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Congress weighs huge cuts in student aid

Published Oct 7, 2005 9:58 PM

As the Higher Education Act of 1965 comes up for reauthorization, a bipartisan attack on federal student aid has surfaced that attempts to pit students against Hurricane Katrina survivors.


On Sept. 24 in
Washington, D.C.

Congress has until the end of the year to vote to reauthorize the Act, which provides loans, grants and college preparatory programs for low-income students.

In a move intended to stifle debate about proposed cuts, reauthorization cannot move forward until at least Oct. 24, when Congress takes up the budget reconciliation process.

Bill seeks to slash billions

The House version of the reauthorization bill calls for cuts in excess of $11 billion.

And while senators Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) claim that the Senate version would cut “only” $7 billion in spending over five years, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the actual figure could be almost twice that amount.

The federal budget is already strained by tax cuts for the wealthy along with the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now Congress is using the need to finance disaster relief as a further excuse for cutting student aid.

Enzi and Kennedy have proposed to move almost $37 billion from student loan programs over 10 years to, they claim, provide aid to those affected by the hurricane.

What the proposal does not do is just as striking as what it does.

It does not provide a plan for transparency to ensure that the $37 billion earmarked for disaster relief will actually make it to the victims and not to corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton, which are scooping up choice contracts for reconstruction.

The National Education Associ ation has described the proposed cuts as incongruous with the act’s original purpose of making college affordable.

Attacks on academic freedom

The reauthorization bill has also been criticized on grounds unrelated to the spending cuts.

In separate letters to Congress, the Amer i can Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Pro fessors have criticized provisions in the bill that mirror portions of right-winger David Horowitz’s proposal to prohibit the dissemination of progressive ideas on college campuses.

The AFT described that portion of the bill as a violation of “longstanding principles of academic autonomy by delineating a set of government guidelines for curriculum, teaching and grading policies on college campuses across the country.”

In addition to the cuts in student aid and attempts at academic censorship, the proposed reauthorization bill mandates the creation of an International Higher Education Board under Title VI of the act. Title VI provides for international education and language training.

The proposed board is an attempt to replace academic discretion with political control. According to the AFT, it is meant to “highlight, question and ultimately curb academic activities under Title VI that some board members oppose politically.”

Racist slap at orphans of Katrina

The federal government’s most recent campaign against low-income students and students of color extends beyond the affordability and academic standards addressed in current versions of the reauthorization bill.

The U.S. Department of Education is currently waging a racist assault on poor children of color left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

In a September press release, the NEA lambasted an underreported proposal by the U.S. DoE to waive requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act that prohibit the segregation of homeless children from public schools. The act requires schools to accept homeless children regardless of residency or documentation.

The federal government’s response to the tragedy wreaked upon the poor children of Louisiana and Mississippi is to segregate the Black students whose parents died as a result of government inaction.

Recent events such as the cuts in education funding and the government’s response to the education needs of children suffering in the aftermath of Hurri cane Katrina have once again demonstra ted capitalism’s disregard for human life.

Only resistance on the part of young people and students can stop the government’s attacks on the poor and oppressed.

The Troops Out Now Coalition is calling upon young people everywhere to organize for a Dec. 1 nationwide strike against poverty, racism, and war. In honor of Rosa Parks on the anniversary of her courageous act that started the Mont gomery Bus Boycott, boycott school, boycott work and shut the war down!