In hard times, lured into trade school and debt, By Peter S. Goodman, March 13, 2010, New York Times: “One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools. At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year. But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students…”
Tag: Financial aid
Low-income Students and Higher Education – Iowa
Fewer poor enrolled at regent schools, By Gunnar Olson, September 20, 2009, Des Moines Register: “Fewer and fewer students from Iowa’s low-income families are being educated by the state’s public universities, despite their mission to educate Iowans of diverse socioeconomic status, U.S. Department of Education data show. Iowa ranked nearly last in the United States for the share of Pell Grant recipients – a common measurement of low-income students – enrolled at its public universities in the 2007-08 school year. Only public universities in the District of Columbia, Rhode Island and Wyoming served lower percentages, although such comparisons are imperfect because factors vary state to state…”
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act
Revising student aid formula, house votes to expand federal loans, By Tamar Lewin, September 17, 2009, New York Times: “The House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that expands federal aid to college students while ending federal subsidies to private lenders. By shifting to direct federal lending, the Obama administration said it will save more than $80 billion over 10 years, which will go into higher Pell Grants for low-income students, new investments in community colleges, early-childhood programs and other education efforts. The vote was 253 to 171. The measure, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, now goes to the Senate, where Democratic leaders expect it to pass…”