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opinion:
our view
Not
a cheap route
As we set out on yet another year of higher learning, we should
be thankful that we made into the ivy-less halls of Cal State
Long Beach.
Not just that we
earned grades high enough to gain admittance, but that we
are able to produce the $5,000 or so per year required to
get our heads stuffed with knowledge.
A recent study
by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance
reported that more than 400,000 college-qualified students
will be unable to attend a four-year school and that nearly
1700,000 will attend no college at all.
Percentage-wise,
this means that 48 percent of low-income college students
will not attend a four-year school and 22 percent of that
number will not attend college.
With the world’s
economy already shifted into the information age, the need
for a college education has never more vital to surviving
in the workplace.
Despite the best
efforts of the federal government, subsidies such as the Pell
Grant have not kept up with tuition inflation and do not go
as far as they used to.
Even those students
who can afford to go to college must work full- or part-time
to pay the bills, putting further stress on them and making
learning that much more difficult.
Making things even
gloomier, looming on the economic horizon is either a recession
or a multitude of government payouts to people cheated by
thieving CEOs, much like the savings and loan scandal payouts
of the 80s.
With war against
whomever is handy also on the agenda, the likelihood for more
for education is even slimmer.
What is especially
ironic is the number of scholarships that go unclaimed by
students every year, including those at CSULB.
If you can only
get the money to enter the door, we have some cash lying around
to ensure you stay here.
So, what can we
do to ensure a level playing field for all students?
Unfortunately,
probably not a whole lot. The report’s recommendation was
for the increasing of the maximum Pell Grant amount, not exactly
something you can fire off an angry e-mail to your congressional
representative about, especially with a “war” going on.
But since there
is so much money going unclaimed, make an effort to find out
about it; if not for yourself than for someone already attending
or on his or her way to school.
If a company offers
a scholarship to a designated student that goes unclaimed,
it might discontinue it, preventing someone from getting it
in the future.
Or, you just might
help someone be able to quit that third job of theirs and
be able to devote more time to studying.
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