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Financial Aid Qualifications Unfair

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:04:02 +0000

After graduating High School, many students move away from home to try and make it on their own with little to no financial support from their parents. These young adults must be responsible to pay for rent, food, gas, clothing, and all other necessary expenses for survival. As a requirement for the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) if the student “is not 23 years of age, married, have children or other dependents receiving more than half of their support from the student, enrolled as a graduate or doctoral student, a veteran or member of the U.S. military or an orphan or ward of the court since the age of 18”, then the student must list his or her parents’ income on the application which may prevent them from qualifying for Financial Aid. This is unfair since the parents’ income does not affect them, so the student should not have to report it; The rules should be changed so that if students can prove that they are living independently from their parents, then their income should be the only income reported and considered when evaluating financial need.

Student Researcher: Gabriela Hery
Faculty Instructor: Elliot Cohen
Evaluator: Suzyn Elaine
Indian River State College
Sources: “Editorial: Financial Aid Qualifications Unfair”, The Ranger, November 16th, 2006

http://www.ac-ranger.com/2.6711/editorial-financial-aid-qualifications-unfair-1.976909

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Higher Education Should be Free

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:49:36 +0000

Americans owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards with average college students in $24,000 of college related debt. With tuition costs going up due to grant aid cuts, parents are starting to feel they can no longer afford to send their children to college. It is the poor and middle class who are unable to afford the very thing that enables their children to seek a better life.

$70 to $100 billion dollars is the estimated cost of tuition at public universities across the nation. It sounds like a lot of money, however, providing free higher education for American citizens would cost a little more than the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of the country.

Free higher education would expand our economy. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates a college-educated person will earn $900,000 more over the course of a lifetime than a high school graduate. With college educated workers, are country will have the ability to discover new breakthroughs in biology, nanotechnology, or computer science that would create new industries and promote further prosperity. The wealthy would benefit the most from a well-educated and consequently well-paid work force. A work force that, as a result, would create demand for the products produced by the small businesses and companies the wealthy own.
THe price tag for free public college education would be less than $136 billion spent in Iraq and Afghanistan last year. We need to live up to our egalitarian promise that all people, regardless of wealth of social standing, have the same opportunity for success.

Title: To Hell With Student Loans — It’s time for College to be Free
Publication: AlterNet, November 18th, 201
Author: Dr. C. Alonzo Peters,
URL: http://www.alternet.org/story/148918/to_hell_with_student_loans_–_it%27s_time_for_college_to_be_free

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin, Sonoma State University
Student Researcher: Erin Newton, Sonoma state University
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No Child Left Behind Scam: Ohio Schools Failing Our Children

admin — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:07:42 +0000

The Columbus City School Board has abandoned its role to monitor the district’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds. The Board has remained silent after the district’s Internal Auditor, Carolyn Smith, revealed the Board had not approved 20 million dollars in purchase orders referred to as Super P.O.’s. for the last four years.

The district’s Effectiveness Reports submitted to the Ohio Department of Education for fiscal year 2010 for Supplemental Educational Services (SES) vendors shows only 4 out of 72 vendors received an effective rating. This means the other 68 SES vendors allegedly serving students received well over $3,000,000 for FY 2010, but were considered either not effective or needing improvement in tutoring basic reading and math.
According to The Free Press, “Had the Board’s required Division Legislation Review been implemented, the standard pertaining to comparative prices would have prevented a number of the preferred SES vendors from collectively raising their prices from as little as $20 to as much as $85 an hour for tutoring students in basic math and reading.”

Title: No Child Left Behind scam: Purchase orders bypass Columbus School Board approval to funnel millions of federal dollars to questionable vendors
Publication: The Free Press, Nov. 9, 2010
Author: Kennedy Kent and James A. Whitaker
URL: http://freepress.org/departments/display/18/2010/3994

Faculty Evaluator: Karen Grady, School of Education, Sonoma State University
Student Researcher: Lindsey Tanner, Sonoma State University

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Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:46:25 +0000

On June 5, 2009 World Environment Day, Peruvian Amazon Indians were massacred by the government of Alan Garcia in the latest chapter of a long war to take over common lands—a war unleashed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States. Three MI-17 helicopters took off from the base of the National Police in El Milagro at six in the morning of Friday, June 5. They flew over Devil’s Curve, the part of the highway that joins the jungle with the northern coast, which had been occupied for the past 10 days by some 5,000 Awajun and Wampi indigenous peoples. The copters launched tear gas on the crowd (other versions say they also shot machine guns), while simultaneously a group of agents attacked the road block by ground, firing AKM rifles. A hundred people were wounded by gunshot and between 20-25 were killed. The versions are contradictory. The government claimed days after the events that there are 11 indigenous dead and 23 police. The indigenous organizations reported 50 dead among their ranks and up to 400 disappeared. According to witnesses, the military burned bodies and threw them into the river to hide the massacre, and also took prisoners among the wounded in hospitals. In any case, what is certain is that the government sent the armed forces to evict a peaceful protest that had been going on for 57 days in five jungle regions: Amazonas, Cusco, Loreto, San Martin, and Ucayali.

Title: Massacre in the Amazon: The U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement Sparks a Battle Over Land and Resources

Source: Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) 6/16/2009

URL-http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6191

Title: ‘Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River,’ Say Native Protesters

Author: Raul Zibechi, Translated by Laura Carlson, ‘Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River,’ Say Native Protesters” Milagros Salazar,

Source: Inter Press Service, June 9, 2009

URL- http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47142

Student Researcher: Kelsea Arnold

Faculty Evaluator: Eric McGuckin, PhD

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