COLUMN: Education appropriations bill will decide fate of financial aid

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by Sheffy Gordon

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Whatever the cause may have been, lots of your friends around the nation simply forgot to vote that day.

As a result of the extremely low national turnout, particularly among 18-24 year olds, Gingrinch and his followers stole Congress.

The first year and a half of this 104th Congress was the least productive (in terms of number of bills passed) of any in history. Somehow, Congress felt that the American People had authorized this Contract With America, in which hard-line social objectives were being dictated by the evolving radical right and fiscal policy involved privatizing the government and reducing the services rendered by the federal government.

If you recall the political circus last winter, the Republican leadership decided that they could sacrifice Medicare, Medicaid, the environment and student financial aid to provide a tax break for the wealthy.

Fortunately for the sick, poor, the elderly, the aquatic, the avian, the four-legged and the student, there was a principled president who said, "Wait a sec, this is not right" and, at personal political risk, vetoed the appropriations.

The government shut down multiple times as the Republican leadership played a high stakes game of "chicken" with the chief executive.

Well, it's September again and that means the budget game has already started. There are 13 appropriations bills to be passed.

One on agriculture is done, leaving 12 to be worked out in the next two weeks. Otherwise, in order to avoid another shutdown, Congress will have to resort to continuing resolutions that let the government operate at, say, 90 percent of the previous year's budget.

This past week, the Labor, HHS and Education Bill was slated to be drafted in the Senate subcommittees. At stake are the Perkins Loans, Pell Grants and Stafford Loans which were all threatened by House action. College students, particularly Rice students (85 percent of whom receive some form of financial aid), are counting on Congress to come through for them.

Even with the varied political biases within the Rice community, I hope most of us agree on the importance of education and the govern-ment's responsibility to protect the ability to get an education. It must then be recognized how drastically the demography of Rice graduate and undergraduate populations would be altered if many of the students dependent on aid were priced out of the market to afford school. Ten percent of the Rice student body is dependent on federal aid.

Even Clinton's critics can not deny his dedication to education. He actively practices the philosophy that education is the most important investment America can make, be it in the form of Americorps, PLUS, GOALS 2000 or the unilateral tax break for any student wanting to go to college.

So why are we still on the verge of losing support? Why is Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas), a former Aggie professor and recipient of financial aid, one of the top opponents? Find out for yourself by calling the toll-free student aid hotline to talk to relevant congressmen and senators: 1-800-574-4AID. The education appropriations bill is being decided as you read this, so immediately call your congressman before you lose your aid.

The Rice Young Democrats meets at 9:30 p.m. every Monday in Kelley Lounge.

Sheffy Gordon is president of the Rice Young Democrats and a Jones College junior.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 13, 1996 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
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