The Obama administration recently released the new proposed
budget for fiscal year 2012, which aims to cut non-military spending from areas such as education,
health care, welfare and other vital social services.
For education, the proposed budget aims to cut billions of
dollars that will affect millions of working-class students. To be exact, Obama
wants to cut $100 billion over a decade from Pell Grants and other higher
education programs. (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 13)
The president’s proposal aims to maintain the current
maximum Pell Grant level of $5,550 while reducing the number of grants
distributed. This follows a recent
Republican proposal that would reduce the maximum Pell Grant level to $4,705, a more than 15 percent reduction
and the largest cut in student aid funding in the history of the Pell Grant
program. (Huffington Post, Feb. 13)
Pell Grants are federal grants that help many low-income
students pay tuition and other college expenses. The proposal would cause more
than 1.7 million students to be ineligible and lead more students to drop out
of college altogether. This projected increase in dropouts takes into
consideration the increase in students filing the Free Application for Federal
Student Aid, which is up by about a third in the last three years.
The Obama budget would also eliminate the subsidized
interest benefit on low-interest Stafford loans that serve graduate and
professional students. Millions of students depend on these subsidized
low-interest loans, as the federal government pays the interest during
in-school or grace periods. Eliminating this program would significantly
increase graduate students’ debt burden significantly
.
According to the Huffington Post, about a third (35.5
percent) of graduate and professional students received subsidized Stafford
loans in 2007-2008, a total of 1,227,400 students. Almost half (47 percent or
519,600 students) of graduating graduate and professional students graduate
with subsidized Stafford loans, $16,899 on average. The interest rate on
subsidized Stafford loans for graduate and professional students is 6.8
percent.
If the budget passes with no changes, students will face a
$1,676 increase to each $8,500 loan by the time the student enters repayment, a
19.7 percent increase. (Huffington Post, Feb. 15)
Obama’s recent statements in support of education, saying
that “children are the future,” ring particularly hollow in light of the
proposed cuts. The president had the nerve to announce these cuts at a
Baltimore-area middle school.
Throughout the country, students are paying higher tuition
as capitalist politicians blame the economic crisis and force working-class
people and students to “tighten their belts.” For example, the full board of
the University of California Regents recently approved an 8 percent tuition
hike for fall semester 2011 with a 15-5 vote,
forcing UC students to pay $822 more annually for a total cost to
students of more than $11,000 a year at the public university system.
At the City University of New York, the Board of Trustees
increased tuition 5 percent for spring 2011. They plan to further raise tuition
by 2 percent effective fall 2011 and have given discretionary power to the
chancellor to increase it an additional 3 percent.
The “bipartisan compromise” is an outright attack on
working-class students. Both Democrats and Republicans aim to increase their
attacks against students and working-class people in order to increase profits for multinational
corporations and banks.
Congressional “liberals” are not objecting to the proposed
budget as they deceitfully argue that the Republicans’ budget is worse. It is
an ongoing class battle, and the capitalist politicians want to eliminate any
program that supports working-class people for the benefit of a tiny group of
the ultra-rich.
In the past, the student movement gained many rights,
including the right to affordable education and access to financial aid. The
capitalist class will try everything to eliminate these rights. Only a
determined youth and student movement can preserve these democratic rights.
We demand an end to the budget cuts and the right to free,
quality education. If we continue to fight, we will win.
