May 17, 2014 - May 23, 2014, The Afro-American
COMMENTARY
A5
Tired of Predatory Student Loans? – Speak Up by May 27
Are you tired of complaining to family and friends about things you feel powerless to change? Or, as college costs continue to climb and student loan debts increase, do you or someone you know feel helpless that your opinion could make a positive change? If you answered yes, know that the federal government is giving you a chance – now through May 27 – to speak Charlene Crowell up during an important public comment period. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) wants to learn more about the quality of career education programs. These programs, offered by a variety of for-profit colleges, have raised concerns about greater student debt and poor employment outcomes. These schools are also large beneficiaries of federal student loan dollars. If enough collective voices – organizations, educators, consumers and others – speak in support of consumer protections, for-profit colleges’ “rules of the road” can and will change for the better. Commonly known as the “gainful employment” rule, DOE proposes to cut off federal funds to career education programs where former students earn incomes too low in comparison to their debt. When incomes are too low or loan defaults too high, then students have not been prepared for “gainful employment.” By the May 27 comment deadline, DOE wants to learn the answer to one basic question: Are students really gaining the skills and training that lead to career tracks with incomes large enough to offset the heavy debts incurred? For Black and Latino students, the gainful employment rule is particularly important. A new research brief by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) finds that students of color enroll more frequently in for-profit colleges than other students. The disproportionate enrollment is caused in part by high-pressure sales tactics. Some schools have been accused of deliberately
targeting students of color for enrollment in their predatory programs. Further, for-profit colleges often have high tuition and fees that cost more than twice as much for a four-year public institution and four times as much for a two-year public school, often with sub-par graduation rates. The brief states, “A postsecondary education can serve as an asset that enables graduates to secure good jobs with steady incomes, enabling further accumulation of other assets in the future such as a home, business and secure retirement. … Unfortunately, for-profits often fail to provide a quality education for students, leaving many with a dangerous level of debt and little improvement in earning potential.” The proposed rule would also require: • Institutions to certify that their programs meet applicable accreditation requirements and state or federal licensure standard; and • Institutions to publicly disclose information about the program costs, debt, and performance of their gainful employment programs so that students can make betterinformed decisions. An earlier 2012 report by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee found that a majority of students at for-profit schools were unable to complete their programs. It also found that schools often misled students about their ability to secure a job in their field after graduation or to transfer to another institution to continue their studies. The low graduation rate of for-profit colleges imposes financial burdens that will linger long after enrollment. As these former students enter the job market, they are hindered by the
A Shout Out to Teen Fathers Becoming a father takes work. Before you became a father you were first, now you must learn that it is a father’s place to be last. You must learn to put others needs before your own. If you truly love your child make sure you give them the best you can give. Speak the right way, act the right way, treat your family and children the right way, be the right person. As a father you must be the best that you can be. Remember Franklyn Malone that every success in life is built upon failure. Every successful company and person made good decisions based on what they learned from the bad decisions they made in life. You must put away childish things and learn to be a responsible father and man. Make a plan to get educated, trained, and developed into a responsible father by following the footsteps of men who are positive, spiritually equipped, responsible, and leading by example. Only imitate the best to be the best. Have high expectations for your children. A Father must spend quality time, give gifts of love, and know that what you honor or believe in shows what you are about. There are seven basic love languages of fatherhood. Speak affirmations to your children and be as positive as possible.
Every time you curse you start a violent event in your child’s life. Violence begins with negative words and people. Always give your children gifts. They do not have to be bought from a store but can be created or harvested by you, such as the gift of a flower, or a book, a picture, or some food. Serve your child, do something for them. If Jesus washed the feet of his disciples what will you do for your child? Spend quality time with your children. Quality time is love and love is an action. Finally hold your child, hug your child, let them feel your spirit through your meaningful touch. The strongest man is the one who will kneel down low to touch a child. Also tell jokes to make them laugh and be a fun person to be around. Don’t be so serious all the time. Make a plan to provide and protect your children by finding a vocational skill, technical skill, or increasing your education. Expose yourself to good thinkers – you must constantly grow and learn. A man without a plan is simply not a man. Put the right people in the right place in your life with the right plan, because the wrong person creates problems instead of potential. The wrong place creates frustration instead of fulfillment. The wrong plan creates grief instead of growth. Choose to think good thoughts – the right thought plus the right people in the right environment at the right time for the right reason equal the right result. If you want to improve your life then focus on helping others. When you give you will receive. Know the family bill of rights: • Every child has the right to have two homes where he or she is cherished and given the opportunity to develop normally! • Every child has the right to a meaningful, nurturing
lack of a marketable credential and simultaneously burdened with loan repayment. The low-level of graduates, CRL finds, may also explain why for-profit college borrowers are also more likely to default on their student loans. In a recent letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Maura Dundon, a CRL senior policy counsel wrote, “Since students of color disproportionately enroll in for-profit colleges, they have been disproportionately harmed.” In 2011, for-profit advocates spoke up when a similar proposal was made. Their strident voices derailed attempts to bring fairness to this area of consumer lending. In 2014, we cannot afford a second mistake. If you or someone you know has been affected by this dilemma or felt powerless to change it, now is your chance to make a meaningful contribution to this important public debate. This time, the consumers harmed by these institutions should share their real-life experiences at http://rspnsb.li/1kY3ai0. Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org
relationship with each parent. • Every parent and child has the right to call themselves a family regardless of how the children’s time is divided. • Every parent has the responsibility and right to contribute to the raising of his or her child. • Every child has the right to have competent parents and to be free from hearing, observing, or being part of their arguments or problems with one another. Remember, you are not a man because you can make a baby. Any idiot who can achieve an erection can impregnate a willing female participant. You are a man because you are willing to raise a baby with love, nurturing, quality time, and unselfish service while always respecting the child’s mother. Fatherhood is emotional, psychological, social, economic, physical, and most importantly spiritual. It is about building positive relationships that open opportunities for success. There is really no book that you can read to become that special father. Fatherhood has to be seen, experienced, and modeled from those who have done it successfully. Find other men in your life who are worthy of being followed, listened to, and questioned. You will find them serving others in your community. You will know them by their works. You must stand up, reach up, and step up to be that courageous and loving father that brings his irreplaceable gift through a relationship with his children and the baby’s mother and family. Franklyn M. Malone is the CEO of 100 Fathers Inc. and a national father
Almost 60 Years Later and Losing Ground in the Battle to Integrate May 17 is 60 years after 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case was decided noting “separate but equal” as an oxymoron. A recent Farm Bill passed by Congress established that Ohio’s Central State University along with the 80 Hispanic Colleges were Land Grant Colleges. Have we forgotten that the 1890 Black Land Grant Act was passed for Black colleges? Six years later the U.S. Supreme Court Dr. Ada M. Fisher declared in the Plessy v. Ferguson case that separate but equal was the law of the land. How did that work out for the nation? By giving Hispanics their Land Grants in 2020, Congress has declared and the courts are following a prescription for “equal and separate” as the law of the land. This is further evidenced by their April 22 ruling that state votes banning the consideration of race in education is allowed. This death knell for affirmative action will continue as has now happened in Michigan, California, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma,
and Washington, and by state officials in Florida and New Hampshire. The hypocrisy of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s opinion that “ This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved … It is about who may resolve it. There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this court’s precedents for the judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters.” Why is this same logic not applicable to court rulings on same sex marriage, abortion, educational choice or other rulings where the states have their laws ruled against and must bear the resultant cost for the effect of these adverse court rulings? In North Carolina, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors has added to this burden by raising admissions standards beyond that required to graduate, i.e. a 2.5 GPA to get in but only a 2.0 to get out. The discrimination here allows taxpayer dollars from all of its 100 counties to be expended for a narrower pool of students without a comparable look at whether exceptions to this rule are made for athletes. It has also allowed the UNC System to skirt the 1977 Adams v. Califano case regarding its need for compliance and development of an adequate desegregation plan. Arthur Fletcher, Deputy Secretary of Labor during the Nixon Administration, established the Equal Opportunity Act in 1974 which should be held as valid today as then. This act did not become as bastardized as the affirmative action regulations which established quotas to get votes, set asides or
other programs which would be shell companies or fronts for union activities, and behind the scenes groups misusing the regulations for financial gain. The takeaways from these lessons not learned: * For minorities and women, achievement matters and your admissions will be based on your academic rankings and works, not just your belief that you are entitled to societal privileges just because you are a citizen. * For states and local governments, a concentration on inequalities must be undertaken less we see riots in the street, more disgust with government, and a resurgence of state’s rights in a manner which may prove ugly. * For Congress and national leaders, it is imperative that we put citizens first. If we are going to take people’s money in taxes then their access must be equal. * For my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, look closely at your history under late Chancellor James S. Ferguson, whose ground work of fairness established policies which have allowed you to yearly admit and graduate more Black students proportionately than any other college or university within six years, and whose numbers reflect our percentage of the state’s population at approximately 23 percent Black. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Dr. Ada M. Fisher is a physician, licensed teacher, and previously elected school board member, and the North Carolina Republican National Committee chairwoman.