
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995                   TAG: 9503210026
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GAIL CATRON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CUT IN STUDENT AID WOULD BE DEVASTATING

In an effort to reinvent and reform the federal government, Congress is proposing cutting student financial aid this year by $1.7 billion. Three programs, Student Support Services, Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search, a trio of programs targeted to poor, academically talented students, would be cut by $11.1 million. These programs help many first-generation college students in Southwest Virginia who otherwise would not be able to attend college. Other programs, including a student grant program, would take major hits.

The proposed cuts for the next year go deeper. One proposal would make students pay the interest on their student loans while still in school. Another would eliminate Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, which help the poorest of the poor; Federal Work-Study, which in Wytheville pays 224 students to work in campus and community jobs; and Perkins Loans, another program for the neediest students who show academic promise and are hungry enough for an education to repay a federal loan.

The elimination of these programs would have a devastating effect on students. Wytheville Community College plans to award $645,804 to students from these programs for next year. And these awards are never enough to meet the cost of attendance.

College is the best investment we can make in America's future. Student financial aid is but one tool toward economic development, our investment in America's workplace of the future.

Most of us applaud the intentions and efforts of Congress to reform the way our government does business. Clearly, many programs and policies have failed in the last half century. But, financial aid has been successful in ensuring that qualified students are not barred from college for lack of funds.

Somewhere along the line, however, confusion has arisen with the terms "reform" and "revoke." Reform means to "make better as by stopping abuses." Certainly, financial aid programs can be reformed, made better, and, certainly, made simpler. Revoke is "to recall, withdraw or cancel." Revoking financial aid is not in the best interest of anyone interested in making America's future secure.

Gail Catron is coordinator of financial aid at Wytheville Community College.

by CNB