Letters & Opinion
“Save our Students”
Chair of WISPIRG – Stevens Point
Treasure of Pi Sigma Alpha
UCAPB Non-traditional Student Representative
Scott V. Asbach
Student Government Association President
Student of Biology and Chemistry
Kirk Cychosz
The next couple weeks are vastly important for students across the country, as H.R. 3221: Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 lands on the Senate floor.
As states have cut budgets and federal need based aid has stagnated over the past several decades, students and families from working class and middle incomes are struggling to pay for college. The Pell Grant currently serves close to 7 million students in helping them pay for college, but in a fairly limited way. Lackluster federal investment in the Pell Grant has undercut its impact; in 1977, the Pell grant covered 77% of the total cost of attendance but now it only covers 35%. Now, qualified students of modest means are dropping out of the college application process by the hundreds of thousands each year. Those who do decide to attend are overly-reliant on student loans to pay for their degree, and are graduating with more debt than average. University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point students graduate with an average of $17,494 of debt.
The consequences are extreme. At current rates of degree attainment, the U.S. is projected to fall 16 million college degrees short of meeting workforce needs in 2025. And graduates with loan debt aren’t able to get ahead. Too many young adults from lower or middle incomes who play by the rules and do everything right are finding it hard to get into college, securely stay there and to thrive after graduation. Problems associated with student loan debt are only worsened in this tough economic climate.
The federal student aid programs were started to ensure that no qualified student is held back from a college degree due to cost, but they are failing to achieve their goal. Tackling the problem head on, President Obama proposed a game-changing higher education plan that reinvests in and reprioritizes the Pell Grant after years of neglect.
His proposal calls for a significant investment in the Pell Grant maximum to help students of modest means to cover more of their total cost of attendance. His proposal would expand the number of students who qualify for the grant. But the most significant aspect of the plan is to peg the Pell Grant maximum to the rising cost of living, so that the Grant would reliably increase. Currently, federal Pell Grant amounts are subject to budget shortfalls and unpredictable increases in grant aid to students, which undermine college financing plans.
Under Obama’s proposal, struggling students and families could confidently plan how to pay for college. And to pay for the proposal, the president’s budget asks Congress to end excessive entitlement subsidies for financial institutions that process federal loans to students and parents. The U.S. House of Representatives has all ready passed the bill, now it is up to the Senate to save our students. Call or write Senators Feingold and Kohl to let them know you support Wisconsin’s future and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009.
