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State may slash work study jobs Legislators propose cutting $15 million in aid for college students in budget tug-of-war by Doug Guthrie Detroit News July 11, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Financial aid for thousands of Michigan college students is at risk as state lawmakers consider slashing nearly $15 million in funding for those least able to afford to go to college. Work-study jobs for students, need-based grants such as the Michigan Education Opportunity Grant and Part-Time Independent Student program are proposed to be eliminated in the state's 2006 budget. Also, a host of initiatives designed to help minority students through the state's Martin Luther King-Cesar Chavez-Rosa Parks program are threatened in a politically charged budget negotiation on how to fund higher education. Many students who have relied on the state-supported programs are concerned the proposed cuts would make college inaccessible. Tayneata Starr-Thomas, 18, said she wouldn't be a freshman at Wayne State University if not for its King-Chavez-Parks outreach program. It prepared her for college while she was a student at Detroit's Nolan Middle School. "They helped me fill out financial aid applications earlier in my junior year so I had the best chance of getting help. I got a scholarship, too," Starr-Thomas said. "They gave me tools about how to approach college. Without KCP, a lot of students won't make it to college. They just won't know how." Educators say the cuts would limit options for many students at a time when colleges themselves face reduced funding and are considering tuition increases. Michigan Technological and Grand Valley State universities both have raised tuition nearly 8 percent for the fall. The state's other public universities also are considering tuition hikes along with service reduction and decreased class offerings. "Our universities are in such a bind right now," said Dan Hurley, spokesman for the Presidents Council, which represents the leaders of the state's public universities. "Two hundred and eighty-five thousand students are marching toward the campuses of our public universities in the coming weeks, and they don't know how to fill out the balance sheets that say what they will owe and what they can get in aid." The cuts also come as universities have been challenged to increase the number of graduates to rebuild the state's changing economy and work force. Educators say cutting aid programs would be counterproductive. "It is in the state's best interest to get more students into the pipeline moving toward graduation," Hurley said. "The last thing we need is any impediment. It is all about investing in the future, and our state leaders need to put together a plan to do that." Response to governor The aid cuts were included in the House budget as bargaining points to oppose proposals Gov. Jennifer Granholm made in her version of the budget, said Rep. John Stewart, R-Plymouth, chairman of the House Appropriations higher education subcommittee. Granholm wants to eliminate state tuition grants to students attending private colleges, something the House and Senate oppose. Almost 45 percent of the state's $60.5 million in tuition grants goes to students at private colleges. Legislative leaders also object to the governor's suggestion that the Michigan Merit Scholarship should be converted to an incentive paid on college degree completion rather than to high-performing high school seniors. Meanwhile, the House has forwarded a controversial plan to reformulate funding of all public universities. The plan seeks to level the uneven amount of per-student funding that has gone to the universities for years. Some schools, like Grand Valley State University, would receive large increases while others, like Wayne State University, would see decreases. "Am I interested in cutting those (aid) programs? No," Stewart said. "I'm calling the governor out. I want her to tell us where the money is going to come from." Sen. Mike Goschka, R-Brant, chairman of the state Senate's Education Subcommittee, also said he expects to see the aid programs restored but not until after the governor concedes on other issues. "It is tough to negotiate, especially when you don't have a lot of money," Goschka said. "I think John Stewart said it best when he said the House felt they needed some bargaining chips." Greg Bird, spokesman for the governor's budget office, said, "Given our financial situation, Representative Stewart is right: We do have to make some tough decisions. But programs such as Michigan work-study and King-Chavez-Parks are a higher priority to us. It's evident that there are those in the Legislature who feel that way, too, and we will have to work out this situation." Cuts reach across the board Eliminating the state's $2.69 million King-Chavez-Parks program would end outreach programs at all 15 public universities that influence about 18,000 high school and middle school students every year. With about $145,000 in King-Chavez-Parks funding, Wayne State's College Day program has annually given about 3,000 underprivileged Detroit-area youths a day at the university as well as workshops to teach essential college study skills and time management. "The proposed cuts would devastate the program and the chance at college for many young people," said Henry Robinson, director of college enrichment services at Wayne State. "These are children who might not even consider college without this encouragement." The University of Michigan and Michigan State University students have received notices from the colleges about the grants and financial aid they qualify to receive in the fall using only federal and institution funding sources. Some work-study programs have been continued based on limited federal funds. Revised statements will be sent later, after college tuition rates are finalized and if state aid is restored. "If I don't get work-study, I'll be eating nothing but macaroni and cheese next winter," said Josh Kersey, 20, a University of Michigan junior studying philosophy and political science and getting about $8 an hour to work 12 hours a week as a secretary in the university's student government office. In Kersey's personal budget, his $2,500 work-study grant is for food. Ron Kent, Wayne State's director of work-study placement, said employers can pay as little as 25 percent of a work-study student's wages while the aid program picks up the rest. "The loss of work-study will have a dramatic negative impact on our students, but also on the many university departments and nonprofits that benefit from hiring subsidized workers," Kent said. "With more cuts likely on campus, I'm not sure how some of the departments will be able to afford to get some jobs done. In so many ways, this will impact the institution. This may not be apparent to the Legislature." Preparing for fall classes, universities and their students are forced to consider the threat of the program eliminations while the budget process drags on. Negotiations are expected to result in last-minute resolutions to beat the Oct. 1 budget deadline. Leslie Marlowe, 26, knows how helpful these programs are and hopes they'll continue. The Warren resident, who graduated from Wayne State University in December, was able to get through college with help from a work-study program, which allowed her to take a job on campus. "Without work-study, I would have had to have a job off campus, and that would have made it harder to go to school," she said.