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Vol. 23 No. 2
October 2008
Election '08
EDITOR'S NOTE: Every
four years, COLLEGE BOUND reports on the higher education positions
of the U.S. presidential candidates. According to recent polls,
three out of five voters believe that education is a "very
important" issue in the fall 2008 presidential election.
In fact, a recent poll from Rasmussen found that nearly 90 percent
of voters believe that the education issue is "important,"
and place it ahead of health care and immigration.
A new survey released September
17 from the National Education Association/Project New West reported
that 70 percent of parents of college students surveyed said
that making college more affordable was an important issue to
them in the upcoming election, 34 percent said it was the most
import issue to them.
Here then is how the Presidential
candidates plan to address these issues.
Presidential Candidates' Stand
on Higher Education
John McCain's Higher Education
Policy
Prepare for the 21st Century
"America is facing increased competition from overseas
like never before. Higher education is as much a part of that
competition as the job sector, and we must rise to the challenge
and modernize our universities so that they retain their status
as producers of the most skilled workforce in the world. The
answer is not to impose more regulations on institutions, but
to encourage the government to support innovative approaches
to education, removing regulatory barriers that prevent us from
moving forward with new ideas.
Improve Information for Parents
"Institutions report on hundreds of factors to the U.S.
government every year, but the government does nothing with the
information. Making this information available to families in
a clear and concise manner will help more students make more
informed choices about higher education.
Simplify Higher Education Tax Benefits
"The existing tax benefits are too complicated, and
many eligible families don't claim them. By simplifying the existing
benefits, I can ensure that a greater number of families have
a lower tax burden when they are helping to send their children
to college.
Simplify Federal Financial Aid
"Too many programs and a complicated application process
deter many eligible students from seeking student aid. The number
of programs also makes it more difficult for financial aid officers
to help students navigate the process.
Consolidating programs will help simplify the administration
of these programs, and help more students have a better understanding
of their eligibility for aid.
Improve Research by Eliminating Earmarks
"Earmarking is destroying the integrity of federally
funded research. Billions of dollars are spent on pork barrel
projects every year; significant amounts come from research budgets.
Eliminating earmarks would immediately and significantly improve
the federal government's support for university research.
Fix the Student Lending Programs
"We have seen significant turmoil in student lending.
John McCain has proposed an expansion of the lender-of-last resort
capability of the federal student loan system and will demand
the highest standard of integrity for participating private lenders.
Effective reforms and leveraging the private sector will ensure
the necessary funding of higher education aspirations, and create
a simpler and more effective program in the process."
For more info on John McCain's position including his proposals
for K-12 education see www.johnmccain.com.
Barack Obama's Higher Education
Plan
"To be successful in the 21st Century economy,
America's workforce must be more innovative and productive than
our competitors. Giving every American the opportunity to attend
and afford and be successful in college is critical to meeting
that challenge. As tuition costs swell and grant-aid fails to
keep pace, students and their families are having a harder time
paying for college.
"College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past
five years. Sixty percent of all college graduates leave college
with debt. The average graduate leaves college with over $19,000
in debt.
"Between 2001 and 2010, two million academically qualified
students will not go to college because they cannot afford it.
Only 12 percent of Hispanics and 16 percent of African Americans
eventually earn a bachelor's degree-compared with 33 percent
of White students. The rising cost of college is a factor in
this disparity.
"These trends not only threaten our competitiveness in
the global marketplace, but also our ability to maintain and
improve our economy at home. Barack Obama will reverse these
trends by making sure that a college education is affordable
and within the reach of every American.
Simplify Application Process for Financial Aid
"The application process for financial aid is cumbersome
and evidence shows it may be a reason why students never apply
for college. Research has shown that the low take-up rate of
the Pell Grant and HOPE and Lifetime Learning tax credit programs
is likely due to the complexity of the application process.
"The current Free Application for Federal Student Aid
(FAFSA) is five pages and 127 questions-making it longer and
more involved than many federal tax returns. Not surprisingly,
over 1.5 million high school students failed to apply for aid
in 2004, despite being eligible for a Pell Grant.
"A recent study by Susan Dynarski and Judith Scott-Clayton
found that the costs of complexity in our financial aid processes
fall most heavily on low-income, nonwhite, and non-English speaking
youth. Barack Obama will simplify the financial aid process by
eliminating the FAFSA and its complicated calculations altogether.
"Instead, aid would be based on a much simpler yet equally
accurate formula, so that students can predict their eligibility
well in advance. The aid process will be streamlined by enabling
families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form,
authorizing their tax information to be used and eliminating
the need for a separate application.
American Opportunity Tax Credit
"Barack Obama will make college affordable for all Americans
by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal
and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000
of a college education is completely free for most Americans,
and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average
public college or university. And by making the tax credit fully
refundable, Obama's credit will help low-income families that
need it the most. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit
is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior
year's tax data to deliver the credit at the time that tuition
is due, rather than a year or more later when tax returns are
filed.
Help Students Become Aware of College Readiness
"Another common reason that high school students decide
not to attend college is that they discover they are unprepared
for it in 12th grade. By that time, it is too late for many of
them to do anything to address the problem before they graduate.
"Some states have developed an Early Assessment Program
that enables 11th graders and their families to ascertain if
they are on track to be college ready by the time they graduate.
The voluntary test and the presentation of results are specifically
designed to inform students what they need to do to prepare for
college while they still have time to do it. This program will
increase college readiness and is voluntary.
"Barack Obama will provide $25 million annually in matching
funds for states to develop Early Assessment Programs. These
funds will also promote state efforts to raise awareness about
the availability of federal and state financial aid programs.
Expand Pell Grants for Low-Income Students
"Two decades ago, the maximum Pell Grant covered 55
percent of costs at a public four-year college, compared with
only 32 percent today. The first bill Barack Obama introduced
in the U.S. Senate would have helped make college more affordable
for many Americans by increasing the maximum Pell Grant from
the limit of $4,050 to a new maximum of $5,100.
"Obama has worked in a bipartisan way on the Senate Health
Education Labor and Pensions Committee to achieve an increase
in the Pell Grant to $5,400 over the next few years. As president,
Obama will continue to work to ensure that the maximum Pell Grant
award is increased for low-income students. Specifically, he
will ensure that the award keeps pace with the rising cost of
college inflation.
Community College Partnership Program
"Community colleges are a vital component of our higher
education system, serving 12 million people each year, almost
half the undergraduate students in the U.S. Without community
colleges, millions of people would not be able to access the
education and skills they need to further education or succeed
in the workplace.
"Barack Obama will create a Community College Partnership
Program to strengthen community colleges by providing grants
to:
- a) conduct more thorough analysis of the types of skills
and technical
- education that are in high demand from students and local
industry;
(b) implement new associate of arts degree programs that cater
to emerging industry and technical career demands; and
(c) reward those institutions that graduate more students and
also increase their numbers of transfer students to four-year
institutions.
"These efforts will ensure that community college students
are able to directly use their skills in the workforce following
graduation, and be prepared to continue their higher education.
And the grants will support programs that facilitate transfers
from two-year institutions to four-year institutions.
Eliminate Costly Bank Subsidies
"Currently, there are two basic college loan programs:
the Direct Loan system, funded publicly, and the Federal Family
Education Loan Program, funded privately by banks and lenders
who receive subsidies and guarantees from the government. Privately
funded loans cost more per loan than the Direct Loan program
and provide no greater benefits. Obama will save taxpayer money
billions by eliminating the more expensive private loan program,
and directing that money into aid for students."
For more info on Barack Obama's positions including his plan
for K-12 education see www.BarackObama.com.
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ED in '08
Diploma to Nowhere
ONE THIRD OF ALL
new college students are academically unprepared to do college
work and must enroll in remedial classes, according to a new
study called, "Diploma to Nowhere," which states that
it costs taxpayers more than $2.3 billion a year to teach students
material that they should have learned in high school. Forty-three
percent of all students at public two-year institutions and 29
percent of students at public four-year schools enroll in remedial
courses.
The study is from "ED in 08," part of a campaign
of an organization called Strong American Schools which argues
that education needs to be a top issue in the presidential race.
In its latest clarion call, it noted that four out of five remedial
students had a high school grade-point average of 3.0 or higher,
yet 59 percent of these students reported that their high school
courses were easy, and half wish they had been harder.
The report charged that a "hoax" was being played
on those students, their parents and the public who believe that
high schools were adequately preparing our high school graduates.
"As jobs of all sorts are being outsourced to other countries,
it is no longer possible to compete in a global workforce without
a world-class education and it is no longer prudent to go on
kidding ourselves into believing the mediocrity of American K-12
schools will suffice," the report charged.
"Our country cannot afford a high school diploma that
does not show real student achievement," said former Colorado
Governor Roy Romer, of Strong American Schools. "The need
for immediate reform is clear." The group hopes the report
will help focus the presidential debate on education. To read
the entire report, go to www.edin08.com.
Other Recent Reports on Remedial Ed
But what is the value of remedial education on the college
campus? Three other new reports argue that they don't have lasting
positive effects on the students.
- One study of 100,000 Florida community college students was
conducted by researchers at the Community College Research Center
at Teachers College in New York. It compared the long-term records
of students who barely posted or failed to post a passing score
on achievement tests, and found "remediation has limited
or mixed benefits."
- Another study of 255,000 Texas two- and four-year college
students found basically the same results. Remedial students
at two-year colleges were actually less likely than other similarly
performing students to complete at least one year of college
or earn a degree.
- However, a third study of 28,000 Ohio students was more positive
about the value of remediation. "There are some colleges
showing that it can be done, which takes away the excuses for
all the others," Kay M. McClenney, director of Community
College Survey of Student Engagement at the University of Texas
at Austin, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Retaining Underprepared Students
How can colleges better retain underprepared students? According
to George Kuh, director of the Center for Postsecondary Research
at Indiana University, institutions that tailor the early days
of class to accentuate "what students know" as opposed
to "what students don't know" are experiencing remarkable
success.
"Once students feel comfortable that they will succeed
in college based upon what they know, faculty and counselors
can move the student focus to what the students don't know,"
Kuh told a summer conference sponsored by Education Dynamics.
It is a positive solution that promotes faculty buy-in and involvement,
rather than leaving faculty waiting for better students."
See Kuh's talk at: www.educationdynamics.com/retention_conference/conference_downloads.htm.
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THE COUNSELOR'S
CORNER
Economics Dominates
News
AS CB WENT TO PRESS,
President Bush was expected to sign legislation extending continued
access to student loans through 2010. In April, Congress had
enacted the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of
2008 "to protect families' access to federal student loans
from the turmoil in the nation's credit markets," according
to the Committee on Education and Labor of the U.S. House of
Representatives. The latest legislation passed mid-September
extends this act for an additional year. In the last month, economic
news has dominated the higher education scene. Here are other
news items.
Student Aid Requests Increase. Over 8.9 millions students
filed federal student aid forms during the first half of 2008,
16.3 percent more than last year, according to a Gallup poll
for Sallie Mae. In fact, 47 percent of U.S. college-attending
families borrow money to get through school. "The student
loan industry has experienced a volatile year and the impact
of this volatility is starting to trickle down to parents and
students. Tighter lending standards and falling housing prices
have made it harder for parents to tap home-equity loans of credit
to pay their kids' education bills," said David Kenney,
CEO of CollegeZapps.com.
State Student Aid Spending Up. Spending on student
aid rose during the 2006-07 school year according to the National
Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. But aid
to merit aid programs grew faster than for need-based programs.
State aid totaled $9.3 billion, up 6 percent after adjustment
for inflation. The rate of growth the previous year was just
3.4 percent. Need-based grants totaled $5.29 billion. Money for
loans jumped almost 29 percent to $653 million. Money for undergraduate
non-need-based grants was $2.08 billion, up 5.6 percent over
last year. Some states with the largest increases over the past
five years are: Arizona, up 371 percent; Delaware, up 677 percent;
Indiana, up 161 percent; Kentucky, up 114 percent; Rhode Island,
up 114 percent; South Carolina, up 168 percent; Tennessee, up
540 percent; Utah, up 128 percent; and West Virginia, up 271
percent.
Students Seek Plan to Decrease Debt. As students worry
about the debt they will accumulate by the time they graduate
from college, many students are already in debt when they start.
One in four college students ages 18-21 have two to three credit
cards, and nearly one-third say it will be difficult to keep
up with expenses at college because they are already in debt.
That is the word from a poll for Western Union Payment Services.
"Students who start college with multiple credit cards are
under more stress, have difficulty keeping up with expenses and
are more likely to believe they may not graduate due to debt,"
said Royal Cole, executive vice president, Western Union.
No Credit for Students. That is, no credit cards for
students, at least if Illinois' state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias
has his way. He introduced legislation to shut down credit car
promotions aimed at undergraduates using enticements such as
free T-shirts, Frisbees or ipod headphones for filling out applications.
Nationally, college freshmen are carrying an average credit card
debt of $1,301; seniors are in hock for $2,623 before they even
graduate.
Housing Crunch? The soaring cost of living off campus
seems to be driving many upper-classmen back to college housing.
That may help the spirit on campus, but it may also be leading
to a housing crisis as colleges have had to scramble to find
enough places to room incoming first-year students. The Chronicle
of Higher Education reports that universities from U. of
Missouri to the U. of Washington have been scrambling to meet
demand. Some schools are tripling up roommates, others are opening
dorms for upperclassmen only, and still others are housing students
in apartments off campus.
Declining Predictions. The new Moody's Investors Services
report on private colleges in 2008/09 predicted that declining
investment returns and student loan uncertainty could negatively
impinge on the financial health of the nation's private colleges.
But in 2007, 281 colleges in the study did well.
Promised Scholarships. On an up note, Kalamazoo, Michigan,
was the first city to offer free college tuition for students
who attended local schools. Since 2005, Denver; El Dorado, Arkansas;
and Pittsburgh have duplicated Kalamazoo's Promise Scholarship.
And as many as 82 other cities are studying the plan, which strengthens
communities and opens the door to higher education to families
who may have thought it was closed. Since launching the program,
Kalamazoo city officials report that previously declining school
enrollment has increased by 1,200 and new jobs have been created
or attracted to the area.
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THE COUNSELOR'S
BOOKSHELF
The Career Chronicles: An Insider's Guide to What Jobs
Are Really Like by Michael Gregory (New World Library); ISBN
978-1-57731-573-5; $15.95; "The good, the bad, and the ugly
from over 750 professionals." See www.newworldlibrary.com.
Two new guides to the design field: The Fashion Designer's
Directory of Shape and Style by Simon Travers-Spencer and
Zarida Zaman (Barron's, 2008); ISBN-13 978-0-7641-3866-9; $23.99;
over 500 mix-and-match elements for creative clothing design.
And, Architectural Drawing Course by Mo Zell (Barron's,
2008); ISBN-13 978-0-7641-3814-0; $23.99.
Also out from Barron's Writing a Successful College Application
Essay, now in its fourth edition by George Ehrenhaft (Barron's,
2008); ISBN-13 978-0-7641-3637-5; $13.99; "This guide will
teach you how to choose a compelling topic, how to write and
edit a rough draft and how to polish your essay until it shines."
See www.barronseduc.com.
Hack the SAT by Eliot Schrefer (Gotham Books, 2008);
ISBN 978-1-592-40369-1; $15; "A private SAT tutor spills
the secret strategies and sneaky shortcuts that can raise your
score hundreds of points." See www.penguin.com.
New Web Site. Cappex.com is a new web site which aims
to help students figure out if a college will accept them, before
they apply. Colleges work with Cappex to showcase their offerings
and specify what kind of students they are seeking. Cappex.com
seeks to make recruitment easier for colleges and students.
P.S. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review
takes a look at why the same schools remain popular with students:
"The people who choose obscure products tend to be familiar
with many alternatives; those who know of few alternatives tend
to stick with popular products." See http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/index.jsp.
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Gender Matters
Girls Thrive on Math. A new study of how boys and
girls from grades two to eleven perform on math has turned the
conventional thinking upside down, according to Science
magazine. The misconception has kept "girls and women out
of a lot of careers, particularly high prestige, lucrative careers
in science and technology," the report's author told the
Associate Press. But women now earn 48 percent of undergraduate
math degrees, even though they still trail badly in physics and
engineering. The reason? Girls now are taking advanced math classes
in high school.
Girls Take Failure Harder. "For girls there are
broader implications of school failure," Carolyn McCarty,
U. of Washington researcher, recently told Reuters after the
release of her report in The Journal of Adolescent Health.
"We already know that it leads to more poverty, higher rates
of being on public assistance and lower rates of job stability.
Now this study shows it is having mental health implications
for girls," she said. About 22 percent of girls and 17 percent
of boys who experienced school failure in the study group became
depressed.
Girls and Science. Why do so few girls study science?
Interest? Yes. But a group of researchers at the University of
Wisconsin Milwaukee have found that self-confidence instilled
by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning
math and science than their initial interest. "The relationship
between confidence and interest is close," one of the researchers
told ScienceDaily.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
Hispanic Growth. Hispanics make up one in five
U.S. elementary and high school students. And according to a
new study by the Pew Hispanic Center, by 2050 the number of Hispanic
school-aged children will outnumber the number of non-Hispanic
white children. Hispanic students already make up more than half
of all public school students in California. Hispanic students
also make up more than 40 percent of students in Arizona, New
Mexico and Texas; and they constitute 20 to 40 percent in Nevada,
Colorado, Illinois, Florida and New York. The majority of these
students were born in the U.S. According to the Census Bureau,
nearly 70 percent of these Hispanic students are of Mexican descent,
9 percent are Puerto Rican, 3 percent are Dominican, 3 percent
Salvadoran and 2 percent are Cuban.
Schools
Failing? An Associated Press survey this summer found that
"half of Americans polled say U.S. schools are doing only
a fair-to-poor job preparing kids for college and the workforce."
Some 76 percent said "overcrowding" is a "somewhat
or serious" problem; 87 percent said "getting and keeping
good teachers" is a "somewhat or serious" problem;
and 85 percent identified lack of student discipline.
But Bill and Melinda Gates, appearing on an August episode
of "The Oprah Show," said that if schools were a business,
they would be "bankrupt." Among Bill Gate's top concerns
are the facts that one third of students simply drop out, that
40 percent who show up at college need remedial work and that
U.S. students have fallen from first to 24th in the world in
math.
To read the transcript of the show, go to www.Oprah.com
and search for Bill Gates or "Failing Grade." According
to critics, the U.S. is in serious danger of falling into a second
nation status if the quality of learning and the dropout problems
are not rapidly solved. Oprah asked her viewers to go to www.standup.org.
Where
the G.I.'s Are. Which colleges are educating military veterans
and service members using federal education benefits? Here's
the top 10: U. of Phoenix-Online Campus, 17,714 students; American
InterContinental U., 3,698 students; American Public U. System,
3,668 students; U. of Maryland U. College, 3,359 students; Central
Texas C., 3,024 students; Colorado Technical U., 2,738 students;
Saint Leo U., 2,688 students; Kaplan U., 2,460 students; Strayer
U., 2,348 students; and U. of Maryland at College Park, 2,260
students.
Odds
and Ends. Changes are scheduled for the Common App for next
year. See http://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/news.aspx#298668.
Loyola C. in Maryland is taking steps to become a university,
beginning August 2009. It will be known as Loyola U. Maryland
to distinguish it from other Loyola U's in California, Illinois
and Louisiana. The school attracts students from around the world
and operates 20 graduate degree programs.
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COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig
Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally
Reed; Assistant Editor: Emma Schwartz; Illustration:
Louis Coronel; Board of Advisors: Lisa Burnham,
Edina High School, Minnesota; Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford
(N.Y.) Central School District; Howard Greene and Matthew
Greene, authors, The Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning
Series; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational counselor;
M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis;
Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).
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