There's a reason for all of this. They are forcing our children to join the military to get employment and/or higher education. It's just one more way to manipulate and control the masses.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It is really disgusting that the Bushies prefer having poorish young folks turned into cannon fodder rather than help them get a higher education. IMPEACH THEM ONE AND ALL!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Pumping more federal money into overpriced colleges that are impervious to efficiency or the economic status of their customers(students) will only drive costs and tuition up even more. While liberals don't see this obvious economic truth is beyond me.

there are too many colleges offering duplicative programs and many programs that have low demand. but because govt subsidizes students and schools, massive fixed costs happen for programs that are either unnecessary or inefficiently run.

Moreover, it is a myth that most people need a college education to live a decent life. Most students could care less about the basic requirements or liberal arts core courses that accredited four yr schools require. Busness and technical courses can be offered a la carte without a lot of irrelevant liberal arts courses and "prerequistites" that have nothing to do with becoming a professional in many areas.

get gvt out of education. for those who want to major in English or Math fine; let them pay for the cost of all those courses or let foundations finance these programs. corporations might finance many programs to secure rounded employees. but most people don't need all these expensive frills and buildings that allow faculty and college bureaucrats to extend their college avoid responsiblity years forever.

Moreover, apply the antitrust laws and RICO laws to colleges and toss a few deans and college presidents into Maximus Security Prisons. They will get a wonderful lesson in gay rights that they shove on their naive students bodies.(pun).

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

1- Undermine & destroy Unions & Guilds.
2- Export high paying jobs to low wage countries.
3- Debase and destroy public schools.
4- Destroy the social safety net for unemployed people.
5- Allow and encourage predatory lending.
6- Rewrite the bankruptcy laws to heavily favor creditors.
7- Price higher education out of the reach of the working class.
8- Import undocumented workers by the millions to undercut wage scales.
9- Restructure taxes so as to shift more of the burden to low and middle income people.
10- Starve public broadcasting and it's educational outreach programs.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

How else can this self perpetuating government continue to function if we can't keep everybody in debt up to their ass forever? Good credit, no credit, bad credit, no problem - just sign on the dotted line. You can go to college if you wish, whether there are jobs that pay anything after graduation is another story. You may have to get two or three jobs just to pay back the college loan.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Parents Can Avoid The Poorhouse
Before Students Enter College

Contrary to popular belief, much of that anticipated debt can be legally eliminated, and before it’s too late. While so many families stress out over the prospect of how much they and their student(s) will incur during the college years, there are a number of strategies, all legal, to make any college affordable.

Sadly, most families are not aware of the fact that in the financial aid formulas, students have no asset protection allowance. The following are considered student assets: cash, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, savings bonds, mutual funds, UGMA, UTMA accounts, a farm, a business, mortgages held and the net value of any real estate owned. For college year 2007-2008, 20% of every dollar a student has will be lost in financial aid. However, if the student is about to enter college and is unfortunate enough to have a hefty bank balance or brokerage account, it already cost them 25% or 35% in lost financial aid, depending on the college!

Parent assets are subject to a different formula, and it also depends on which school the student is applying to. For financial aid purposes, there are 2 categories of schools: Category 1 includes a few state colleges plus approximately 220 private schools. In addition to the FAFSA, they also require the CSS Financial Aid Profile. If you thought the FAFSA was difficult, this form is a nightmare, and pity the poor family that’s divorced, separated, owns a business or a farm! These colleges take into account all of the above plus Education IRA’s, and 529 Savings Plans. Category 2 schools (all the rest) only require the FAFSA and exclude the value of the primary residence and a farm, if the family lives on it.

When is comes to financial aid assessments, parents are more fortunate; they’re only assessed at 5.6% over their allowance, which increases with age. The asset protection allowance for a 2 parent family, older parent 48 = $45,000; a single parent age 45 = $19,700.

All that may appear depressing, but here’s the good news: with proper planning students and/or parents can legally become penniless in the blink of an eye, and all their money can be repositioned into financial vehicles that are not included in the financial aid formulas. The result can often get these families, with students about to enter college, more financial aid for the 2nd semester, but if that tactic fails, then surely for the sophomore and ensuing years. What a relief to know that!

Numerous strategies exist which have literally saved families millions of dollars over the years, and they include: the ambiguous non-custodial parent strategy, which has reduced the cost of college in some cases by as much as 90%; the winter clothing allowance for students from the South attending college in the frigid North netted one student an additional $2,600; the “no work” work-study award has been worth as much as $8,000 by graduation, and for virtually any student, even those with no financial need, appealing an unappealing financial aid offer and negotiating for the best possible financial aid package has produced incredible results. It‘s just like buying a new car - you don’t have to pay the sticker price. One other strategy few families are aware of is Professional Judgment. This comes into play when there has been a significant change in family income, assets, marital status or health.

reecy@paylessforcollege.com
www.paylessforcollege.com

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

$13K
That's how much the FAFSA (Free Application For Student Aid) expects my family to contribute per year (hence the EFC, or Expected Familial Contribution) to my college education. Given that I am not an only child, and that my family is not that well off, how is this expected to be realistic? At best the formula behind this figure is anachronistic. For a rich white family with one child and no mortgages, it might make sense, but for real Americans that actually exist, it is absolutely worthless.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm Britain it will cost you £3000 (thats $5500) a year to go to uni/college for most courses. And thats just the course cost not living costs. But there are many bursaries for people of a lower income backgroud both from the government and universities. You may think thats a lot but you don't have to pay it back until you are earning £15,000 a year (about $28,000) and then it's deducted from your salery depending on how much you earn.

It's crazy that you have to pay for education but it's the way life works. But interest rates being that high is making the working classes just look for other ways to live most likely getting a low paid job.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It should be patently obvious that our freakishly conservative government doesn't want young Americans attending those "goddam hippy schools to smoke pot all day and enjoy sexual experimentation". Think about it. Where are the last, liberal bastions in this country - the universities (Jerry Falwell U et al withstanding of course). Where did most of you first gain exposure to truly liberal thought - not the unrestrained, unfiltered and rebelious sort of say high school? It was definitely my time spent at college.

I grew up in a small, conservative farm town but thankfully my father and his brothers all grew up in southern California and attended UC Berkeley and my mother was exceptional in that she was probably one of only a handful of Democrats in her equally small hometown . Needless to say I was exposed to more "radical" thinking than most kids in my town and college only helped further distill and refine that thinking. Unfortunately there are myriad kids who will never have exposure to alternate modes of thinking in their homes and now with college out of reach for most, we are staring down the barrel at a far right, NeoCon wet dream: deeply religious parents raising kids in their image without the tempering influence of a liberal education. Imagine a generation of kids who will learn that we fought all those proxy wars to save the world from the Pink Menace or that our newest crusades are to liberate the people of Iraq and Afghanistan from the evil clutches of Saddam and the Taliban. Think total indoctrination and feel the fear of knowing that we are raising several generations of young people who will only hear half the story.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I currently carry more than $60,000 in student debt. Is everyone aware of what happens to you when you get an MA in the humanities? It's not good. You get backed into a corner. You have to get a PhD or else never use your education. But the problem is, tenure-track professorships are becoming increasingly rare, even as the process of getting a PhD, even with a good funding package, is becoming increasingly expensive. The only good thing about it is that you can defer repaying your student debt for as long as it takes you to get the PhD (5 or 6 years). After that, your payments are higher, of course, but your chances of obtaining lucrative employment are somewhat slim. The moral of the story is this: don't go to grad school if you can conceivably do something else.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Lets see what Bush has done here... cut taxes on the wealthy... to help the economy...

I guess an educated workforce saddled with less debt when they begin their career is just not good for the economy....

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Any healthy democracy requires a well-educated and well-informed citizenry, which is the main reason things are getting so messed up in this country. People are incapable of sorting out factual information from blatant propaganda and disinformation; they were never really taught how to do these kinds of 'critical analysis'. Thus, they are suckers for debt scams of all kinds, of which student loans are just another example - like credit card offers.

The indoctrination that takes place in the US public education system is pretty astonishing. The form that education takes in this country makes the recipients highly susceptible to propaganda - the teachers teach, the students recite, and good recitation is considered proof of good education. Heaven forbid that people actually start thinking, or asking questions that the teachers find difficult or uncomfortable to answer. That process often doesn't happen until college level education, and the unwashed masses need to be kept in a state of perpetual confusion - so access is limited.

Even in the universities things are getting very bad - pharmaceutical companies run chemistry and biology departments like their private research labs, and university administrators are more likely to have a corporate business background then a scientific or academic one. The main issue for a University president these days is securing intellectual property rights to university 'products'. This all leads to rampant fraud, hidden data and proprietary secrets - all of which are anathema to the traditional notion of open exchange of ideas and information.

The same thing went on in German Universities in the 1930's, and the result on the population was also very similar - highly trained technicians who couldn't think but who did follow orders well. In the US today the gold standard isn't your willingness to kick out the Jews, it's your willingness to bow down to the corporate beast - but the essence is the same. The corruption present in the universities these days should be a serious cause for concern.

As for the 'students', they get out of college saddled with debt and no choice but to spend the next decade (at least) working in some corporate dead zone, where the job is simple: follow orders and don't ask questions. It's the Third World-ization of America, all carried out for the benefit of a few billionaires and political hacks.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I miss the good old days when college was getting cheaper. You know, before Bush.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Brilliant post! I loved it.

BTW, to the person who derided public broadcasting (esp. late at nite??--have you seen what other local stations do with THEIR late nite--fatuous infomercials)

But, in any event public broadcasting will ALWAYS be better than "Faux News."

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Blah. Higher education is nice, a true luxury, but it has become another big business scam. Jack up the rates: Don't you want Timmy to be the next doctor in your perfect little family? While you're at it: Poor folks, get in on the upward mobility train while you still believe in it! Money, money, money.

Now, in our "global technology and information-driven" society how are the engineers faring? Why is the work becoming commoditized? The software engineers? Technology makes jobs easier, more automated, require LESS knowledge, less education, less training. What percent of jobs even require a BA anymore? What's the number the system keeps churning out.

Where's the spin?

Education has become many things. It is now a standard US scapegoat at the secondary school level, a powerful money-making machine at the postsecondary level, an institution to keep poorer children busy, a place to educate and pamper the children of the rich. Good stuff but the *economy of the future* looks dim to me.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Good article, though there's a small but significant error:

"As of last Saturday, the new variable rate for Stafford loans will be 6.54 percent for students and 7.14 percent for graduates."

The new rates are no longer variable. This means, that if interest rates do go down in the future - and with 10+ year loans, they're certainly bound to (see 2004-5 rates at 2.77%) - student loan holders won't benefit. They also can no longer refinance these fixed rate loans when rates go down - like any other loan holder can - which places unfair commerce restrictions on one class of people.

This amounts to an unfair raid on student aid to balance the tax breaks given to the very rich.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]