COLUMN: Republicans seek to save money at the expense of our education, financial aid

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by Sheffy Gordon

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This is not to say that major cuts in financial aid will not be made; unfortunately, the government still does not prioritize education as highly as other expenditures and is still slashing federal aid by $6 billion dollars.

However, a victory has been recorded in Sunday's Senate vote, but the battle to save student aid must continue to be fought.

The Senate voted late Sunday night 99-0 in favor of the Jeffords-Kessebaum-Snowe amendment to the reconciliation bill which restores the six month grace period after graduation before loans accumulate interest.

Furthermore, the original appropriations called for an 0.85 percent tax on student loan volume. This may not sound like a lot, but the tax assessed to each institution would naturally have been defrayed from the universities to us, the students, to the tune of $7.6 billion.

Congress would be raising money to balance the budget by taking it out of the pockets of students (as if college students aren't broke to begin with).

This tax was removed along with the increase in PLUS loans. So, thanks to the recent vote, the toll on financial aid has been alleviated from $10.8 billion dollars to $5.8 billion.

This vote is bittersweet because over half of the cuts are still being sent to the Oval Office.

Clinton has remained consistent in his pledge to preserve education and should veto the reconciliation bill until all the money for the students is restored.

The Jeffords-Kassebaum-Snowe amendment does not restore as much funds as the Kennedy and Simon has proposed in its amendment, in which $7.4 billion was to have been restored.

Both Republicans and Democrats recognize that there is a budget crisis that must be resolved or else the deficit will become uncontrollable.

However, our representatives obviously have different objectives and priorities in balancing the budget, leading to the bitter debates and delays in Congress.

The budget was supposed to have been passed prior to the commencement of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. It is already November, and Congress is still far from reaching a consensus on how to spend our tax dollars.

After missing the first deadline, Congress gave itself extensions (44 days) for when the budget for '95-'96 must be passed into law (hey profs, think about that next time I ask you for a one-week extension).

Without these extensions, the entire federal government would actually be forced to shut down without pay until the budget could be passed.

During these extensions, the government spending must remain proportional to the amount allocated last year.

But the debate on what to cut rages on, with the majority Republicans calling the shots.

You may have noticed that Medicare and welfare, as well as education, have been in the news as prime targets to help reduce the budget in seven years.

Republicans claim that money must be saved now so there is less of a burden on our generation.

Well, denying us our education is not a good method of relieving the burden. There is a loss of utility in that our generation will be disadvantaged when competing in the world market, which will bring the United States into further fiscal woes.

Although the cuts in aid are not as deep as anticipated, the appropriations bill is a separate piece of legislation that cuts aid in the form of Pell Grants, State Student Incentive Grants and national service such as Americorps.

Furthermore, the amendment does not restore direct lending from the government.

Instead, loans will be granted via big banks, guaranty agencies and secondary markets which stand to make a profit off the students.

The recent vote shows there is some hope that the legislators understand how important financial aid is to us. Our friends in Washington are correct in that we need to invest now in our future.

However, we are far from convincing them that investment does not mean putting money in a bank; the best investment in our future is to let us get an education.

Don't forget to vote next Tuesday. If you live on Main Street, you vote at Sewall Hall.

The Rice Young Democrats meets at 6 p.m. on alternate Wednesdays in the Hanszen loft. The next meeting will be Nov. 8.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the November 3, 1995 issue.

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