Monday, January 12, 2015
It's not nothing... But does that mean it's something? Really, is it anything?
The thing in question is free community college. Obama, in a desperate attempt to be relevant and provide some boost to the Democrats in 2016, has proposed free community college tuition nationwide. As a financial aid counselor working at a community college who is obsessed with the possible changes to my employment and the structure of higher education, I was intrigued. Actually, upon hearing it, my blood turned to ice. I thawed quickly, but I knew I'd need to post about it, if only to process it for myself. Let's take a look at the various aspects of such a plan:
First, where did the policy come from? Tennessee offers free community college, and Obama's plan is based off that state's program, from the Tennessee Promise website:
In other words, this program would augment financial aid, not replace it. It's aid for the middle and upper classes. Ergo, financial aid counselors such as myself are safe. In fact, we'll actually have more work. I'm getting ahead of myself by saying that. Speaking of which...
Second: How would this affect financial aid? Using the Tennessee program as a guide, we can safely assume that this would be available to people just about to graduate from high school, and those above the age of 22 or so would be ineligible. This means that only dependent students would qualify, and there would probably be a time limit after graduating from high school.
The bottom line is that it would increase my workload, not reduce or eliminate it. Referring to the italicized quote above, replace TSAA with HESC (TAP) and ignore HOPE Scholarship all together, and what we're facing is an entire school populace applying for financial aid as if they were all in the National Guard. Only after all aid sources have been denied can a Guardsman receive the promised military tuition benefits. If this were to happen, the news would not be all good. There are two smaller aid programs: the Student Equal Opportunity Grant (SEOG), and Federal Work Study (FWS) which are awarded to schools based on the average income of financial aid applicants, and if the family making $225,000 a year suddenly applies (this is Westchester; we have plenty of families making that much), then SEOG and FWS go bye-bye. These programs don't make or break a student's ability to attend college, but a little extra money for books, or the paycheck received while learning higher ed, have beneficial effects lasting a long time. Most people who have college administration as careers began their paths via Work-Study. You don't choose financial aid; it chooses you.
Nevertheless, the good would outweigh the bad. The best result of this policy would be the elimination of student loans at the community college level. True, this would eliminate loans only for the wealthiest Americans, as you'd still need to apply for financial aid, and the poor would come here for free anyway. That's the theory, anyway. The probably reality is a little different. Counting the grant/scholarship/whatever-they-end-up-calling-it as a form of aid, which it should be, students would still be able to take out loans. Assuming no financial aid, and using my school as a guide, the yearly budget for a full-time dependent student is $12,500. Tuition and fees would be $4900, so the student would have $7600 in unmet budget, which could be partially met via student loans. A student could borrow an additional $5500 in the first year, then either $5500 or $6500 the second year. There's the chance student loans could be curtailed, but I doubt it.
There's also the possibility that tuition and fees would skyrocket, as is often the case when the government pays for something. This wouldn't hurt the students receiving the new program, but everyone else would pay more. Because the program is limited to two years, this probably isn't an issue.
Academics: The policy essentially makes community colleges an extension of high school. That this is even discussed shows how badly the education system has decayed, but whatever. The question I need to ask is whether or not remedial courses would be covered. I'd venture yes, but this flies in the face of the path colleges and financial aid were contemplating: no more money and no more emphasis for remedial classes.
Also, there's the possibility of grade inflation. The policy requires a 2.5 GPA, and while that's not hard, a lot of our students won't make the grade. This isn't that much of an issue here, as teachers have never been under that much pressure to boost grades. This dovetails with financial aid, as I'd question what would happen if the GPA dips below the C+ threshold. Would the grant disappear? Would there be a waiver process? I doubt even the President could answer.
Political realities: I wasn't sure if this should have been first or last. The bottom line is that as a national policy, it's dead on arrival. The Republicans control the House and Senate. There's the possibility that the policy could be undertaken on a state-by-state basis, but again, there's no political will to fund any phase of this program. There will be more information given on Friday, but I have a feeling it will be drowned out by the crisis in Europe. Larger issues are crowding the news cycle, so if this was Obama's big push in his final days as president, it fell short.
First, where did the policy come from? Tennessee offers free community college, and Obama's plan is based off that state's program, from the Tennessee Promise website:
It will provide students a last-dollar scholarship, meaning the
scholarship will cover tuition and fees not covered by the Pell grant,
the HOPE scholarship, or TSAA funds.
In other words, this program would augment financial aid, not replace it. It's aid for the middle and upper classes. Ergo, financial aid counselors such as myself are safe. In fact, we'll actually have more work. I'm getting ahead of myself by saying that. Speaking of which...
Second: How would this affect financial aid? Using the Tennessee program as a guide, we can safely assume that this would be available to people just about to graduate from high school, and those above the age of 22 or so would be ineligible. This means that only dependent students would qualify, and there would probably be a time limit after graduating from high school.
The bottom line is that it would increase my workload, not reduce or eliminate it. Referring to the italicized quote above, replace TSAA with HESC (TAP) and ignore HOPE Scholarship all together, and what we're facing is an entire school populace applying for financial aid as if they were all in the National Guard. Only after all aid sources have been denied can a Guardsman receive the promised military tuition benefits. If this were to happen, the news would not be all good. There are two smaller aid programs: the Student Equal Opportunity Grant (SEOG), and Federal Work Study (FWS) which are awarded to schools based on the average income of financial aid applicants, and if the family making $225,000 a year suddenly applies (this is Westchester; we have plenty of families making that much), then SEOG and FWS go bye-bye. These programs don't make or break a student's ability to attend college, but a little extra money for books, or the paycheck received while learning higher ed, have beneficial effects lasting a long time. Most people who have college administration as careers began their paths via Work-Study. You don't choose financial aid; it chooses you.
Nevertheless, the good would outweigh the bad. The best result of this policy would be the elimination of student loans at the community college level. True, this would eliminate loans only for the wealthiest Americans, as you'd still need to apply for financial aid, and the poor would come here for free anyway. That's the theory, anyway. The probably reality is a little different. Counting the grant/scholarship/whatever-they-end-up-calling-it as a form of aid, which it should be, students would still be able to take out loans. Assuming no financial aid, and using my school as a guide, the yearly budget for a full-time dependent student is $12,500. Tuition and fees would be $4900, so the student would have $7600 in unmet budget, which could be partially met via student loans. A student could borrow an additional $5500 in the first year, then either $5500 or $6500 the second year. There's the chance student loans could be curtailed, but I doubt it.
There's also the possibility that tuition and fees would skyrocket, as is often the case when the government pays for something. This wouldn't hurt the students receiving the new program, but everyone else would pay more. Because the program is limited to two years, this probably isn't an issue.
Academics: The policy essentially makes community colleges an extension of high school. That this is even discussed shows how badly the education system has decayed, but whatever. The question I need to ask is whether or not remedial courses would be covered. I'd venture yes, but this flies in the face of the path colleges and financial aid were contemplating: no more money and no more emphasis for remedial classes.
Also, there's the possibility of grade inflation. The policy requires a 2.5 GPA, and while that's not hard, a lot of our students won't make the grade. This isn't that much of an issue here, as teachers have never been under that much pressure to boost grades. This dovetails with financial aid, as I'd question what would happen if the GPA dips below the C+ threshold. Would the grant disappear? Would there be a waiver process? I doubt even the President could answer.
Political realities: I wasn't sure if this should have been first or last. The bottom line is that as a national policy, it's dead on arrival. The Republicans control the House and Senate. There's the possibility that the policy could be undertaken on a state-by-state basis, but again, there's no political will to fund any phase of this program. There will be more information given on Friday, but I have a feeling it will be drowned out by the crisis in Europe. Larger issues are crowding the news cycle, so if this was Obama's big push in his final days as president, it fell short.
Monday, January 05, 2015
Happy 2015! Or....
Man did the second half of 2014 suck....
It's been an interesting year, with highs and lows nearly in the same week. Nevertheless, it's time to look at the new year and see where the economy is going, where my finances are going, and what I plan to do in the new year.
First, the economy is supposed to be improving, but the improvements aren't evenly distributed. America seems to be creating a permanent underclass with no hope of escape. The Millennial generation has the lowest percentage of business ownership in nearly 26 years. It's like the early 90's without the promise of the Internet boom. The strange thing is that government benefits are so generous that if you manage the situation properly, being poor doesn't have to be painful. Nevertheless, situations like this cannot last. While having breakfast with Scott this morning, he snapped at me while I was discussing my overtime for next week. Truthfully, I'm quite sick with the flu, and that's after getting bronchitis, combined with a particularly nasty cold, and all within two weeks. I've had 3 days of feeling good since before Christmas. Ergo, if it was not registration, I'd call in sick. Unfortunately, it is registration, and doing so would cost me a ton of money, around $595. He proceeded to explode when I came close to telling him how much I'd lose. Obviously, my friends are a little sick of hearing about my good fortune, but I wasn't trying to rub his (or anyone's) face in it. In fact there were many times he said I should get more money to collapse the system sooner. Here in lies the rub: the system is much more resilient than he understands, and the process of getting to collapse will be much harder on the productive class than he realized. He's no longer so sanguine about my (or any other civil servant's) salary. Part of the problem is that some sections of the economy are, in fact, improving. The price of oil, while not good news for many parts of the world, is a huge boon to Americans, especially those with high gas taxes, like New York. The dollar is kicking ass all over the globe, if only because other currencies are falling faster. Wall Street is booming, and as I mentioned in a prior post, some of those billions head straight to Westchester tax coffers, and eventually into my wallet. So long as foreigners keep investing, the system will have some fuel to keep going. While the system still stands, the reaching into Americans' pockets will get worse and worse. He and all other members of the private sector are in an abusive relationship with no method of escape. Does this mean the collapse won't occur? No, but there's no idea when it will happen. The Senate and House are strongly Republican (and election night 2014 is worthy of a blog post itself), so there's a chance the pain could lessen. I'm unconvinced.
As for my personal finances, I'm taking the same tack I took in 2014: pay all my bills ahead of time and use the rest of the money to pay off my car and my retirement loans. I've typed this before, but I'm doing pretty well in this regard. All the overtime helps quite a bit, naturally, and there's plenty of it at the moment. The goal is to have all my bills paid (disclaimer: all the bills I know how to pay early) by the end of March or early April. Thanks to Google Docs, I've been recording my spending via an online journal (now at 22 pages and counting), for the past two months, and I've been pretty good. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but I'm only two months into the effort.In other news, Simon black is having another conference, and I signed up for it the moment I received the web link. It sold out in 15 minutes, but I have my seat. The best part is that I paid for the event and the plane ticket as soon as the charge went through. It's part of the reason I'm a little behind in my bill-paying plan, though I did budget for it. I just wasn't sure of when I'd need to pay for it. I was right about the price, however. In dovetailing with the previous paragraph, I give myself 3-5 years before things fall apart for me. This timeline is separate from the system at large. I could be gone prior, or last a bit longer as the system cannibalizes any source of wealth to keep going.
Concerning my goals, a large one was just listed: pay off my car, retirement loans, and start paying my 2016 bills around Dec. of '15. The overall goal is to be out of this dump of a co-op soon. I'm also going to the next Simon Black event, and that completely makes me damn near freak out. The main mission is to get some sort of green card for another nation (probably Panama) either when I'm there, or by the time I get there.There are other, smaller goals, like learning to sail, getting an EMT certification, taking foreign language classes and the like. I've detailed this in another
Google Document dedicated to how I spend my time. At the ripe age of 44, the value of my time is greater than money. That being stated, my money paper is 22 pages and growing while my time paper is presently 6. Anyway, the turning of the calendar shouldn't mean this much, but it does. We all need a push, and this flipping of the odometer is as good as any other.
It's been an interesting year, with highs and lows nearly in the same week. Nevertheless, it's time to look at the new year and see where the economy is going, where my finances are going, and what I plan to do in the new year.
First, the economy is supposed to be improving, but the improvements aren't evenly distributed. America seems to be creating a permanent underclass with no hope of escape. The Millennial generation has the lowest percentage of business ownership in nearly 26 years. It's like the early 90's without the promise of the Internet boom. The strange thing is that government benefits are so generous that if you manage the situation properly, being poor doesn't have to be painful. Nevertheless, situations like this cannot last. While having breakfast with Scott this morning, he snapped at me while I was discussing my overtime for next week. Truthfully, I'm quite sick with the flu, and that's after getting bronchitis, combined with a particularly nasty cold, and all within two weeks. I've had 3 days of feeling good since before Christmas. Ergo, if it was not registration, I'd call in sick. Unfortunately, it is registration, and doing so would cost me a ton of money, around $595. He proceeded to explode when I came close to telling him how much I'd lose. Obviously, my friends are a little sick of hearing about my good fortune, but I wasn't trying to rub his (or anyone's) face in it. In fact there were many times he said I should get more money to collapse the system sooner. Here in lies the rub: the system is much more resilient than he understands, and the process of getting to collapse will be much harder on the productive class than he realized. He's no longer so sanguine about my (or any other civil servant's) salary. Part of the problem is that some sections of the economy are, in fact, improving. The price of oil, while not good news for many parts of the world, is a huge boon to Americans, especially those with high gas taxes, like New York. The dollar is kicking ass all over the globe, if only because other currencies are falling faster. Wall Street is booming, and as I mentioned in a prior post, some of those billions head straight to Westchester tax coffers, and eventually into my wallet. So long as foreigners keep investing, the system will have some fuel to keep going. While the system still stands, the reaching into Americans' pockets will get worse and worse. He and all other members of the private sector are in an abusive relationship with no method of escape. Does this mean the collapse won't occur? No, but there's no idea when it will happen. The Senate and House are strongly Republican (and election night 2014 is worthy of a blog post itself), so there's a chance the pain could lessen. I'm unconvinced.
As for my personal finances, I'm taking the same tack I took in 2014: pay all my bills ahead of time and use the rest of the money to pay off my car and my retirement loans. I've typed this before, but I'm doing pretty well in this regard. All the overtime helps quite a bit, naturally, and there's plenty of it at the moment. The goal is to have all my bills paid (disclaimer: all the bills I know how to pay early) by the end of March or early April. Thanks to Google Docs, I've been recording my spending via an online journal (now at 22 pages and counting), for the past two months, and I've been pretty good. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but I'm only two months into the effort.In other news, Simon black is having another conference, and I signed up for it the moment I received the web link. It sold out in 15 minutes, but I have my seat. The best part is that I paid for the event and the plane ticket as soon as the charge went through. It's part of the reason I'm a little behind in my bill-paying plan, though I did budget for it. I just wasn't sure of when I'd need to pay for it. I was right about the price, however. In dovetailing with the previous paragraph, I give myself 3-5 years before things fall apart for me. This timeline is separate from the system at large. I could be gone prior, or last a bit longer as the system cannibalizes any source of wealth to keep going.
Concerning my goals, a large one was just listed: pay off my car, retirement loans, and start paying my 2016 bills around Dec. of '15. The overall goal is to be out of this dump of a co-op soon. I'm also going to the next Simon Black event, and that completely makes me damn near freak out. The main mission is to get some sort of green card for another nation (probably Panama) either when I'm there, or by the time I get there.There are other, smaller goals, like learning to sail, getting an EMT certification, taking foreign language classes and the like. I've detailed this in another
Google Document dedicated to how I spend my time. At the ripe age of 44, the value of my time is greater than money. That being stated, my money paper is 22 pages and growing while my time paper is presently 6. Anyway, the turning of the calendar shouldn't mean this much, but it does. We all need a push, and this flipping of the odometer is as good as any other.
