Category: 2014

(Matt Rainey/The Star-Ledger A photograph of Rochelle Hendricks)

New Jersey Legislators have left the issue of free college unanswered ever since the topic was brought up in debate; Many think the discussion is unnecessary, according to state lawmakers.

Rochelle Hendricks, the state secretary of higher education, told Nj.com that, in terms of financial aid, she thinks “we are cutting edge in a lot of ways.” The general consensus of lawmakers seems to be that New Jersey’s financial aid program is already doing an acceptable job assisting student with their tuition.

Gabriel Charette, executive director of the student loan program, said “I don’t think we are prepared to discuss the New York plan,” at the state’s annual senate hearing on higher education, “I think that there is a lot that needs to be studied.” However, citizens in others states appear to have a different stand.

“I don’t think college should be at the rate that it is,” said Almasi, a Life Safety Technician from D.C. “You pay so much money to get in; How are you supposed to pay for housing and all?”

New Jersey’s Most Expensive Colleges

(not accounting for books, rooms, board, etc.) Source: nj.com

New Jersey’s terms for student loans and financial aid have been deemed the strictest in the country by a ProPublica and New York Times investigation. The state also has some of the most expensive schools in the country.

With the average income per capita in New Jersey being around $57,900, and the average tuition fee for public colleges being $37,600, financial aid will become a need for most students who apply.

For many students nationwide, the beginning of Autumn marks either a tense season of college applications or the beginning of a collegiate education. College tuition prices are a difficult subject in the eyes of concerned parents and their children, as the wrong decision could potentially cripple a family for years.

This is no different in the state of Ohio. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average net price for a four-year college in Ohio is $19,138.93. 

In an attempt to provide collegiate education to intelligent high school students who may not be able to afford traditional schooling, The Ohio State University founded the Eminence Fellows Program within its University Honors Program. Now in its third operating year, the Eminence Fellows Scholarship provides a full cost of attendance coverage, paying for room and board in a residence hall for eight semesters, as well as a meal plan.

The Eminence Fellows program is open for all academically driven students to apply, but they first must be accepted into OSU’s Honors program. Upon reaching finalist status for the program, personal interviews are conducted. According to Program Coordinator Rebecca Ward, the application “look[s] at the student holistically.”

“It isn’t just the student who has perfect test scores, wants to go to medical school and is a slick interviewee,” said Ward. “We are looking for people who are intrinsically motivated.”

Outside of financial assistance, Eminence Fellows receive academic assistance. Freshman and sophomore seminars are provided, and students are given the opportunity to create a service project within their class. Students are advised by Ms. Ward herself and other faculty members and have access to an Eminence faculty network.

Programs like these are not readily available to all students nationwide. Yaniza Creamer, a Washington, D.C. student studying Public Relations at American University, attended AU via a Tuition Exchange (TE) program. Her father, a college professor at a TE member school, helped her qualify for AU’s Tuition Exchange scholarship, which provides $35,000. When Creamer’s father switched jobs, however, she felt unsupported by AU.

“College tuition is something constantly kept in the back of [students’] heads,” said Creamer. “AU doesn’t help with loans, and when my father switched jobs, I was kind of left in the dark.”

Creamer ended up taking a semester off of school for financial reasons, but will eagerly return this fall, quoting that she’d “loved the experience so far and the people [she’d] met” as well as the “the overall atmosphere” at AU.

The newly appointed Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has yet to comment on college tuition prices, and her website provides no information on her stance. Given the focus on free college in 2016 Democratic Nomination Candidate Bernie Sanders’s campaign, tuition prices are likely to remain a hot-button issue.

University of Maryland, College Park.

On February 20th, Delegate Keith E. Haynes introduced the free Community Colleges – Out–of–State Fee. The bill introduces the possibility of Maryland becoming the fourth state to grant free community college tuition in the country; he also, introduced two more bills that offer low-income families tax credits for money spent on community college. “We’re hoping that this is the year that we can move forward so we don’t lose sight of the primary goal, and we can look at some ways to fund this,” told Mr. Haynes, Baltimore Democrat to the Washington Times.

In the past two years, three states have passed legislation for free community college, and former President Obama during his presidency began pushing for the federal government to join states and make two-year college education free for everyone. The current administration has not shown interest in making community college free. “I think that is an interesting idea, it’s great to consider and think about but we have to consider that in life, there is nothing completely free somebody is going to pay for it,” told Betsy DeVos to the NEW YORK TIMES.

According to the Washington Times, The majority of People in Maryland are not informed about the bills since there is a lack of support, and the media has failed to cover the process.  It is still unclear, how the state is going to fund the bill if it moves forward. “Taxes are going to go up, and I don’t think people will be happy with that,” said  Mary Steele, a college student at the American University.  

Many people are concerned that the state is not willing to spend more money on education since the there is a potential funding cut of 130 million dollars according to the Baltimore Sun.  “I think I read about that a while ago, but I am not 100% sure. Free College tuition is not going to happen very soon, perhaps in the future. Maryland is not ready for that yet,” said Mariah Gonzalez, a Maryland Resident.

New Jersey has largely dismissed the call for free college tuition in public schools within the state. At the state’s annual Senate hearing on funding for higher education, Gabrielle Charette, executive director of of the agency that oversees New Jersey’s student loan program, dismissed the idea.

The conversation was brought about as a result of the newly imposed New York Excelsior Scholarship, an accessible college program that will make tuition free for over 940,000 middle class families beginning this fall.

The New York program is, however, rife with complications. For example, students accepted must be New York citizens, full-time students earning 30 credits per calendar year, and live/work in New York for the same amount of time they received the scholarship following graduation.

“I don’t think we are prepared today to discuss the New York plan,” Charette said in an nj.com interview . “I think that there is a lot that needs to be studied there, and I think we want to see how that works.”

Another reason for the dismissal of tuition free-college education plans in New Jersey is the claim that the state already does more than enough to help its citizens pay for higher education. New research from the University of California at Berkeley shows that New Jersey is one of only three states (the others being California and Wyoming) that provides more aid to low-income college students than the largest federal grant program does.

“I think we are cutting edge in a lot of ways,” said Rochelle Hendricks, the state’s secretary of higher education, in an nj.com interview
On average, New Jersey’s students spend $18,032.67 yearly on tuition alone — this does not include the cost of room and board, textbooks, and other expenses their school may require.

Charette’s organization, Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA), states its mission is to “provide students and families with financial and informational resources for students to pursue their education beyond high school.” It is the primary source of tuition aid in the state, run by the state government. The organization offers a variety of both need-based and merit-based programs.

The most notable program run by HESAA is the NJCLASS loan, which offers low-cost rates on supplemental loans to New Jersey residents attending an eligible in-state or out-of-state school and out-of-state students attending a school in New Jersey.

NJCLASS has received criticism through online petitions and has even gained media attention as being a corrupt program responsible for “preying on unsuspecting borrowers, trapping them into student loans they know can never be repaid, and crushing futures,” as claimed by an online petition with nearly 1,000 signatures.

Additionally, HESAA says it has a policy to help some families if the children who were supposed to benefit from the loans die. Emails to staffers recently revealed instructions to not tell families that they may qualify for help unless they explicitly ask for that information.

“Families of deceased borrowers (or surviving cosigners) must inquire if HESAA has a policy on loan forgiveness,” a supervising staffer wrote in an email to employees in May 2016. “We should not be volunteering this information.”

In response to HESAA’s negative attention, governor candidate John Wisniewski is proposing an act called New Jersey’s 21st Century Workforce Scholarship Act, which would act similarly to New York’s Excelsior Scholarship and replace HESAA’s NJCLASS loan program. According to Wisniewski’s website, New Jersey is projected to spend $158 million dollars less on supporting our public colleges and universities than it did seven years ago, a figure which would be altered by the enactment of his proposed program.

“With respect to securing sustainable funding, using money solely from Educational Opportunity Fund and Tuition Aid Grants is not sufficient. The plan would call on the Department of Education to determine how many students annually are eligible to take advantage of the program and mandate a reallocation of corporate business tax incentive programs (e.g., corporate welfare) to fully fund the scholarships,” his website says.

This is currently the only public alternate plan to NJCLASS, and Wisniewski is one of the only NJ officials in the public eye discussing the possibility of free tuition. Despite this, many citizens argue the importance of free tuition.

““Free tuition is a must,” said taxpayer Dominique Estevi. “The government needs to give the same opportunity to everyone; it is the government’s responsibility to educate its students.”

With the state’s gubernatorial election this November quickly approaching, advocates for free or lowered tuition could see this once unthought-off concept brought to reality.

HESAA’s NJCLASS Fall 2017/Spring 2018 Plan:

http://www.hesaa.org/Documents/NJCLASSInterestRates.pdf

According to the New Jersey State Data Center, the most recent available data shows that the average household has an income of $115,240, making the average student eligible for New Jersey’s 21st Century Workforce Scholarship Act, John Wisniewski’s proposed plan.

Between Bernie Sander’s campaign for president and New York’s recent decision, the concept of free universities has been a hot button topic.  Some people are concerned about taxes and quality of education, while others think that it will be revolutionary for underprivileged students.

62% percent of people think that students should not have to take out loans to attend college (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/01/over-60-of-americans-back-tuition-free-college-survey-says.html). However many states do not offer many services to help students attend college, and one of these states is Florida. The average cost of a four year university is $17,520 according to collegecal.org, which has left many families scrambling to put together enough money for college.

There are many people who have spent hours writing articles, protesting, and campaigning for free public universities; but some people think that it is not a big concern. One example of this is rising high school senior, Georgia Cummins. She said that she didn’t know much about free college and it is not a concern of hers because she is going out of state for college.

The main two programs offered in Florida are The Bright Futures Scholarship and The Florida International University’s Golden Promise. Bright Futures’ scholarships give money to Florida residents for in state public university. To qualify for their top scholarship students must have a 3.5 weighted GPA, 100 community service hours, and 29 or 1290 on ACT or SAT. Florida International University’s Golden Promise will be offering 1,200 students free tuition. They must be involved students and their families must make $33,000 or less.