As the economically-minded students might have already heard, President Bush has been shaking up the federal student aid scene in a big way. His plans involve cutting Perkins Loans, increasing Pell Grants, guaranteeing less money to banks for other loans (which means less money for general student loans) disabling student loan consolidation. Forbes documents that his 2006 budget-reconciliation bill will also dramatically cut funding to Stafford Loans (which will carry a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent). PLUS loans will carry an interest of 8.5 percent, a rate which has doubled in the last two years.
And if that was bad news, consider this: tuition costs are still rising. UT plans to raise tuition 4.25 percent for the fall semester. And while a small number of banks (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Citizens Community Bank) are offering alternative loans, those loans are significantly harder to qualify for (often needing a cosigner) and will still carry high interest rates, while not giving provision for a cancellation of the loan.
The War in Iraq cost 249,638,283,784 taxpayer dollars as of 2:38 a.m. on March 24. With that sum, 12,101,914 students could have their entire four-year college education financed. We could have funded a worldwide AIDS program for 24 years. We could have eradicated world hunger for 10 years or built 2,247,728 houses for the homeless. With that money, America might have insured that every child in the world got basic immunization for 82 years. For this and other shocking tabular data, please visit nationalpriorities.org
Comparative average college costs of other nations all measured in US dollars (with the US topping the charts at 80,872 dollars for public and 102,758 for a private institution) include the UK at 66,660; Australia at 41,890 and India at 10,860. For the last decade, as college costs have reached historical heights, American student turnover to academic institutions in other countries has been significantly high. As college funding reaches historical lows with no end in sight to the raises in college costs, there is no doubt that many more students will consider this outlet a viable option.
What other choice do students have, as America the Free becomes America the Indebted?