Selectivity among academic institutions means, in the strictest sense, “applications to admissions ratio,” or the number of students admitted compared to applicants and acceptance rate is a major criteria for US News and World Reports. By having a larger number of applicants, schools can become more selective in shaping the school’s learning environment, and by lowering their acceptance rate, a school can move up on these very beneficial rankings. How does this affect the average student? “Students need to pay careful attention to their college choices, making sure that they apply to schools that fit them academically, as well as emotionally,” Zoli pointed out. “Also,” Zoli suggested, “classify schools based on your academic rankings and make sure that you have a safety school or two in the mix – average students may need to apply to more than six schools to increase their acceptance ratios.”
For the 4th year in a row President Bush has tried to eliminate the Federal Perkins Loan Program. Under the new budget signed February 8th, he will finally succeed. What many do not know, however, is that funding for low-income education programs is also being drastically cut as part of the largest reduction in the Department of Education’s history. As ExpectMore.gov states, the Federal Perkins Loan Program is perceived as “redundant and duplicative, given the broad availability of need-based, subsidized, relatively low-interest loans through the two larger student loan programs (Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Ford Direct Student Loans (DL)”.
Unfortunately, Bush’s budget also reduces these less talked about low-income programs.
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The FFEL provides had traditionally subsidized student loans to low income families – its funding is being cut almost in half from 11.1 billion in 2005 to around 6 billion for 2007.
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The DL also subsidized student loans to low income families and is being reduced from 1 billion to 36 million dollars over the same time period – a 96% reduction.
The new budget reduction also eliminates the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) program, which provides a federal match to states for need-based grant and work-study programs – a move which will significantly impact state programs like
Michael Zoli, President of My College Planning, says that these programs which currently benefit about 10
million students have no fees and lower interest rates than most other federal programs. This is not just another education cut, Zoli added, “it will be the most significant reduction to funding education for low income families ever proposed, significantly impacting the landscapes of our colleges and universities well into the future.”
While a complete list of program terminations is available at www.ed.gov, the new budget terminates more educational programs than any other administration has ever proposed:
- 42 education programs have been terminated including the Arts in Education, Safe and Drug Free School Grant, Teacher Quality Enhancement, Foundation for Learning and School Dropout Prevention, to name a few.
- The budget also drastically reduces the Head Start programs and Teaching American History.
Education spending for FY2007 is down 23% or $40 billion, while military spending is up 7% or 439 billion.
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