might lose temporary financial support if they were to enroll in an education program. Obama said that in some places a worker may be unemployed, but may not qualify for federal assistance to get an education because of the salary they had a year ago but no longer make. The President said that he is committed to working with states to change these laws.
The President said that knowledge is the most valuable skill that one can sell. He encouraged all Americans to aim for getting at least 1 year of higher education, whether it is a community college, a four year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship.
“By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” Obama said optimistically.
This announcement came on the same day as the release of April’s unemployment statistics, which saw the loss of more than half a million jobs. The unemployment rate for April was 8.9 percent, up from 8.5 percent in March and 8.1 percent in February. April's numbers have already surpassed both the White House's and the Federal Reserve's projections for all of 2009, which were 8.1 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.
Acknowledging that unemployment is as its highest rate in 25 years, the President urged patience, reminding us that the economic problems didn’t happen overnight, and couldn’t be fixed immediately.
“We’re still in the midst of a recession that was years in the making and will be months or even years in the unmaking,” Obama said. He continued, “We should expect further job losses in the months to come.”
Obama said that the Economic Stimulus Package is yielding real results, manifest in higher consumer spending and home sales, and an increase in construction spending. He praised the Recovery Act, and said, “Because of this plan, cops are still on the beat and teachers are still in the classroom; shovels are breaking ground and cranes dot the sky; and new life has been breathed into private companies.”
Fixing the economy and reforming education are two goals Obama has set for his administration. He said that in the weeks to come he would start working towards more education initiatives.