Next Step: College?

For many high schoolers, the answer is a resounding no—and not because there's not a will; there's just not a way.

Photo by Photodisc

Around the stacks of plywood and plumbing parts at her local home-improvement store, NEA Executive Committee member Marsha Smith recently ran into a former student—wearing that bright orange apron. And no, it was not flattering, not when Smith knew the girl could have been wearing a white coat or black robe.

"She was very smart," Smith sighs. "But when she graduated from high school, she had decided not to go to college—it was going to cost too much money. She just told me that she was so sorry she hadn't gone."

These aren't easy times to be a college-bound kid—and it's not because of those Chihuahua-sized dorm rooms. It's those husky-sized tuition bills that are getting in the way. One year at a private college averaged $20,082 in 2004, and that's not counting the price of room and board. At public colleges, the average price was $5,132, up more than 10 percent from last year.

"Some parents recently told me that the only way they were going to be able to send their child to school was to refinance their house," Smith says. "What we have are students who are able to go to school and families who want to send them—but they need assistance." That's why students depend on a variety of sources to pay the bills: Mom, Dad, and frequently, especially for students from poor homes, the federal government. Unfortunately, the pace of government aid hasn't kept up with the escalating college costs—and President Bush's proposed federal budget would make it even worse for the neediest students.

The Rising Cost of College

The budget calls for an increase in funding for Pell Grants, which range in value from $400 to $4,050 and don't have to be repaid. Under Bush's proposal, the maximum ceiling would be raised by $100 a year until it reaches $4,550 in 2010. But the grants don't stretch as far as they used to, and the extra $100 won't nearly make up for the cuts that Bush also is proposing.

For example, Bush would kill the $66 million Perkins Loan program, which provided an average $1,800 to more than 673,000 students last year. At the same time, the President would wipe out Upward Bound and Talent Search, two venerable programs that help low-income kids prepare for college.

NEA leaders, including Smith, are working hard to make sure that doesn't happen. "All high school graduates should have access to higher education, regardless of their family income—no ands, buts or maybes," says NEA President Reg Weaver. "All students deserve to go as far as their talents will take them." And so this spring, as Congress works to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the NEA and AFT are asking legislators to:

• ensure that the neediest students get sufficient federal aid;
• stabilize Pell Grant funding and restore its purchasing power;
• address working and non-traditional student needs, such as child care;
• use a variety of approaches, including direct lending, fixed-rate loan consolidations, and Perkins Loans;
• ensure that students aren't excluded because of their (or their parents') legal status;
• broaden loan forgiveness for educators in high-need public schools to include all subject areas.

It's already difficult for students of color to "buck the system" that says smarts aren't cool, says Smith, who is Black. (She still remembers her teenage son coming home from school and in a moment of insanity, saying, "What, do you want me to be smart?!" Well, yes….)

But, after you've established that smart is cool through exposure to the highly educated world—a lesson taught to Maryland kids by Smith's late mother, also a teacher, who established an annual tour of Historically Black Colleges—it's really disheartening to have to dress those kids in orange aprons because they can't afford college, Smith says.

As a secondary teacher, Smith keeps in touch with many kids who don't go on to college. "Once they reach their middle 20s, they regret it," she says. "They compare themselves to their peers who went to college and they find they're in jobs that pay less money. They always say they never knew it was going to be like this….They're struggling every day."

—Mary Ellen Flannery and Nancy Kochuk