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Bush plans pare college, child care aid White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels has been thwarted in his attempts to cut $1.3 billion from the federal budget by ending a college loan consolidation program that would cap interest rates and allow graduates to lock in interest on a repayment rate. Daniels' plan would have only allowed variable interest rates, thus costing the average borrower $3,000 more.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has proposed limiting daycare assistance for needy families to mostly work pursuits, thus making it harder for any of them to attain higher education.
Pell Grants, once the mainstay for financially struggling students, are now so poorly funded they make up a small part of the total financial package for a college student. All this has made the gap between high and low income families having a child getting into college wider and wider. One quarter of highly capable high school seniors this year in the United States will not go on to college due strictly to finances. This appalling lack of commitment to a highly educated citizenry by the Bush administration and Republicans in general can only bode ill for the United States in the coming information age and global economy.
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Larry W. Jensen
Plentywood
