|
OPINION
| October 8, 2003
Editorial/Our View
Letter
Cycling money through same pocket is unfair
RE: Botched Bill May Impact Tuition, Sept. 26
The article said part of the tuition fee increase is used to fund
a low-income financial aid pool.
Why is the money I borrowed paying someone else’s way? Is
the university going to reimburse the interest expense I am incurring
to pay for someone else’s education? With future tuition increases,
can I assume debt obligations will also increase?
Among the grants, scholarships and loans available nationally, funds
are left unused every year. Paying the proposed higher tuition when
money is left elsewhere is not a solution.
While working on my second bachelor’s degree and enrolled
in graduate school, loans have been my only source of funding. Low-income
students working on a first undergraduate degree should fill in
the gap with loans of their own — not from my pocket.
This raises the issue of cycling a large volume of dollars through
the same pocket.
For example, the Department of Public Safety and government vehicles
carry tax-exempt license plates. Otherwise, their budgets would
have to increase to pay for what partly funds them. Hence, we would
see a larger volume of dollars cycling through the same pocket while
accomplishing nothing.
That fruitless structure is exactly what is proposed in the tuition
hike. Qualifying low-income students should be granted a waiver
or a discount rather than all students paying an increase to fund
a few students’ expenses.
All sources aren’t exhausted, so why should students pay more
to solve a non-problem? If this proposal goes through, it should
include a notice to all education loan borrowers that part of their
loan and related interest expense is paying someone else’s
fee.
Anything less is disingenuous of the real costs of the loan and
attending UTA.
— John J. Powell, modern languages graduate student
|
|
