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Student Financial Aid Feels Economic Crunch; Educating Grown Children of Illegal Immigrants May Lead to Future Fiscal Crisis

 

By Sylvia Cochran Student financial aid is the key to a college education for anyone who lacks the personal savings, parental funds, or scholarship offers to attend institutions of higher learning. In the wake of recent economic downturns, college savings account holders that relied heavily on invested funds virtually overnight took hits that sometimes cut down as much as half of the funds contained therein.The Van Cougar, published by Washington State University, is not putting any lipstick on this pig either. It is already well known that tuition costs are on the rise and woefully out of step with cost of living increases in salaries of parents, yet when combining this already established fact with the sudden losses of education savings accounts, the projected reliance on financial aid is going to increase drastically.Quoting the Chicago Tribune, the United States Student Association demonstrates that the dramatic rise of in-state tuition by 6.6% in one year has not been matched by financial aid funds; as a matter of fact, fees and costs historically covered by student aid are actually beginning to be excluded from financial aid disbursements, and in addition to paying for an increased cost of living, students and their parents now also have to pony up funds for sundry charges.The fork in the road is obvious: on the one hand, the tightening budgets and drying funding for federal student aid may lead to more competition when it comes to obtaining student loans. This will leave some students without the funding they need to attend college or to continue in their education.On the other hand, the personal loan market is actively marketing to students and their parents to apply to them for funding to cover educational expenses. While at face value this looks like a good option, the problem with these non federally or state funded loan products comes into play when it is time for repayment: neither regulated nor playing by the same rules, the interest rates may be higher, forbearances may be nonexistent, and the potential for default and adverse credit ratings for recent college grads is sky high.As though this were not sufficient to send any hopeful student over the edge, consider the brewing California, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma and South as well as North Carolina battles over illegal immigration and college attendance. In a sympathetic piece that discounts the fiscal impact of permitting individuals in the US illegally to attend college at in-state tuition prices, USA Today paints a picture from the students' point of view that is hard to discount.Unfortunately, the reality in the current economic climate belies the sentiment of not punishing youngsters for their parents' sins: already in the public schools children of citizens are competing for classroom space and funding with children of those who snuck in.Although I am a firm believer in educating each child, the cutoff date for taking responsibility for a child's education should be the 18^th birthday. Continuing to shepherd the young adults through their college education delays a problem that will have to be faced sooner or later: what will the new college grads - who are illegally in the US - do with their college degrees?Not permitted to work (legally) yet weighed down with college loans that may have been obtained from less than favorable sources, are we not condemning another generation to almost indentured servitude, working under the table for pennies on the dollar?Sources:http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/ss/vancougar/index.php?page=viewstory&story=682; http://www.usstudents.org/press-room/articles/october-2007/college-costs-rising-ahead-of-inflation; http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-06-Illegaled_N.htm More resources

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