So Much for Higher Education...

You know what really grinds my gears?

Thanks to our wonderful government, one of the scholarships I receive, the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship was cut out of the federal budget, so we could try to "balance" the budget and "reduce" our deficit. This scholarship awarded $1,500 to about 28,000 college students every year for four years, and while $1,500 may not seem like anything when it comes to college expenses, this can reduce (note the lack of quotation marks here) student loans, cover textbook expenses (and being an engineering/math major, textbooks can be worth more than the scholarship), and maybe eliminate work study. Yet the government has decided to ignore education, once more, and eliminate the scholarship.

I'm so irate that I will actually use a column made by a Tar Heel, and that's saying something. You can read the column here, but I want to pull out an except that is really well-written (why am I being so nice to a Tar Heel?)

"$1,500 a year may seem an insignificant portion of the astronomical costs of a university education, but the help of $1,500 less in loans or out-of-pocket payment cannot be denied. At the least, it confirmed that hard work in school is noteworthy. If we believe education is a tool for better workers and citizens, why do legislative actions indicate otherwise?

The Byrd scholarship cut was a part of the April 12th federal budget signing, meant to help balance the nation’s deficit. But when military spending increased $5 billion in the same signing, really how much scrimping was the $42 million that would have gone to the Byrd scholarship? How can we deny that investing in students is the best way to invest in the future?"

If there is one thing that you want to do that really grind my gears, mess around with our education system (ahem, state legislatures). The author of the above letter makes a great point. Why do we encourage higher education as a means to a better nation, yet turn around and cut the funding for such a scholarship that would encourage higher education? I may have only had one year of higher education, but I believe that's called a contradiction. And also, let's cut $42 million from the scholarship, and yet increase our defense budget. I did the math (thanks to higher education). $42 million divided by $5 billion is .84%. What we provide as an increase for the defense budget is about 120 times more than what we eliminated for the scholarship. It would've really sucked for the defense budget to receive a $4.958 billion increase, and still maintain the Byrd Scholarship.

Now I'd like to point out the contradiction from our government. In President Obama's State of the Union address, he said these words:

"Of course, the education race doesn't end with a high school diploma. To compete, higher education must be within the reach of every American. That’s why we've ended the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that went to banks, and used the savings to make college affordable for millions of students. And this year, I ask Congress to go further, and make permanent our tuition tax credit –- worth $10,000 for four years of college. It’s the right thing to do."

...............................................................Ummmm, anybody see a problem with this? I didn't think that this part of the speech meant to cut a scholarship from the budget. I guess I need a higher education to pick up on the irony of this situation.

President Obama also made a very strong point with increasing our nation's power as an innovator in the sciences, highlighting increased funding to biomedical research, information technology, and clean energy research. Well Mr. President, do you know where these researchers, inventors, and engineers come from? College. Surprised? Me too!

With the cancellation of the Byrd Scholarship, our government has sent another message to the youth of our nation. We want to talk up a big game so you can want to go to college, but we won't help you get there. And in fact, I even have another quote that supports that from the News and Sentinel:

"Officials with President Barack Obama's administration said since the program was designed for high achieving students, those students likely will receive grants, scholarships and financial aide from other sources."

If you're really that misguided to think that every smart person gets tons of scholarships and grants thrown at them so they can go to college, I suggest you go and search for the scholarships yourself. Hopefully, you'll see my point. Thanks government, for helping us out. Delegating to "other sources" is always the best idea.

And that's what really grinds my gears.