Friday, June 8, 2012

Many students wasting taxpayer money.

Pell grant money squandered; student loans never to be repaid; six years of riotous living; no diploma.  That is the story for colleges across America but for some the record is so miserable it is almost impossible to believe. An article listing the 11 schools with the poorest performing students reveals that any where from one-third to 60 per cent of the students received Pell grants. (By the way, the school with the worst performance is Southern University of New Orleans.  Only four per cent of those students earn a degree in six years.)  From college some will go on welfare, food stamps and medicaid.

The Pell grant program has been corrupt from the beginning.  Supposedly to make it possible for poor children to attend college, it bases its awards on some bewildering  formula.  A student with outstanding academic performance and from a poor family may not even be considered while a student with poor academic standing will get a grant.  In many cases that student will also get a student loan, spend lavishly and fail his studies miserably.

Under Louisiana's TOPS scholarship program, a student must have shown by the grades earned that he or she is capable of college work.  A single misstep can force the student off the program.

I can understand a student needing six years to complete a four-year program.  Many must work full or part-time while pursuing a degree.  Some even have a family to support while they seek to improve themselves and hopefully gain a higher standard of living.  Pell grant  students should be required to make passing grades and complete a minimum number of credit hours.

No comments:

Post a Comment