Students organize against cuts

In reaction to President Bush’s recently released fiscal
budget for 2006, the United States Student Association has
designated this as a week to lobby for changes to the budget
proposal.

The week will include a national call-in day, postcard campaigns
and forums at various universities throughout the nation and
in-district lobby visits by students to local representatives.

The USSA says it hopes the week will call attention to the
education budget and instigate revisions at the assembly level.

“What we have to do is target the House and Senate
appropriations committees because now they’re the only ones
that have the power to make changes,” said Eddie Morales,
vice president of the USSA.

The new budget proposes an overall 1 percent decrease in the
Department of Education budget. This is the first time that the
president has decreased the education budgets while in office. The
USSA is aiming to restore various programs to alleviate the
cuts’ impact. Among them is the Perkins Loan, which allows
students to default on loans if they enter service jobs after
graduation from a university.

“The new budget included $4.3 billion of cuts to education
and the elimination of 48 programs,” Morales said.

Among the changes that the USSA, in cooperation with the Student
Aid Alliance, a coalition of organizations with the goal of
increasing access to college, are aiming to achieve are a $450 to
$4,500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant, a $160 million to $1.15
billion increase in Federal Work Study funding and a restoration of
$100 million to the Perkins Loan program Capital Contributions.

Despite the overall education cuts, the new budget, released
Feb. 7, does include an increase in some programs for higher
education.

Cindy Brown, the director of the Education Task Force at the
Center for American Progress, said, “The president is doing
this because of the huge deficit. He had to cut all domestic
programs, and education was one of them. He actually did call for
increases in some programs but cut so many others that it resulted
in an overall decrease.”

Brown continued, “He proposed a very modest increase in
the programs, which don’t even keep up with the average
annual economic growth and the costs for four-year public
universities. The eliminations that he recommended are going to
reduce the opportunities of many students to get loans. It’s
basically going to be harder and harder to pay for
education.”

Critics also say the new budget will eventually affect the
quality of education that students receive.

“We have a record number of students entering college that
believe there’s a very good chance that they’ll have to
work. Working full-time and off campus, as more and more students
have to do, has negative effects. These budget cuts will absolutely
increase these effects,” said Linda Sax, an associate
professor of higher education and organizational change at
UCLA.

“As students become more concerned, they will have to look
towards other means to fund themselves,” she continued.

Sax supported the USSA action week, saying, “Students
always need to represent their concerns vocally.”

Students nationwide can participate in the week of action by
calling members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee or
by attending forums at campuses nationwide.