The Closing Door of Education
One of the few doors left open to minorities, disadvantaged, and high risk groups is being closed at a time when we need the productivity only an educated work force can provide. In the nineteen nineties we virtually closed universities to them, and in the decades that followed, the doors of community colleges squeaked close. Their last bastion of hope, for profit institutions, are now closing their doors in response to new government mandates.
For years access to main stream Universities by minorities and other at risk populations has been blocked as universities employed “educational necessity “to admission standards which often have the effect of excluding minorities and at risk populations. The end of affirmative action, gave universities a great deal of latitude to structure their student bodies almost any way they chose. The test of “educational necessity” was a generalized rule that required universities to employ testing which had been validated, and had some relation to fulfilling an educational need. In order to make the student bodies more diverse, to meet research needs, and a long list of other requirements could be, and often were used to include or exclude groups of individuals. All that the courts required was that the testing be validated and for furtherance of educational goals. The result was an overall reduction in minority participation in those schools. Let me be clear, growth did occur, but not in proportion to main stream America. In many cases minority participation was one fifth that of non- minorities, and in the last few years has been in decline. A lot of this can be attributed to the general state of k-12 education in this country. Schools in urban centers and poor rural communities where most minorities are found have fewer resources, teachers with less training and pay, and less overall preparation for college. Their chances of getting into a tier one university are slim. Minorities had to look to the community college system to fulfill the American dream of getting a college education.
The Community College system found its maximum growth in the nineteen sixties with large numbers of boomers seeking educational degrees for job advancement. States responded with the expansion of the community college system to a large number of technical and other programs to meet this need. With the closure of universities to many minorities, the community colleges became a viable option. This system was accessible, because there was an open admissions policy allowing anyone to enter and take classes. Significant numbers of minority and high risk students entered these institutions because of the open admission policy, and failed to survive the first year. Coming from sub-standard high schools, they lacked the skill sets to succeed. It was not long before the keepers of the public purse began to look at these failures and to employ certain metrics to ensure the public money was being well spent. This forced a change in standards as agencies looked at graduation statistics, retention, and repayment numbers to be sure dollars were not being wasted. Those schools not meeting the metrics would lose federal funding. Most institutions today depend on federal dollars to keep their doors open. If their numbers are outside those the federal government requires, they take steps to correct the situation. In response, Community colleges put in place remedial courses, and under protection of “educational necessity” shunted these problem students into these courses, so they did not actually count against their statistics. Technically, these students were not officially part of the student body while in these remedial classes. Students would then be required to spend years simply getting ready to take college courses. This added expense, and a great deal of time to degree completion. Some students would spend up to five years getting a two year degree. Even if the student completed the remedial courses, they would often find themselves out of sequence to get the college courses they needed. The student would have to wait until the course was offered again, which might be the next year. Subsequently, students dropped out at record rates. That left only the for profit institutions as a path for many of these students to get degrees.
Today, in response to legislation new legislation, my school, along with other for profit institutions will begin testing of applicants to denying them access to the schools based on that test. For many years, for profit institutions have had a literal open admission policy. They have serviced the high risk and minority populations with technical programs designed to produce viable graduates in a short period of time. Now, for profit institutions are moving to exclude the very students that have built their corporations. To meet this new requirement they will exclude high risk and minority students by requiring them complete remedial courses on the basis of a test applied randomly to a selected segment of people seeking admission. If they fail this course, they will not be allowed to attend the school. This is all to insure that the graduation, retention, and repayment statistics they report will meet federal requirements. Where will these students go to get college educations? Will we relegate generations of minorities and the poor to second or third class status because they cannot get an education? I have been unfortunate enough to see the impact denial of education has had on generations of blacks, Hispanic, and the poor. I had to fight a war in Asia to get the right to enter a college, and fought endless battles to stay in school and succeed. I found those same struggles confronting me as I entered law school. Even after graduation, with a law degree, I fought battles on a daily basis to be sure the doors of education were open to everyone. Now, as a member of an educational institution where I serve as a School Chair, I find it disheartening that these measures are now going to push generations of the poor, minorities, and high risk students away from the American dream forever. With all the emphasis on the federal budget and corporate profitability, will we leave everyone else behind?
The Business of Education in America
For over two hundred years the American education system has been based on the right of all its citizens to an education. Through this guiding principle America has led the world to expanded education opportunity for women, oppressed minorities, and populations generally. As the world has come to embrace the American philosophy, America is abandoning this core belief and dividing education into the wealthy, who can afford education, and the rest of the country that will not be able to afford it.
For several decades, American education was in retreat in the technical areas of science and engineering. To address these deficiencies, technical schools in secondary education and for profit colleges came into existence. They encouraged students not inclined to pursue additional education to enter technical fields and pursue higher education. Students that would not become engaged in a process of learning were suddenly involved. Students who could not make passing grades were suddenly making the A’s and B’s in vocational technical courses and for profit technical institutions.
Today, these two areas of education constitute a growing number of successful students actively involved in higher education. Vocational schools and for profit colleges are designed to encourage students to become involved in technical careers, and are often structured without much of the liberal arts training that accompany traditional degrees. There’s been a longstanding disagreement as to whether students should be funneled into specific and very narrow technical educational streams, or weather all students should be forced to obtain a more generalized education designed to move them toward undergraduate degrees and eventually to graduate degrees.
Although this disagreement has ragged for several generations, the effect of vocational training and for profit technical institutions cannot be denied. They have successfully moved a large segment of the population into technical careers very successfully. However, in recent months the department of education has begun to take issue with the success of the schools because they cannot guarantee that their graduates will be able to meet income guidelines created to show the success of American education of dollars that are being spent for these programs. Vocational schools and secondary education are being cut across the nation in response to the economic downturn our society is currently facing, and this policy of the department of education. Rather than address the more complex issue of how we can meld traditional, and technical areas of education into a single educational system, federal funding to provide vocational training and technical education is being slashed by the Federal government.
At a time when the administration and the business community l recognize the need for a stronger commitment to technical education throughout the country, we are reducing the ability of students to obtain the education loans necessary to pay for their education because we have a fundamental disagreement as to whether there should be more general education in English, literature and the arts, and less a single minded focus on a narrow technical field. This seems to be an argument without merit since both have the single purpose of trying to educate the American public to be competitive in the marketplace of tomorrow. This is occurring at the same time that a recent study has demonstrated that the effect of a college education benefits all students whether it is in their field, general education, or in a narrow technical area. Rather than building on that premise to encourage students across the country to pursue higher education, our focus has turned to the ability of students to repay the loans to banks as the single determining factor as to whether the education was useful. The standard being put forward by the department of education does just that.
It focuses their efforts on seeing that students can make enough money to repay the loans, rather than focusing on why education costs are rising so dramatically. Their focus is on making sure that students repay banks. With businesses making arguments that they need to import more foreign workers to meet the growing technical demand of high tech industry, we’re forcing American students out of the educational system as we argue their ability to pay back a bank is the single determining factor as to the quality of their education. This would not be so absurd if it were not for another of movement that is taking place in grade schools around the country today.
For people who have money, there is a growing need for private preschools that are for profit in nature to prepare their children for the prestigious schools that select only a handful of American students each year. This for profit model for primary and secondary schools is becoming as popular in United States as it is abroad in countries such as Europe and Asia. Parents of wealth are quick to hand over as much as $40,000 a year to have their children placed in preparatory schools that will prepare them for prestigious colleges. Currently, a number of private investors are putting up as much as $200,000,000 to fund these types of for profit institutions. It is a growth industry that will find a burgeoning market place with in this country and abroad as the division between haves and have-nots in education continues to broaden.
These parents have little faith in the public education system in this country. They are putting their money, and their children in the hands of for profit institutions that they believe will make them better able to compete in the highly technical world of tomorrow. As Madison Avenue at the American banking system find a new profitable market, they will exploit it as fully and as completely as they have the traditional American education system, to the detriment of the larger society. Education in this country is becoming a tool of banks and the wealthy and not what was envisioned by the founding fathers or the many men and women who helped create this country over many generations. It is no longer serving the public need and only looks to the needs of the wealthy, and the financial institutions whose profit motive is the single driving force for their existence.
While the rest of the world is adopting the American model of an educational system that is the envy of the world, we are abandoning that system to move toward one that cannot serve the nation or the society. If we continue down this road our nation will be forever looking to the educational systems of other countries to provide the technological expertise, and the innovative thinking that will move the world and the society forward. In one breath the department of education for our nation is telling us that for profit institutions do not work and we must regarded with suspicion graduates at any college level from these institutions, while at the same time this same model is being instituted at grade schools and in elementary schools across the nation because there is a growing need for a better education system to meet the standards of tomorrow. However this growing need excludes much of American Society. If we follow this path it will only the wealthy will receive an education in this country.
Federal Grants for College
Grants are like scholarships. They are free financial aid programs that are offered for study and the student is not required to repay the money.
Typically based on a variety of metrics, including economic need, ability to pay student status and academic requirements, Federal and state government grants are offered to students in college. Family income does not influence grants exclusively.
Types of College Grants
College students have two general types of grant programs:
* Need-based grants
* Merit-based grants
Federal Grants
One of the largest providers of student grants is the Federal government and in order to qualify, you must file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) annually.
The Federal Pell Grant is the most common federal grant and is funded by the federal government. It is designed to help provide financially disadvantaged undergraduate students with financial assistance. The amount you receive each year may change Depending on federal budget restrictions; the amount that you receive each year depends on your family’s expected cost contribution, and your student status.
A type of government grant awarded only to students with the most need, the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant Program is typically awarded to students that have an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) or 0 on their financial aid Student Aid Report (SAR). First, students with the most need are provided funding. Then the remaining federal FSEOG funds “trickle down” to provide assistance to students with the next greatest level of need.
On-campus job opportunities are provided to financially needy students by the Federally-funded work-study programs. These let students earn money toward their college expenses.
One of the oldest federal educational benefit assistance programs, the military Montgomery G.I. Bill is catered to students that have served in the military. These students may qualify for a certain amount of federal funding for a college education or vocational and technical training.
Merit-Based Grants
Merit-based grants provide free college funds to students Based on academic performance and, sometimes in combination with financial need; merit-based grants provide free college funds to students. State grants are the most common types of merit-based grants. They award students with certain GPAs and income levels money for their college education. Usually requiring a separate application form, state grants may also require completion and filing of the FAFSA. Your state government’s or higher education website typically carries information and details about most state-based grants.
How to Apply for College Grants
Requiring you to file a FAFSA, most grant programs take it from here – so make this the first application you fill out. The filled in FAFSA also puts you in consideration for any federal grants. It is important to remember and submit the form by the federal and state FAFSA deadlines. Extra forms of documentation, such as academic transcripts, are required by some programs in order to qualify.
Completing the FAFSA as well as exploring your options for state-based aid, make sure that you are considered for grant money. Your college or university also may offer grant programs; therefore check for them as well.