Bush hurts America again

Anyone hear about this budget deficit reduction act. Bush is discouraging higher education by making students pay more to fund their education. Its heinous that he has decided to increase the interest rate and fees for student loans without increasing the annual amount students are eligible for in grants for over four years. In a sense he is taking money away from needy families for education to fund a war that is killing innocent people in other countries. The republican mafia is killing us with a death of a thousand cuts.

 

So I take it that you are against education then.

 

God forbid anybody have to actually PAY for their own education! The goverment should pay for everything. Not only should they pay for my education, they should pay for my food, rent, gas, etc. That way I'd never have to work and the government can just take care of everything for me.

I guess I wasn't considered "needy" enough... instead of relying on government grants my parents and I had to actually WORK for the money to pay for my education. I also served four years in the Air Force to earn money through the GI Bill tp pay for it. Hey, those needy people could do the same thing, join the military, get the GI Bill, that way they can go kill innocent people guilty of nothing other than trying to kill anyone who doesn't agree with them, AND get money for higher education. That way everybody wins!

 

Spend, spend, spend...gimmee, gimmee, gimmee.

How much MORE do you want?? Of course you want more...especially if you don't have to pay for it!! God forbid, you have to pay for something...that is what makes lliberals like you parasites on society.

Always looking to suck milk from somebody else's nipple...never for yourself.

Just for you Danr:

 

That will not last if we keep this Republican mafia.

 

It is not the mafia...it is called the right-wing-conspiracy!! We had a meeting last night in front of Danr's house!

 

I haven't seen any attempts by any Republican to repeal or reduce this program. If you hear of any, let me know. Then again, I guess there's no proof more solid than speculation about what someone might do in the future...

 

I find nothing in either the Constitution or Bill of Rights that says a person should be guaranteed an education. Now that being true, why am I being forced to pay tax to support something that is failing and not doing the job intended? Talk abuout loosing your rights, there is one for you Danr!

 

I know a guy who works at the local VA and trust me the gov't will scr*w these vets any way they can.

 

It is written into the fabric of reality that the better we educate our young the better our society will be. It is a winning investment. I am sure that you agree with that.

 

Will all these students going to school for liberal arts, and other worthless majors, such as gay lesbian and transgendered studies, I say great. If you have to pay more, you will probably want a degree in something that pays when you get out, thereby being more productive to society rather than having a communications major or a political science major working at starbucks, which they could have done anyway.

 

Well that proves everything then, since you know a guy. Nothing like anecdotal evidence to unarguably prove a point.

Any proposals in Congress you can cite that would eliminate or reduce VA benefits, such as the GI Bill? Any VA policies you can cite? Or is this guy you know your only source?

 

Listen, as a student AND a Republican, I can tell you that it would be great if the government would just pay for everything for me. I mean, then I could blow all my money on getting drunk after classes every night.... But in reality, we need to put the money into our war efforts, such as training Iraqi troops and getting the country stable again so that we can begin to get our troops out of there ("As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down"); we need to put the money into making systems better, such as Social Security (no offense, OldDan, but I would rather privatize my funds for when I retire than pay into a failing system :thumb: ); and we need to put our money back into homes through cutting taxes, not through giving students empty money with grants. Hell, by getting 70,000 new teachers who are more and more qualified, we can raise standards of education, and thus our society. And that, Danr, is truly the means to a winning investment.

As for the "Republican Mafia" - OldDan, when's our next meeting? Still next Thursday?

~AJ

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you there. My education was worth every penny I and my parents worked for to buy it. I emphasize again, WORKED FOR, not handed to me by federal grants or scholarships. I did get some federally guaranteed loans, but that hardly counts as free money, since I have to pay it all back. The low interest is nice, but would still be worth it if it was more.

There are plenty of private scholarships out there for those who have the capabilities for college but not the financial means. And with only 4.9% unemployment, there's plenty of places you can exchange work for money to pay for college.

Sure, I'd love the government to just give me everything I need, who wouldn't? But until that happens, I'm going to just have to settle for working for everything I want in life, at least until the republican mafia is no longer in charge of things.

 

I'm confused - are you saying that it's a bad thing to work hard and make yourself successful versus having everything handed to you on a silver platter? Because there's certainly something to be said for people who take nothing and make themselves a success; it's called the American Dream. Perhaps you've heard of it? People who just EXPECT Big Brother to take care of everything for them wind up like Kennedy, Kerry, and Klinton (the KKK) - out of touch with the real world and whining about every supposed "injustice."

~AJ

 

Can I ask if there are provisions in place to help those that are obviously talented but lack the finacial means to further there education>>

De Orc

 

No offense taken AJ, I sure agree that something must be done for the younger worker who is paying into the system. Think back when the bleedig hearts opened up Social Security to those who never payed one red cent into the system, aid to dependent children and into agencies which do nothing more than bleed off the life blood of the system. Social Security is a sinking ship, and anyone who is counting on it for future retirement is a fool.

As for the meeting, It will convené at 7:00 P.M. sharp! We will offer up a virgin to the Clinton Club as a peace offering. Be sure and atttend, as we will also be selecting the next name to be offered as the next Supreme Court replacement for Ginsburge.

 

In the United States community (AKA, junior colleges) colleges are essentially free. In California, so-called State universities have truly bargain basement fees. Even the prestigious University of California is cheap relative to private universities. Plus, there are thousands of assistantships, scholarships, and education grants available to almost everyone. The State of California even provides scholarships and in-State tuition for illegal immigrants. Graduate school is very often free for very good, financially challenged, students. In my opinion, there is absolutely no excuse for not receiving the education that you need in America.

There are millions of Americans and foreignors who want an American education but are unwilling to sacrifice even the most modest of creature comforts to achieve their educational goals. There is no legitimate excuse for failure in the United States. I offer you the Vietnamese-American community as a prime example of taking advantage of systematic opportunities. No whining, just success heaped upon successes.

 

I've been meaning to start a thread on education but hadn't gotten around to it. I guess I'll just hijack this one instead.

I don't know why the previous posts have focused on higher education and funding. Higher education isn't a right, it's a privilege and I think all should have equal access to it and I think it only benefits society the more we educate our children but, not all are destine to go to college or achieve advanced degrees.

However, K-12 is not a privilege, or a government handout, or a gimme, gimme program, it is a right we as Americans are more than entitled to receive. My complaint is that our country on a state-by-state basis is utterly failing our children in the area of education. It is so unbelievably short sighted to short change the next generation's education and then expect them to run this country competently when the rest of us are well into our senior years. There are going to far less of them then there are of us and they will have the burden of supporting us and running this country without the benefit of a good education. What passes for primary education in this country is appalling.

If your knee-jerk reaction is to blame either political party, you are correct because they have both failed to make education anything other than a political football that gets little more than lip service and unfunded federal programs that do more harm than good. Record numbers of parents are opting out of public schools completely and home schooling their kids out of disgust and distain for the poor education being received at their local schools.

A Texas University conducted an assessment study of the Bush administrations "No Child Left Behind" program and found that the gap between those students at the bottom and those students at grade level or above was indeed closing. But, it wasn't because the students at the bottom had better academic performances but rather because the lack of resources that had been reallocated to the underachieving students had caused the students performing at grade level or higher to perform more poorly thus closing the educational gap somewhat. Academically talented programs were cut due to lack of funds, teaching curriculums emphasized teaching to the test to improve grades rather than imparting knowledge, and classroom sizes increased as less and less teachers had to teach more and more kids.

We fall further and further behind other counties every year as we neglect our educational obligations to our youth. As the richest country in the world, it is no less than a national disgrace to find ourselves failing our own children while prioritizing the military, foreign wars, and big business tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas to better educated foreign workers. Shame on parents that stand by and allow this to happen to their kids. Shame on the politicians that callously enact pointless initiatives and programs that cynically pretend to address this dire situation. And shame on the educational establishment for going along with this travesty.

Having three children in primary school has been an eye opening experience for me. I am literally shocked at the state of public education today. So little is expected of students academically over the course of the year that I have to wonder if any learning is actually going on. With unqualified teaches, teachers retired in place, school administrations that are unsupportive at best and a hindrance to solutions at worst, it is useless to try to navigate a system that is so broken. Public education needs to be overhauled if it is to survive. We need to rethink our approach to education and stop pointing fingers at specific elements and realize that the system is broken at all levels. Only then will we begin to solve some of the problems that we have to find answers to if we want to have any kind of future in this country. It is just that basic.