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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995                   TAG: 9506260009
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: WILLIAM F. SNYDER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAPS ON BUDGET EQUALS CAPS ON EDUCATION

Congressional budget committees already have begun planning for next year's federal budget. These plans call for a dramatic reordering of national priorities, which could result in deep spending cuts - as much as 30 percent - in education programs for children, youth and adults.

The mechanism the congressional budget committees are expected to use to reduce federal spending is to lower the current spending caps on appropriations for fiscal years 1996 through 2002. If such caps are lowered again, the reduction will directly affect the funding of education programs.

Budget caps give individual members of Congress political cover for cutting successful programs. Budget writers can claim they are only squeezing out waste, and appropriators can point to the caps as the law and the instrument that forces them to cut successful programs that help students and families.

Education programs for children, for college students and for adults have been caught in this indiscriminate budget-cutting fervor despite an impressive record of success and strong support of the American people. Polls taken in the first three months of 1995 repeatedly show Americans rank education higher than a balanced budget or tax cuts. Americans understand the importance of education to their children's futures, their own professional development and skills training, and the nation's economic growth.

Between 1929 and 1982, education and knowledge were responsible for at least one-third of our country's economic growth. Students who benefit from federal education programs have proved to be better prepared for future success in school and in the workplace. Selling America's children short now would have grave consequences for our future economic development, military preparedness and democratic participation.

During the 1993-94 academic year, 1,503 eligible students (or 70 percent of the students enrolled in curricular programs) at Wytheville Community College received more than $2 million from various financial aid programs. Of that amount, more than 76 percent of the funds came from federal programs, including Pell Grants, college work-study, Perkins Loans and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants. If these or similar programs are eliminated or cut, the prospects for our current students, our future students and our region are indeed bleak.

Over the past two decades, individuals with a college education are the only ones who have seen their incomes rise. The fastest growing jobs over the next decade will require at least some college. By the year 2000, 80 percent of the jobs available in Virginia will require education beyond the high-school level, but less than a four-year degree. Without child development and education programs, this generation will not be ready for college - or the workforce - of the 21st century.

William F. Snyder is the president of Wytheville Community College.

by CNB