Bill Clears Way for Government to Cut Back College Loans -NYT

The federal government will be able to require millions of college students to shoulder more of the cost of their education under the new spending bill approved yesterday by the House.

The government moved to change its formula for college aid last year, but was blocked by Congress. Now, however, no such language appears in the appropriations bill lawmakers are considering, clearing the way for the government to scale back college grants for hundreds of thousands of low-income students.

Nearly 100,000 more students may lose their federal grants entirely, as Congress considers legislation that could place more of the financial burden for college on students and their families.
...........
"They are throwing students out of the opportunity to seek a college education," said Senator Jon S. Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat who wrote the amendment to stop the changes last year, and introduced a similar provision this year that did not survive the conference committee. "It is now clear to me that this was a backdoor attempt to cut funding from the Pell grant program."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/education/21pell.html?oref=login

Welcome to the third world.

... they had the Bible and we had the land. Now ..."

And ruling class tactics are the same today.

College for the privileged only.

This sickens me to no end.

Because they're cutting on top of what they cut in the 80's, we never really got back to that level of assistance. When you consider only about 25% of jobs pay an amount that would justify $30-40,000 or more in student loans in the first place, it is a real mess. I'm still not sure my kid should be taking out student loans to become a teacher. Now this.

There is nothing like finishing grad school and not being able to find ANY job. I was just referring to the tactics of the Bush administration - but you both are right because in the 80s Dems actually had control of Congress, whereas we wield much less (if any) power now.

an utter failure re-elcted as president. they can do whatever they want and limbaugh and the 1000 limbuagh jr's accross the nation will spin it any way the gop wants it. plus the so called "mainstream media" is so traumatized by being called "liberal" that every issue is just treated as a partisan food fight with both sides equally "cynical".

more prisons! That's the answer!

and minimum wage workers.

And Republicans everywhere high five each other.

for bush wars, since the job market sucks and thousands won't be going to college?

Signing bonus' for the Military can be in the 10's of thousands. It just depends on what you sign up for.

Schools like Bob Jones will miraculously get some kind of assistance. Wait and see.

eom

side of this is that the damn poor repugs kids will have to pay to go to Bob Jones' school themselves. This is really bad news just when the baby boomers start retiring there are less trained workers to fill the jobs. Get your surgery NOW as the doctors of the future are not going to be there.

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while professors increase their course loads further. Glad I "got mine" when I did - at great universities - with professors who were involved in research - and held small, challenging courses in which one had to work one's tail off to succeed - or get out. Increase course loads so that profs teach 4 or 5 classes a semester - and teach primarily large lecture classes... and the competitive edge that US universities have - goes right down the drain.

studying in America are on a sharp decline. Our college's and university's will have to be cutting back.

I suppose this is one way to keep the public uneducated and compliant.

Sounds like a great philosophy if you're running Walmart University. Unfortunately, you fail to realize that Chinese sweatshops can't "manufacture" an education.

10 posts.

education and the other schools that aren't supported by the upper class will close their doors. That's just the way it is.Less skilled workers less world competition lower standard of living . Sad that Repub Congress cannot see beyond their noses.

I am on the faculty
of a 'traditionally black' university
and I have something to say to you

the kids here have been telling me
about the govt's plan to 'do away with thier Pell grants'
and I told them I would educate myself
because I knew nothing of this
(a new fac. position this year for me)

now I see what they were talking about

these kids come to class
with freaking TIES AND SHINED SHOES!
they are grateful for this opportunity
and I challenge anyone to tell me
that these students are undeserving of a college education

what is this...'students they wish to attract' bullshit?

What do they really mean? "Let them die if they can't deal with it." The elite have the bucks, so they are the only ones who deserve it.

I asked my niece about eugenics today. She recently started teaching high-school science. She gave me the eugenics spiel word for word.

Too many in the population for the world to sustain life. She even told me how many acres per person there are and there aren't enough.

We need to allow genetic engineering, especially but not limited to the prevention of disease.

Technology is allowing too many to live who would die if not for modern medicine.

My niece is not a right wing wacko and is actually liberal. This is what she was taught.

What she doesn't realize is that if medicine is not letting nature run her course, then neither are social programs like Pell grants.

Hitler's eugenics - Bad.

This other stuff...it's really hard to apply a moral compass to. There are 'values' issues here conflicting with pragmatic limitations.

"When do you pull the plug?" and simular questions arise, plus scientific breakthroughs change the moral issues with each new discovery.

... and Hitler adopted these laws, policies and scientific facts and took them to their logical conclusion.

to pay for more tax shelters for the rich - cut out the tax incentives for businesses to provide health insurance for their employees which will result in many companies (already facing escalating health insurance costs) stopping providing coverage... in short - swell the number of the uninsured...

now add... cut the ability of more people to go to college...

middle america how will you keep your children healthy and educated?

And if he doesn't, it just wasn't meant to be. (scathing sarcasm now turned off)

Impoverish the masses. No college, no good jobs, no union protection; as more jobs are sent overseas we'll take whatever crappy wages they offer us in order to have any job at all. And if we can't get a job that pays a living wage we join the Army, and they get more cannon fodder without even having to re-start the draft. The rest of us are so desperate just to feed ourselves and out families that we will have no time or energy to fight to get our democracy back. Grab your ankles and forget about the Vaseline. This is gonna hurt.

college is for the Massachusetts liberals anyway.

I think most parents still want their kids to exceed their own educational and financial situations. In Indiana, for example, most college grads of all political persuasions leave the state. It's called the "brain drain" and it has really hurt our economy. If I could afford to leave, I would too.

just enough to keep them red. I have lived in the red tide area all my life (MO,OK and now LA), and have found a lot of people still want their children to do better than they have done. This means a collage education in most cases. The only "large scale" exception I have seen has been in the oil fields of south Louisiana where if you just got a good job in the oil field you would do well. Now that is even changing. The people that have been in the industry for a while see the beginning of the end and are steering their children away. This means collage as the only viable alternative to their children doing better than they did. Of course this is all limited to personal observations.

on a silver platter. Let them scorch and scar every last corner of this country. Let the PEOPLE really get the full impact of these heinous thugs. Then maybe the PEOPLE will tar and feather the republicans and run them out of this country. Eventually we can put everything back together, but this time with no loop holes for attack when they raise their ugly heads in a few decades.

sadly what you say makes sense in a masochistic way. The ignorant sheeple will not search for the complex truth until they are suffering from the injustice of the republican policies.

I do think that we must fight with all our might for honest and verifiable voting methods or we will never be in power no matter how much pain the rethugs cause us.

the liburls fault for what they did in the 80's. And
the sheep will believe. I mean, come on, you can
get them to believe in an invisible man in the shy.

most people voted for him. F-ck them all!

I've already served my 8 years in the Army and I only have one semester left until graduation as a RN. Bush isn't going to hurt me nearly as bad as he's going to hurt several million dumb-asses that voted for him. Let em get a taste of what the neo-cons are all about.

What excuse is there from screwing over college students? Is he trying to discourage people from going to college, because that's what it looks like.

of the uneducated,the lowest common denominator who wish to bring everyone down to their level.

They do not want the serfs educated.

Sooner or later that's only the job available to young people...

whom voted for bush won't give a shit, but I'll mention it anyway: didn't the chimpster go on and on about the importance of education in the third debate?

to do when out jobs went to India. Go back to school.

said so. oh well they will be better off in the army.

But all it does is talk about Pell Grants.

How are they cutting the loans?

Looks like the editor should have said "grants"; probably skimmed the first and last sentence of the article and moved on to the next article.

(Not that the loans are staying the deal they were ... aren't the interest rates on those rising?)

Especially those who voted for Bush or may vote for his replacement, Arnold.

I read this in a LTTE today. If it's true then perhaps keeping people ignorant is a goal of certain "groups".

The land that Hugo, Dickens, and Zola wrote about.

If you don't have a class of highly trained and skilled workers, you are then justified in cutting the wage rate for everyone. It's a two pronged approach by the corporations--ship jobs overseas to lower paying labor markets and starve the worker of adequate training here. But I'll betcha, consumer prices keep climbing and we, the people, have no will to participate in a general strike.

“The strength of our democracy is a well educated electorate.”

This reinforces my assumption that there are three reasons that someone would vote Republican: ignorance, greed or dogmatism or a combination thereof. I believe that the reason the Idiot is in office is primary due to the tipping point of our dumb downed society and the repugs obviously want to keep it that way.

to force our Children to enlist to get an education. And to keep us under their thumbs