President Bush, in his recent State of the Union Address, pled for math and science so the most "creative" Americans minds will go into the fields of "nanotechnology, supercomputing and alternative energy sources."\nTo do this, he plans on increasing funding for advanced placement programs in high schools, as well as tutoring for math and science at the primary level.\nHowever, if many of those "creative" minds cannot afford higher education, his program is all for naught. High-tech jobs require more than just a high school diploma. Nonetheless, Bush has suggested cutting $12.7 billion from federal financial aid programs in the next five years, with a massive restructuring of the Perkins and PLUS loan programs. This comes only 14 months after his policy caused 80,000 to 90,000 students to lose Pell Grant funding entirely, and 1.3 million saw their federal aid reduced.\nFinancial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz has said the Perkins cuts could cost average students an additional $2,000 over the life of their loan, while parents might end up paying an additional $3,000. These cuts will not only hurt students while they are attending college, but will affect them for years afterward.\nThe cost of attending college is increasing rapidly, yet the amount of aid students can access is decreasing. Given the supposed economic threat other countries' accelerating scientific development poses, now is not the time to hinder students from low-income families from receiving college degrees. The plan is to "leave no child behind," but to abandon them all once they turn 18. \nWe recognize the need to make cuts, but education is not the place to make them. By proposing cuts in aid for higher education, Bush is essentially taking from the future to pay for the now.
DISSENT
Federal Perkins loans are hardly unworthy, but the Department of Education has a finite supply of funds and must set priorities for spending. Career educational officers have judged that America's greatest crisis is in the middle grades to high school. (After all, America does have the most superb universities in the world.) \nParochial critics can fairly accuse the Bush administration of short-changing higher education, but they should recognize those minor cuts help fund K-12 education, which has topped $40 billion under this president. Add in spending at the local level, and the figure rises to a record half-trillion dollars. That's double the amount spent in 1990. We agree that the president's national education agenda has its share of faults, but poor funding isn't one of them.\nThe congressional plan to reduce costly entitlements is part of a wider effort to encourage more self-initiative. Would that those joining the predictable protests against rolling back the Perkins loan take a hint -- and apply for a position in the Office of Management and Budget! Then they would see the allocation of stipends is a classic zero-sum game.\n- Brian Stewart
