Congress weighs huge cuts in student aid
By
David Hoskins
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.
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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!
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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