ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603120050
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA KESTNER
IN RESPONSE to your Feb. 10 editorial (``Don't let for-profits play TAG'') regarding Tuition Assistance Grant eligibility for National Business College students:
Our students are currently ineligible for TAG grants due to our college's status as a privately capitalized institution. Let me bring to light some facts you may not have considered.
TAG funds go to students, not colleges. More than 61 percent of National students are self-supporting, predominantly middle-income citizens, most of whom do not receive the same amount of financial support from their families as do many students at private, nonprofit schools. National students pay income taxes, personal-property taxes and other taxes that support the TAG program, yet they receive no benefits.
However, they can receive state financial assistance through the Virginia Work Study program. Doesn't it seem strange that our students are eligible for Work Study but not TAG? The commonwealth seems to be saying that the only way National students can get state assistance is by working a little harder than they already are. Meanwhile, students at private, nonprofit colleges - many of whom don't need to work to pay their way through college - can get TAG grants without making any effort at all.
In fact, each year $5 million of TAG funds is automatically distributed to students from families with annual incomes in excess of $100,000 - or with incomes so high they don't even bother applying for financial aid. When state funds are so scarce, why is Virginia subsidizing tuition for the affluent and not helping those in need?
Failing to make National students eligible for TAG indicates the need to modernize the law to coincide with the concept of privatization - a concept that Virginia supports. Users of many other for-profit entities, such as hospitals and nursing homes, are eligible for state-assistance programs. The state recognizes that institutions managed like businesses are usually very efficient and provide high-quality services at lower costs.
Knowing our students need to get the most value for their tuition dollars, National Business College has worked hard to keep costs low while still providing a quality education. As a result, our tuition is lower than any of the colleges whose students are currently eligible for TAG grants. Students at private, nonprofit colleges can expect to pay average tuition of more than $11,000 in 1996-97, and some as high as $17,000. Yet recent articles in your newspaper indicate three of those schools - Hampden-Sydney College, the College of Health Sciences and Southern Virginia College for Women - are facing financial difficulties.
With a 110-year history of educating Virginians, National Business College continues to contribute to Virginia's economic development. For our students to receive federal financial assistance, we're required by the U.S. Department of Education to maintain profitability and meet specific financial standards. As a result, National pays Virginia income taxes, real-estate taxes, personal-property taxes, sales taxes and even the business, professional and occupational-license tax. Your newspaper has suggested National become nonprofit to make our students eligible for TAG. From Virginia's perspective, giving up these tax dollars would make no sense at all.
In trying to establish a claim that we're ``different'' from nonprofit colleges, your editorial brought up our accreditation. Let me point out that a college's accreditation has absolutely no bearing on its students' eligibility for TAG. But even if it did, National students would be in an excellent position: They attend an institution fully accredited to grant both baccalaureate and associate degrees. Our accrediting agency is approved by the U.S. Department of Education, thereby making students eligible for virtually every type of federal assistance. The State Council of Higher Education also recognizes National and its accrediting agency. These official government agencies don't make distinctions between one approved accrediting agency and another, so why should The Roanoke Times?
Nevertheless, National students do attend a college unique among privately capitalized colleges in Virginia. Our college is the only such institution that meets the criteria of the State Council of Higher Education for academically oriented associate and baccalaureate degree programs.
When nonprofit colleges lobbied to create TAG nearly 25 years ago, National students were excluded. Our students and faculty are now taking action to remedy this inequity. Thanks to their ongoing efforts, people are beginning to recognize the need to reconsider the structure of the TAG program.
Lisa Kestner is vice president of operations at National Business College.
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