Event offers FAFSA help for college-bound students, parents

First National Bank of Russell Springs pledges $100,000 to SCC

2-plus-2

Governors announce $42-million campaign to improve high schools

Colleges are urged to work more with schools

Priming the pump for student aid ...

Bush budget sends mixed signals

House panel approves Bush’s community-college initiative

The News-Enterprise
February 25, 2005

Event offers FAFSA help for college-bound students, parents

A group of financial aid professionals will be on hand to help high school seniors and adults planning to attend college complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The form is required for Pell grants, student loans, work-study programs and state-supported College Access Program, or CAP, grants. The form also is commonly required for scholarships awarded by colleges and universities, said Tracy Tollefson, assistant director of financial aid at ECTC.

"Without this form, you're hardly going to get any aid," she said.

Tanya Corder, a guidance counselor at John Hardin High School, said the form, though tedious, is an important step in paying for college.

"We encourage all kids to fill out the FAFSA," she said. Some students skip the form because they think they won't qualify for grants. However, they still should complete the form so they can receive other forms of aid including loans, she said.

Tollefson said Sunday's event is an effort to break the "paperwork barrier" that can keep students from getting the aid they need. The lengthy form, filled with financial questions, can be overwhelming, she said.

"Sometimes that form can get very confusing, and we're going to break it down for students and parents," Tollefson said. "We want to let them know the aid is out there, and this is a free service."

The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, The Student Loan People and the Lumina Foundation for Education fund College Goal Sunday while the Kentucky Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators sponsor the event.

The annual College Goal Sunday is held simultaneously at 19 locations across the state. This is the third year ECTC has participated in the event.

Meredith Robinson, chairwoman of this year's event, said College Goal Sunday benefits everyone with an interest in financial aid.

"Not only will it help raise the overall college going rate, but it helps families become more in control of their child's destiny and gives financial aid professionals the opportunity to get their message out to those who need it the most," Robinson said.

Attendees should bring their 2004 W-2 forms and, if completed, their 2004 tax forms. Kentucky students should complete the form by March 15 for the best chances of receiving aid.

Sarah Baker can be reached at 769-1200, Ext. 428, or e-mail her at sjbaker@thenews enterprise.com.

If you go…

The Kentucky Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators offers College Goal Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College in the Central Regional Post Secondary Education Center.

Somerset Commonwealth Journal
February 25, 2005

First National Bank of Russell Springs pledges $100,000 to SCC

First National Bank of Russell Springs has made a $100,000 commitment over the next five years to the Fulfilling the Promise Campaign for Somerset Community College. Charlene Harris, President & CEO of First National Bank, recently presented the lead gift commitment to Steve Branscum, Lead Gifts Chair for Russell County and President of Branscum Construction. The $20,000 donated each year will be used to support College programs at the SCC Russell Center in Russell County.

“We are pleased to be the first organization to commit such a significant gift to this campaign,” said President Harris. “We realize the tremendous benefit Somerset Community College provides to the Russell County area as well as all of south central Kentucky. Our bank prides itself on providing quality service to its customers and we feel Somerset Community College provides quality service to its students. We hope the commitment will challenge other organizations, foundations, and individuals to give generously to this very worthy cause.”

Dr. Jo Marshall, President of Somerset College, pointed out that all gifts and pledges to the campaign will benefit students very directly. “Our needs are clearly identified for this campaign: Academic Excellence, Allied Health, Technology and Innovation, and a Technology Center in London,” emphasized Dr. Marshall. She added that the campaign was just beginning and would expand to all counties in the College’s service area by next summer.

Following on the heels of the successful campaign to raise funds from SCC employees and board members, the First National Bank commitment launches the Lead Gifts phase of the campaign. The Lead Gift phase of the campaign will continue for several more months and expand throughout the SCC service area.

The Daily Independent
February 24, 2005

2-plus-2
Editorial

The two-plus-two agreement signed Friday by interim Marshall University President Michael J. Farrell and Ashland Community and Technical College President Greg Adkins expands by nine-fold the opportunity to receive a bachelor's degree in business from Marshall University by taking lower level courses at ACTC and the final two years on the Marshall campus in Huntington.

Since 1997, it has been possible to receive a bachelor's degree in management from Marshall by taking the first two years of college classes at ACTC. Friday's agreement expands that opportunity from one degree to nine degrees offered through Marshall's Lewis College of Business.

For local students seeking a four-year degree in a business-related field, the new agreement can significantly reduce the cost of receiving that degree. The cost of a semester at ACTC is considerably less than a semester's tuition at Marshall. In addition, local students will save the cost of either commuting to Huntington during their first two years of college or securing lodging in Huntington or in a MU residence hall.

Marshall officials hope the agreement will attract more Kentucky students to the West Virginia school. The fact that ACTC students will be assured that the credits they earn will transfer and count toward a degree at Marshall also should improve enrollment at the two-year college. Too often in the past, credits earned at ACTC did not easily transfer to four-year colleges.

Adkins said he hopes the new agreement will lead to more two-plus-two cooperative agreements with Marshall. So do we. The closer ACTC can work with nearby four-year colleges like Marshall, Shawnee State, Ohio University Southern, Morehead State University and others, the more valued credits earned in Ashland will be.

When an associate's degree earned at Ashland Community and Technical College is directly linked to a bachelor's degree at a nearby university, it encourages more area residents to pursue a bachelor's degree. That, in turn, will produce more college graduates in this community, which always is a plus for economic development.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 28, 2005

Governors announce $42-million campaign to improve high schools

The two governors leading the undertaking, Bob Taft of Ohio and Mark R. Warner of Virginia, said that state leaders would be asking colleges to take steps like more clearly defining their expectations for entering students and beefing up their schools of education to ensure that they produce teachers who can work effectively in high schools.

Many colleges "have taken a laissez-faire attitude toward the K-12 system. That has got to end," Governor Warner, a Democrat, said at a news conference held here near the end of a weekend summit of governors, educators, and business leaders concerned with improving the nation's high schools. Last week, leaders of the governors' association and of Achieve Inc., a nonprofit group created by governors and business officials, issued an agenda for action that included a call for states to find ways to unify the governance of higher education and public elementary and secondary schools (The Chronicle, February 23).

The undertaking announced on Sunday will be financed with $23-million from foundations and $19-million from states, which will be asked to match a portion of any grant that they receive. Any state can compete for the grant funds, and recipients will be required to use the money to create education policies intended to increase high-school graduation rates and improve students' preparation for college.

Governor Warner, who is the association's chairman, called the effort "an unprecedented collaboration between state government and the philanthropic community" and predicted that it would "lay the foundation for long-term systemic change."

So far, six philanthropies have committed financial support: the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Prudential Foundation, the State Farm Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation. Officials of the groups involved are talking with other philanthropies in hopes of recruiting them to take part.

Although the governors' association has not recommended specific steps that states should take to enlist colleges in the effort, Mr. Warner suggested that governors might want to use their appointment powers as a tool and require that people being considered for seats on public-college boards show a commitment to getting those institutions involved in improving high schools.

Mr. Taft, a Republican who is a co-chairman of Achieve, said that colleges have a stake in the effort's success, in that one of its chief goals -- ensuring that students graduate from high school ready for college or work -- should help bring about long-term improvements in colleges' graduation rates.

Also on Sunday, officials of Achieve announced that 13 states had agreed to form a coalition known as the American Diploma Project to try to drive improvements in high-school education. The states involved with the coalition have all made a commitment to take the following four steps: raise high-school standards to match the requirements of colleges and the work force; require high-school students to take a rigorous curriculum; develop tests of college and work readiness that students will take in high school; and hold high schools accountable for producing graduates who can handle college, while holding colleges accountable for the success of the students that they admit.

"Improving high schools one school or state at a time is not moving fast enough," said Arthur F. Ryan, the chief executive officer of Prudential Financial and an Achieve co-chairman.

A total of 35 percent of the nation's public-school students live in the 13 states involved in the coalition. They are: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas.

Colleges are urged to work more with schools

Leaders of the National Governors Association and Achieve, a nonprofit group created by governors and business officials to raise academic standards, announced a five-point plan for how they want states to improve their high schools. The agenda includes a recommendation that states find ways to unify the governance of higher education and of public elementary and secondary schools. States could streamline governance, the groups suggest, by setting up a single board or similar statewide panel that would have authority over all levels of education or that would at least routinely bring together officials from schools and colleges.

The leaders are also urging states to hold colleges and high schools more accountable for improving students' rates of success. States, for instance, should seek to improve college retention and graduation rates and set goals for such factors as postsecondary-enrollment and college-completion rates, the agenda says.

The agenda also calls on states to:

Do more to help students prepare for college or the workplace, in part by requiring all students to take college-preparatory courses.
Redesign high schools so that they offer more opportunities for students to earn college credit or to pursue training for certain technical jobs, while also providing better support for low-performing students.
Give high schools more top-quality teachers and principals by raising the standards for licensing and improving professional development.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 28, 2005

Priming the pump for student aid ...
By SANDY BAUM

The failure of Congress to reauthorize the Higher Education Act last year has given lawmakers a needed opportunity to step back and rethink their approach to that vital legislation. They must move beyond polarized debates and consider creative new measures if they are to fulfill the act's fundamental intent: to increase access to college for all students, particularly those who can't afford it.

In the four decades since its passage, the law has had mixed success in helping encourage students from all backgrounds to attend college. The proportion of high-school students who enroll in college has increased significantly, but the participation rates of black and particularly Hispanic students remain much lower than those of white and Asian-American students. An unacceptably large proportion of low-income students with high levels of academic achievement never enter college. The rates at which students complete their degrees also differ significantly according to their racial or ethnic origins and socioeconomic status.

The fundamental premise underlying most of the proposals that received attention in the recent reauthorization discussions is that budget constraints will prevent the federal government from adequately increasing financial aid for needy students. Congress can, and should, reorder priorities to allow for a larger maximum Pell Grant and to increase support for other programs that help narrow inequalities in educational opportunity. But as vital as those steps are, given the certainty that not enough money will be available to remove the financial barriers to college for many students, other approaches are also required.

The government will never fulfill its mandate to increase access to college for the least privileged members of our society unless it finds ways to spend each dollar more efficiently. Thus, in addition to providing its own direct support, Congress should design policies that give incentives to states, institutions, and private organizations to offer more financial assistance to low-income students.

The federal government is the only entity with the mission and resources to orchestrate such a national program. State governments have their own priorities when it comes to higher education; they are more concerned with luring talented students and productive workers away from other states. Individual institutions compete for students with high grades and test scores, faculty stars, philanthropic donations, and U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Private businesses in need of well-trained workers and even foundations with fundamentally altruistic motives will, left to their own devices, pursue their own specific goals rather than the general social welfare.

Those individual agendas, on top of difficult economic conditions, have influenced how states and colleges distribute financial aid. In an era of constrained public support, states are allocating more of their student-aid dollars to merit-based programs that disproportionately help affluent students who would go to college anyway. Colleges are operating within tight budgets as a result of declines in endowment values, annual giving, and the capability of students and their families to pay tuition, on top of declining or stagnant state appropriations. Many institutions have responded by restricting their need-based aid programs in favor of using scarce student-aid dollars to raise their academic profiles or increase their net revenues.

The federal government, however, should have no alternative agenda. Yet it also appears to be weakening its commitment to increasing educational opportunities for the most vulnerable members of our society. Support for Pell Grants for the neediest students jumped more than 60 percent in real terms, between 1997 and 2002, but much of the growth was in the number of recipients; the average Pell Grant grew much less. Moreover, the maximum Pell Grant, which increased almost 33 percent in real terms over that five-year period, has grown by only $50 since 2002, and efforts by some members of Congress to help Pell Grants regain their purchasing power have failed. President Bush's proposed $500 increase in the Pell maximum during the next five years is certainly an improvement over the recent stagnation, but it will hardly solve the financial problems of low-income students.

While Pell Grants are subject to political maneuvering and constraints on federal spending, education tax credits and deductions are less vulnerable. The federal government now spends half as much on those subsidies as it does on Pell Grants, although less than half of the dollars go to taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes under $40,000.

Congress can make progress for students, even in the face of competing demands on a federal budget in large deficit. Already the federal government has policies that generate a considerable amount of support from other sources for low-income college students. Through its Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships, it provides matching funds to states for a $66-million program of need-based grants. At the institutional level, the federal government matches support for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Perkins Loans, and the Federal Work-Study program, which provide subsidies of more than $3-billion to students with financial need. Unfortunately, those programs have suffered in recent years, with LEAP declining by 31 percent in real terms between 1993 and 2003, and SEOG support remaining essentially flat. Federal support for work-study and Perkins Loans has grown, but much more slowly than federal loans and tax benefits, or even Pell Grants.

Instead of accepting the president's proposal that the program be eliminated, Congress should redirect state efforts by reinvigorating the LEAP matching program to ensure that state need-based grants do not wither in the face of merit-based programs. If the price of aiding low-income students is significantly lower than the price of aiding richer students because of federal matching funds, states are likely to reconsider their priorities.

Colleges need similar incentives. The federal government should provide subsidies to institutions for enrolling and graduating Pell Grant recipients. It is important that those incentives be designed to help students successfully complete degrees, not just to get them in the door. One reason that institutions are sometimes reluctant to support the neediest students is because they do not bring as many dollars to the campus as middle- and upper-middle-income students do; in their efforts to increase net revenues, colleges must use their limited financial-aid dollars strategically. It would be an efficient use of federal funds to subsidize institutions that enroll deserving students who may frequently be more expensive to educate.

The federal government should follow a similar strategy with private entities, matching the student aid that businesses and foundations provide. Again, the government can use a portion of its scarce dollars to leverage funds from other sources, providing incentives to support the basic agenda of the Higher Education Act.

Such a federal policy could also have a significant impact beyond the dollars provided. It could increase awareness among states, institutions, and private groups of the need to focus their financial support on students whose opportunities are most limited and make them reconsider their acceptance of less-equitable priorities. It could change the atmosphere from one that feeds the sense of entitlement of affluent students and their families to one that promotes the historical goal of providing educational access to people from all economic, social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

That support need not dismantle higher-education subsidies for the middle class. It is true that dollars directed toward middle- and upper-income students are dollars not available to low-income students. Still, the two types of support may grow together. Although cause and effect are not clear, support for Pell Grants increased much more rapidly in the years after higher-education tax credits began than in preceding years. Similarly, growth in need-based state support has not slowed as state merit-aid programs have mushroomed, even though the latter have grown more rapidly.

In fact, programs for middle- and upper-middle-income students can actually enhance our national commitment to all students. Relatively low tuition levels at public colleges and universities make state support for higher education important to the middle class -- which does not view that part of the budget as an antipoverty policy but as the provision of a vital service to all citizens.

In the same way, state student-aid programs for middle-income students may reinforce public support for state subsidies to students in general, while federal education tax benefits may increase the people's acceptance of the federal government's responsibility to support college students. Without doubt, the national conversation about the federal role in assuring college access and affordability has intensified in recent years.

But in that conversation, we must not shift our focus from the central goal of access to college for all qualified students, regardless of ability to pay. A concerted national effort to strengthen the partnership among the federal government, state governments, and institutions is a prerequisite to closing the current insurmountable gap between financial aid and the college costs facing many low-income students.

Although increased support for need-based grants at all levels should not be underemphasized now that Congress has taken up reauthorization again, finding efficient ways to generate new money for educational opportunity from other sources is a more promising policy agenda in the short run. Progress requires that legislators take a broad approach, one that not only appropriates federal dollars but also sets an example for states, institutions, and others and uses the power of incentives to modify their behavior.

Sandy Baum is a professor of economics at Skidmore College and a senior policy analyst at the College Board.

Bush budget sends mixed signals

For community-college leaders used to set funding for stable programs, President Bush’s 2006 budget plan might raise as many questions as answers.

In a classic case of good news meets bad, the budget earmarks $375 million for two new programs aimed squarely at community colleges while proposing to terminate one of the most popular federal programs ever at two-year institutions — the $1.3 billion Carl D. Perkins Act.

Tech-prep education funding also would end under the new plan, which Bush presented to Congress Feb. 7. Citing financial constraints, the budget would cut federal education funding for the first time in a decade and also reduce the government’s job-training investments.

Terminating the entire Perkins Act “will dramatically weaken the quality of career and technical education programs at community colleges,” said Dr. George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, in a joint statement with the presidents of five other higher-education organizations, including the American Council on Education.

The largest Perkins Act program provides grants to states, which governors use to improve or upgrade programs. States decide how to divide grant funding between school districts and colleges, though postsecondary institutions usually claim about one-third of the funding.

Another section of Perkins — tech-prep education — also faces termination, which would save the government $106 million.

“President Bush’s 2006 education budget is a mixed blessing for college students and their families,” the joint statement says.

The administration is targeting Perkins as an “ineffective” program, said Todd Jones, associate deputy secretary for budget at the Department of Education. According to budget documents, the program “has produced little or no evidence of improved outcomes for students despite decades of federal investment.”

Department officials also said they want to use Perkins dollars to create a new initiative that would bring the accountability measures of the No Child Left Behind Act to the high-school level.

“It’s an effort to create a more competitive program in high schools,” Jones said.

In addition to Perkins, the Education Department also is proposing to terminate three college preparatory and early college awareness programs to help pay for this initiative. Upward Bound, Talent Search and GEAR UP would end as part of this restructuring effort. Together, these three college access programs received more than $700 million this year.

On the plus side for two-year colleges, however, the education budget includes $125 million for a new Community College Access Grant program. The program would consist of competitive state and local partnership grants to promote dual enrollment of students to gain high-school and college credit.
According to the department, partnership grants would create incentives for community colleges to offer dual-enrollment programs and fund scholarships for students to participate in these programs. State grants would help encourage the transfer of academic credit across state lines and across institutions.

In the Department of Labor budget, community colleges also would receive $250 million through second-year funding of the Community-Based Job Training grant program. If approved by Congress, this amount would build on an initial $248 million investment made late last year.

Once operational, the program should provide competitive grants for two-year colleges to work with employers and workforce boards to train workers for high-paying jobs.

But critical issues remain unresolved in that program, despite the funding pronouncements. Congress still must write language for program implementation, and the AACC recently sent out a legislative alert asking members to contact Congress in hopes of ensuring that community colleges are the main grantees for the program. One potential concern is that lawmakers may allow other agencies to serve as grantees.

“We’re just trying to be proactive,” said Jim Hermes, AACC’s senior legislative associate. “We want to make sure that [congressional] committees closely reflect the Department of Labor plans.”

A formal plan for the program is likely to be inserted into a job training bill moving through the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, a Labor Department spokesman said his agency hopes to make grant funding available by summer.

However, the flurry of activity — a mixture of new programs and proposed cutbacks — is leaving some lobbyists uncertain about the end result.

“If you’re pulling money out of one program for another, is that really progress?” said Alisha Hyslop, assistant director of public policy with the Association for Career and Technical Education. As expected, the president’s new budget seeks an extra $100 for the federal government’s maximum Pell Grant amount, currently at $4,050. Bush had outlined this plan earlier, calling for a gradual $500 increase in the grant over the next five years.

The budget also plans to retire the $4.3 billion Pell Grant shortfall by reforming student loans and cutting lender subsidies. Heavy student demand during the past four years has led to mounting costs in that program. Elsewhere, the budget recommends level funding for the following programs:

· Tribal colleges, $24 million;

· Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, $779 million;

· Strengthening institutions grants, $80 million;

· Work/study, $990 million; and

· Campus child care, $16 million.
Hispanic-serving colleges would receive $96 million, up nearly $1 million from current funding. Many of these colleges are two-year institutions.

Three other programs under the TRIO umbrella of college preparation and outreach would not face cuts. Student Support Services would continue at $275 million, while Education Opportunity Centers and the Ronald McNair Baccalaureate Program would receive $49 million and $42 million, respectively.

The budget plan would eliminate funding for Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships, a $66 million financial-aid incentive program for states.

At the Labor Department, the administration is proposing to merge separate Workforce Investment Act programs for youth, adults and dislocated workers into a single state grant amount totaling $3.9 billion. The consolidation would save about $61 million, the administration says.

The budget now goes to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers will hold hearings this spring and begin crafting spending bills by summer.

Community College Week
February 28, 2005

House panel approves Bush’s community-college initiative

A $250 million initiative to strengthen community colleges’ role in getting people back to work has been approved by a congressional panel. The House Education and the Workforce’s Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness approved the Job Training Improvement Act of 2005. The bill incorporates the $250 million plan proposed by President Bush in his budget request last year.

The bill would set up a competitive grant program for community and technical colleges to provide training in high-growth, high-demand sectors of the economy. The program would operate under the Workforce Investment Act’s pilot and demonstration authority.

Grants would fund partnerships among business/industry, the workforce-investment system and colleges. Grantees would use funds to identify high-growth industries with worker shortages and provide training “based on industry-defined competencies.” Participating businesses would have to agree to hire trainees or retain employees getting training.

“The initiative expands upon the High Growth Job Training Initiative, through which the Department of Labor has identified 12 growing employment sectors with shortages of qualified workers (including) health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology, construction, (etc.),” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the Education and the Workforce Committee.

The bill also would allow community-college presidents to serve on local workforce-investment boards, which would work with the partnerships to find and place trainees.

The House passed a similar job-training bill without the initiative last year, but the Senate didn’t act on it.