Posts Tagged ‘community colleges’

The (March 4th) Revolution will be Tweeted

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Tomorrow, students from around the country will be taking action against budget cuts to education, and all of the tuition hikes, enrollment caps, cuts to state student aid, lay-offs, wage cuts, furloughs, and other problems that they have caused. Here at Campus Progress, we hope that college administrations, state governments, and Congress are paying close attention: students are hurting, angry, and organized. You can see if there are actions planned in your area here.

There are already some great ways to follow this mobilization (for example, http://studentactivism.net/ has a great maps and a great blog), but I wanted to add two more options (below). We will also be posting some updates on this site tomorrow.


Congressman Tim Bishop, Panelists Discuss College Affordability

Friday, December 4th, 2009

On Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, Campus Progress, the US Students Association, and US PIRG sponsored an event about the college affordability crisis, student organizing for affordable and accessible universities, and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Much of the discussion centered around the 32% fee hikes in California, and the student reaction to that decision. Check it out:

Sallie Mae Plan Means $4-8 Billion Less for Education

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
"you can dress this up 100 different ways and put a Santa Hat on it, but this is still the same budget gimmick lenders have been pushing for months to line their own pockets" - Rep. George Miller

"You can dress this up 100 different ways and put a Santa Hat on it, but this is still the same budget gimmick lenders have been pushing for months to line their own pockets" - Rep. George Miller

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), at the request of Sen. Casey, just examined the alternative to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) written by Sallie Mae. The last time the plan was examined by the CBO, it found that it would mean $13-17 billion less in grants for students, investments in community colleges, funding for early learning programs, etc.

This time around, the CBO put that number at $4 billion.

But, as Rep. Miller said in a press release earlier today, “you can dress this up 100 different ways and put a Santa Hat on it, but this is still the same budget gimmick lenders have been pushing for months to line their own pockets with billions of dollars that should be used to help students.”  Both Rep. Miller and Sen. Harkin—Chairmen of the House and Senate education committees, respectively—pointed out that Sallie Mae was able to do better with the CBO this time because the lenders had their plan “sunset” after five years, while SAFRA is calculated for 10 years.

The lenders will, undoubtedly, fight for their plan to be continued in five years, which would mean at least $8 billion less to invest in education. (more…)

Campus Progress Attends Higher Education Panel including Deputy Undersecretary of Education Robert Shireman

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Graduation Cap on Cash

Graduation Cap on Cash

“If we don’t have climbing walls and sushi bars in our universities, does that make us un-American?”

So asked a panelist in a half-joking comment Thursday about the gravely misplaced priorities of higher education institutions. Five speakers, including Robert Shireman, the deputy undersecretary of Education for the federal administration, met at a discussion hosted by the Education Sector and Washington Monthly at George Washington University. In light of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) that is currently before congress, the panelists offered up specific strategies to improve the system with the goal of increasing affordability, graduation rates, and overall quality of education. (more…)

CP Statement: Improving Community Colleges Depends on Switch to Direct Lending for Student Loans

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

“Campus Progress applauds President Obama’s new community college initiative, which would allow millions of Americans to pursue higher education and become more competitive in the workforce.

The funding of this new initiative depends in part on passage of legislation enacting the President’s proposal to switch to all direct lending for federally-guaranteed student loans. That plan would save the government approximately $87 billion over 10 years, and part of this savings – $12 billion – would be used to fund the community college initiative.

Thus, a clear choice has just become that much more obvious: Congress can vote for more wasteful subsidies for banks, or they can stand with young people and displaced workers seeking an education.”

*Cross-posted at Students Over Banks.

Community Colleges & Unmet Need

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

The Institute for College Access and Success put out a fact sheet yesterday examining the challenges that many community college students face when it comes to financing their education. Most importantly, TICAS find that community college students have higher levels of unmet need—the gap between available resources, including financial aid, and the cost of education—than public and private four year students. Here are a few quick graphs made from the data:

Note: These chart reflects the percentage of students who have documented financial need, not all students. In case you were wondering what portion of all students at the different kind of schools had documented financial need: (more…)