The Pony Express (Carthage, Tex.), Ed. 1 Monday, March 9, 1981 Page: 3 of 8
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The Pony Express - Page 3
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REAGAN WANTS 20°lo EDUCATION CUT
BY HELEN CORDES
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CPS) -
Making good on promises to try to
re-structure and cut back on
federal education programs, the
Reagan administration wants to
reduce its support for education by
20 percent by 1982, and in the
The preview, distributed to
members of congressional budget
and appropriations committees,
advocates undoing much of the
Middle Income Student Assist-
ance Act -- a measure that took the
Carter administration two years to
navigate through Congress -- and
process sharply decrease financial replacing most college program?
aid to disadvantaged, minority, with two huge block grants,
and middle-income students. One legislator, Rep. Carl
Specifically, Stockman wants to
consolidate some 57 school aid
programs into two “block
grants,” which would be given to
state and local authorities with few
strings attached. The local
politicians could spend the
education grants largely as they
saw fit.
Virtually all the special aid
programs for low-income and
architecturally accessible to dis-
abled students), and money to
help desegreation bilingual edu-
cation and school libraries
programs.
Millions of other students will
be touched by Stockman’s
recommended cuts in Guaranteed
Student Loan (GSL), National
Direct Student Loan (NDSL) and
Pell Grant (formerly Basic
reportedly will be incorporated in
President Reagan’s budget pro-
posal to Congress, also wants to
cut entirely federal support of
NDSLs. Now the four percent
loans are awarded to students
when the students’ schools agree
to put up 10 percent of the money
needed. The government would
then put up the remaining 90
, ercent at favorable interest rates.
But Stockman wants the federal
government to phase out its
supports of NDSLs in 25 percent
increments over the next four
Those are the highlights of
budget recommendations made
by Office of Management and
Budget chief David Stockman in a
confidential preview obtained by
the “Washington Post”.
Perkins (D-Ky), chairman of the
House Education-Labor commit-
tee, vowed to “use his last
breath,” to defeat the budget
cuts, says one of the congress-
man’s aides.
minority students would be
included in the block grants.
Among the programs are $3 billion
in Title I aid, $1 billion in
handicapped, student aid (which
helps pay for making campuses
Educational Opportunity Grants)
TEST SCORES NOT IMPORTANT
(CPS)
Standardized test undertook the: ^-released study
Only two percent of the schools
said standardized test scores were
the most important admission
factors. Nearly a third of the
admissions officers said grades
were the most important require-
ment.
But 60 percent said there was no
single most important factor in
The two-year survey was of 4 judging an applicant,
rly 1500 college admissions A thinj of the schools regularly
offices.
More than half the admissions
of admissions procedures, Han-
ford says, was to help support its
anti-truth-in-testing law argu-
ments.
“Sure we wanted to prove what
we were saying,” Hanford says.
“And I think we’ve done so in a
scores are not as important for
getting into college as test critics
claims, a new study of admissions
procedures suggests.
A report by the College
Entrance Examination Board,
which sponsors the-Scholastic -------------- .
Aptitude Test, and the American dispassionate, scientiticw y.
Association of Collegiate Regist-
rars and Admissions Officers says
admissions procedures are di-
verse enough to allow minority
students to get into college even if
“grade averages, class ranks, or
admission test scores were
significantly lower than those of
other applicants.”
In recent yegrs standardized
test critics have claimed the tests
play too large a role in decidin
neai
financial aid funding.
Under the Stockman plan, in
which the government under-
writes loans to students and
parents at low interest rates,
money would be provided only
after remaining sources of aid
were accounted for in determining
a student’s need.
The government would also
drop “in^school interest sub-
sidies.” Under the current
system, students rebay back loans
for tuition at nine percent interest
rates, while the government pays
the difference between nine
percent and the regular interest
rates banks charge other custom-
ers.
If the Stockman plan is
approved, students and parents
operations “actively recruit stu-
dents with characteristics other
than academic talent,” Hanford
waive academic standards for will have to pay the regular market
“special admission” classes of interest rates on the loans, which
applicants like “nontraditional” at this writing is at about 20
(over 22-year-old) students. percent.
Stockman, whose suggestions
PJC HOMECOMING SUCCESSFUL
college applicants’ fates. Thooc
criticisms have led to truth-in-test-
ing laws in several states.
The laws give students access to
test answers, and have been
opposed by test-makers like the
College Board as inefficient,
unnecessary and expensive. Col-
lege Board President George
Hanford, among others, has
argued that the laws assume that
admissions officers weigh stand-
ardized tests in determining who
gets into school more than other
factors.
One reason the College Board
As the summer draws near,
students at PJC can lookback over
a full and productive year.
Activities included numerous
dances, skate nights, and exciting
basketball games. But the
highlight of the year was
homecoming week.
During the week of Feb. 2-5,
there were many activities
planned for the enjoyment of the
students. These activities includ-
ed: a sock hop, Western Day, the
egg toss, a down the Dr. Pepper
contest, a Bonfire, Dress Like
Little Kid Day, and the
Homecoming game followed by
the Homecoming dance. At
halftime of the Ponies game the
Homecoming Queen was
crowned. Terri Anders, a Carth-
age Freshman, was chosen
Queen. Her court included: Karon
Ashby, Carthage sophomore;
Nedra Beck, Carthage sopho-
more; Conetta Cartwright, Mans-
field, La. freshman; Ann Develin,
DeBerry freshman; Kathy Mes-
ser, Waldo, Ark. sophomore;
Amanda Rawson, Tenaha sopho-
more; Sue Samford, Center
sophomore; Denise Shackleford,
Carthage sophomore; Karla Will-
iams, Carthage freshman; and
Nellie Willie, Carthage sopho-
more.
Although the better part of the
school year is gone, skate nights,
dances, banquets, and baseball
games still lay ahead. Remember,
these activities are planned with
you in mind, so please attend and
make the most of it.
years.
Finally, Stockman wants 286,-
000 students cut from the Pell
Grant program in both 1981 and
1982.
The Carter administration’s
Middle Income Student Assist-
ance Act made students from
families that earn more than
$15,000 eligible for Pell Grants for
the first time just recently, in the
1979-80 academic year.
Stockman, however, would
make many of those students
ineligible again by restricting Pell
Grants to students from families
making less than $25,000 a year,
which is now the national .median
family income.
All three of the student aid
programs Stockman wants cut are
already the subject of legislation
proposed by the Carter adminis-
tration. Carter’s final education
budget, released just days before
the Reagan inauguration, asked
for a $600 million cut in the GSL
program, for a $100 million cut in
NDSLs, and for dropping the
maximum Pell Grant from $1900
to $1260 per student per academic
year.
Those relatively-modest pro-
posals moved lobbyist Steve
Leifman of the Coalition of
Independent College and Univers
ity Students to predict that “a lot
of students could be wiped out” if
the proposals passed.
Now educators are additionally
worried that the virtu ally-certain
passage of Regan’s favored tuition
tax credits financial aid approach
will put impossible strains on the
federal education budget that
Stockman wants to cut further.
Complains William Wilken,
executive director of the National
Association of State Boards of
Education, “the Reagan program
looks like reverse Robin Hooding:
taking from the poor, disadvant-
aged and handicapped students
and giving chiefly to the well-to-do
through tuition tax credits. ’ ’
Other Washington college
lobbyists are concerned that the
block grant approach advocated in
the Stockman plan would weaken
Vo”tical support for specific
t r grams, and make them
, mierable to gradually being
withdrawn.
Budget chief Stockman antici-
pated opposition, and attached to
each of his proposals a speculation
on “Probable Reaction.” He
expected that civil rights groups
would be especially “disquieted”
by his plan.
However, he expected support
from “school boards and others
now laboring under the burden of
detailed regulation” and “those
who believe the federal role is to
supply resources, and not to
specify what must be done with
those resources.”
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Adams, Bredget & Adams, Renee. The Pony Express (Carthage, Tex.), Ed. 1 Monday, March 9, 1981, newspaper, March 9, 1981; Carthage, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth507989/m1/3/?q=%221964~%22: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Panola College.