11-17 Homework

This post is a day late because I lost my campus ID which I needed to check out my IntraLibrary loan materials!

I requested the book "Redesigning the Financial Aid System" by Robert B. Archibald.

While looking at this source, I learned a new standpoint about financial aid that I had not thought about much before. In his introduction, Archibald explains his own confusion with the Financial Aid System and the troubles in distinguishing the terminology when his own son decided to apply to college. Archibald explains that colleges and banking systems rely on this mis-communication among terms so that tuition can be more profitable for the Universities because parents and students just pay it off not really knowing money saving strategies.

One specific example of the terminology differences that are commonly mis-understood is the difference between financial aid and financial need. Archibald defines financial aid as " funding intended to help students pay education expenses including tuition and fees books and supplies, room and board, etc. for education at a college or university". The interesting term that I learned about was financial need. Archibald explains that financial need as "the difference between the cost of attending college or university and the amount the student and his or her parents can reasonably contribute to costs" (p. 3). Furthermore, I learned that the term unmet financial aid is the difference between financial need and all forms of financial aid (including subsidized loans)" (p. 3). By looking at a graph that displays the relationship between financial aid and unmet financial aid does not align horizontally as it should ideally, instead, the graph's line slopes sharply downward where household incomes are low.

It is hard to describe effectively in the blog how impactful the graphs and diagrams are in this book, however, they help me visualize the lack of financial aid that is being distributed. In agreeance with Archibald, the terminoligy on this topic is exteremely confusing so it helps to see these types of graphs.

11-13 Homework

While looking at classmates' blogs I found one about the debate between gay marriage versus civil unions. From this blog, I learned about the different view points that each Presidential candidate had: they were both opposed to gay marriage. I learned that Obama was in fact supportive of civil unions but out of respect for the concept of the Christian faith he would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Until reading this blog I was under the impression that McCain was opposed to gay marriage and Obama supported gay marriage but now I understand that Obama supports civil unions which is not the same thing. My question for that blog was: "As part of our PHL 118 Homework, I have one question for you about your blog. From this, I agree with your opinions about marriage being between only a man and a woman and that gay couples should be able to participate in civil unions. I am wondering, legally, what are the differences between civil unions and marriages? What type of benefits are there for a couple to be considered married as opposed to one that is under a civil union, for example, in regards to health care, adoption, etc.?"

Another part of the assignment was to answer the question that someone else had posted on your blog but there was none to be found on my blog at this time.

Podcast

*I tried to access itunes U at the Library and it wouldn't grant me access because of the parental control settings. When I downloaded it at home there was an error.

Originally, I was looking to download the movie "My New American University" from the Arizona State University section on itunes U.

Because this didn't work, I looked up a few different videos from youtube about my topic. I watched three short segments about the College Opportunity and Affordability Act from Representative Shea Porter, Michael Acruri, and Laura Richardson. All of these videos were from Democratic representatives supporting the bipartisan legislature to make higher education more affordable for college student's and their families.

Although each clip was short, I identified most with Shea Porter from New Hampshire. As a college student once herself, she said that under these circumstances today she would of not of been able to afford college just like many of young adults now. To better our country, she agrees that affordable education should be available to everyone. Porter said that within the past year, Congress had cut interest rates in half under the Democratic lead and that she looks forward to the changes and leadership that will be implemented in the near future. Laura Richardson also made a comment about how she looked forward to new leadership in the white house and how that will help develop new leaders in our country because Education will be a priority as it should be.

One thing that I learned from looking up these youtube videos is how the College Opportunity and Affordability Act can help students like me. By keeping interest rates down it will help me get loans that are more affordable when I graduate. In turn, my loans can be paid off faster instead of me falling faster into debt.

Simplified FAFSA

While looking for another blog to post on regarding financial aid, I found an interesting article on Secretary Spellings' proposal to simplify FAFSA. This was the first that I had heard about the proposal but I immediately saw it's benefits for college students and their families.

http://vafinancialaid.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/a-simplified-fafsa/#comment-181

Student Loans

For our class assignment I explored the website www.law.com to learn something new about the financial aid and higher education issue. Specifically, I was looking to learn more about how retention rates of students of who are already in college are affected by the economy and the financial aid available to students. I stumbled upon an article by Karen Sloan from The National Law Journal called "Wall Street Stress for Law Grads" which you can view at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425094042. By reading this, I learned more about how our current economic state has affected, and will continue to affect, the distribution of loans for undergraduate and graduate students.

The most intriguing part of this article was a part about how "undergraduates who soon will enter law schools may also take more of an economic hit than current law students. That's because undergraduates use private loans to pay for college far more often than law students, and the interest rates on those undergraduate private loans is on the rise" (Sloan). Private loans are not as readily available as they have been in the past because of the economic state, however, due to our sloping economy, a college degree is still critical for economic survival and success.

This statement correlates directly to the motivation for students who are pursuing a degree right now to stay in school and finish their degree sooner rather than later. The lack of financial aid available puts pressure on students to graduate in a shorter amount of time and improve overall retention rates. As a current college student, I believe that financial aid needs to be more of a priority in order to keep students in college. By keeping retention rates high, more Americans can have a college degree, meaning more economic success in comparison to foreign competitors.

Presidential Candidates on Financial Aid

Offering more financial aid to improve the retention rates of college students is morally right.

Both presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, recognize the importance of Higher Education in America and have different ways of addressing this moral argument.

McCain's objectives to address the issue of higher education are based around the philosophy that it is in the best interest of our country to have successful college students- which implies high retention rates. High retention rates directly relate to high graduation rates. "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". McCain plans to address the moral issue of improving retention rates by making adjustments to the current financial aid standards. These changes include "simplifying the higher education tax benefits to make it easier for more families to claim them. McCain also wants to try to simply the process for applying for and administering federal financial aid by consolidating government programs" (The Chronicle). Other ways that McCain plans to improve financial aid availability for college students is to attempt to fix problems in student lending by "expanding the government's 'lender of last resort' system, in which the federal government makes sure students can find loans if a loan emergency was declared, and by demanding the highest standard of integrity for private lenders that participate in the federal system" (McCain).

Senator Obama supports pre-paid tuition contracts that lock in a tuition rate for students so they know exactly what they will be paying each semester, therefore, finances are less likely to be a cause of falling retention since students are prepared for financial expectations. This also supports students to stay in school longer even with the fluctuation of the economic state of the country. When speaking about higher education changes that Obama supports he mentions that the Senate proposed "a compromise to hold colleges more accountable for their cost increases that I believe will work. The proposal creates a watch list of colleges whose costs are increasing faster than costs at other colleges, develops a higher education price-comparison index, as well as a price calculator to clarify the cost of attendance for students of different income levels" (The Chronicle).