ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997 TAG: 9703040110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHILIP WALZER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
STAFF WRITER ALLISON BLAKE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.
It seems like everyone wants to help college students and their parents with tuition bills these days.
From Washington to Richmond, policy-makers are proposing everything from tax credits to scholarships. Advocates say they will help make college attainable for everyone; others say the plans don't help the population most in need of aid.
The most prominent proposals:
* President Clinton would bump up the maximum federal Pell Grant for needy students and offer multi-thousand-dollar tax credits and deductions for most tuition payers.
* The General Assembly last month approved Lt. Gov. Don Beyer's proposal to award one-year scholarships of up to $2,000 to community college students who maintain a B average in high-demand technical programs.
Beyer, expected to be the Democratic nominee for governor this year, is crafting another plan for scholarships to students at Virginia's four-year schools.
* Attorney General Jim Gilmore, Beyer's likely Republican opponent, would award $2,000-a-year scholarships to students at Virginia's public or private universities, community colleges or trade schools if they kept a B average and scored in the top 20 percent on the state's soon-to-be-released 11th-grade standardized test.
* State legislators have expanded Virginia's new prepaid tuition program, which allows residents to pay for tuition while their children are in ninth grade or younger. The bill would, for instance, open the program to graduate students and allow parents to purchase contracts for out-of-state residents.
The fates of Clinton's $50 billion plan, which Congress considers this year, and the long-range proposals of Beyer and Gilmore, which the General Assembly won't take up before 1998, remain uncertain.
All three offer the promise of widening access to college. All are linked to good grades. (Clinton's tax credit also would require a B average.) And all have generated a similar set of critiques and fears, ranging from bumped up tuition to inflated grades.
The biggest fear is that the bulk of the money would not go to those who most need it.
``I think the way it has been presented in terms of enhancing access to higher education is very, very misleading,'' says Elsie Barnes, dean of Norfolk State University's school of social sciences. ``What these proposals will ultimately do is result in a tax cut for the middle class, and the more taxes you pay, the bigger the break you get.''
* * *
Why are politicians suddenly so interested in helping parents foot college bills?
The answer, Beyer said recently, is simple: ``There's a bipartisan consensus that a college education has become too expensive in Virginia.''
Virginia, where annual tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates average $4,000, ranked last year as the second most expensive state for non-doctoral universities.
``Education has moved to the top of the national agenda,'' too, said John McGlennon, chairman of the government department at the College of William and Mary. ``This is one area of governmental programming and spending which enjoys high support.''
Clinton's proposal, outlined during his State of the Union address, would raise the maximum amount of Pell grants for needy students from $2,700 to $3,000 a year.
That, says David Breneman, dean of education at the University of Virginia, ``is a very positive move. It targets money at people where the money may make a difference in their behavior.''
But the centerpiece of Clinton's plan would allow families with children in college to take either a $1,500 tax credit or a tax deduction up to $10,000. The benefits would be available to families with annual incomes up to $100,000.
A tax credit is subtracted from the total amount of taxes owed; a deduction is subtracted when calculating the amount of income subject to taxes. Economists say many families will most benefit from the $1,500 tax credit.
Stanley Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education, the nation's largest college organization, predicted that the federal package will ``help ensure that a college education is within the reach of virtually every American.''
For instance, more than one-third of the 10,000 students who receive some form of financial aid at Virginia Tech - 3,500 students - maintain B averages and would qualify for the $1,500 credit, said financial aid administrator Julie Sina.
"Right now, one of the ways parents and students get hurt is if they have any kind of savings at all on college," Sina said.
Tax credits remove the tax penalty for lifelong savings by parents, or summer job savings by students.
Sean O'Brien, a junior at Old Dominion University, would be able to take advantage of the tax breaks. But like Norfolk State's Barnes, he thinks the government help is misplaced.
``Middle-class kids who would be helped by the tax credit are already going to school,'' said O'Brien, 21, of Yorktown, an honors student majoring in English.
``They aren't the people who need it.''
Gordon Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, worries that the Virginia proposals, by linking eligibility to grades, also won't target the neediest students, whose socioeconomic background might have dampened their academic achievement.
Mark Miner, a spokesman for Gilmore, said the attorney general's plan is intended to help everyone: ``This benefits inner cities as much as it does the suburbs.''
Beyer said, ``The last thing I want to do is author a program that only goes to the wealthiest, nonminority students.'' His first phase, focusing on community college students, ``targeted the neediest portion of meritorious students.''
Similar income questions have been raised about state prepaid tuition plans. Virginia's program opened in December, and the first sign-up period ended Feb. 28.
In its winter issue, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education described such plans as ``a government bounty for middle-class whites.'' About 60 percent of families in Kentucky's program have annual incomes above $50,000. In Florida, the journal said, most participants had incomes in excess of $100,000.
Diana Cantor, executive director of Virginia's program, said she has been trying to ensure participation by placing ads in black newspapers and sending spokesmen to black churches.
She doesn't think the program is out of reach of poor families. ``For $42 a month for a ninth-grader, you can lock in one year of community college,'' she said.
* * *
A few other concerns have been raised, primarily about Clinton's plan. They include:
*Grade inflation: With the B average requirement for eligibility, some educators fear high school teachers and college professors will be loath to give students C's for fear of cutting off benefits. David Garraty, an economics professor at Virginia Wesleyan College, also wonders whether students will ``stay away from courses like computer science that are demanding but are what the economy needs.''
*IRS intrusion: The government would be tracking grades. ``Who's going to monitor it?'' NSU's Barnes asked. ``The IRS has enough difficulty collecting what it has to collect now. You're going to put them in the business of collecting grades, as well?''
*Soaring tuition: Will institutions, seeing that students have more financial help, jack up their rates? ``This is an undeniable incentive that's being dangled out there for the institutions'' to raise prices, Breneman of UVa said.
However, that couldn't happen right away. Gov. George Allen and state legislators last year approved a freeze on tuition increases, which will end in 1998. Allen wants to extend the freeze until 2000 before he leaves office in January. Beyer said he supports such an extension. Miner said Gilmore has not yet taken a position.
*Cutting aid to colleges: Davies warns that the government cannot channel all of its college funding to students, as opposed to the schools. ``That does not increase the revenues available to colleges and universities for faculty salaries, for new equipment, for replacing old equipment," he said.
* * *
Whether any part of Clinton's plan gets enacted depends on the mood of the Republican-led Congress. With the rising interest in education, ``I wouldn't be surprised if they all go through,'' Breneman said.
Garraty, from Virginia Wesleyan, thinks the tax credits and deductions are most likely to win approval. ``It would seem to me that tax cuts are an easier political sell rather than more government spending, and that's how the Pell program would be perceived,'' he said.
In Virginia, the legislature has approved but not allotted money for Beyer's community-college program, which guarantees a free second year if students in high-demand technical areas maintain a B average in their first year. Funding will be considered next year. Beyer estimates a $2 million annual cost.
The costs of his and Gilmore's long-term proposals have not been estimated, but would be substantially larger.
His criticism notwithstanding, Breneman said the talk at all political levels about funding a college education is a healthy sign.
``In general, we should be happy there is some attention to this material. It's an area that hasn't gotten much attention in 15 years. Clinton is clearly on the right track when he argues that this country needs to be constantly thinking about how to invest in people. The better job we do of it, the better off we'll all be.''
LENGTH: Long : 175 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Clinton, Beyer, Gilmore. Graphic: Chart byby CNBstaff: Helping to pay for college.