Today has not been a good day for me. In fact, this last month hasn't been good. My supervisor retired the end of January, and I was offered a very meager pay increase to take on half of his duties (plus my own). Another senior administrator in my office accepted the other half. Somehow, I think I got the wrong half! And I'm now wondering if it was even worth it. Lately, I spend most of my time in meetings, which isn't all bad since I can make decisions that will benefit our office, but it means I'm getting behind in my duties of processing financial aid applications for students.
Finally, I had 2 hours of often interrupted time this afternoon to review financial aid applications for student at my school. This included 2007-08 (the end our of term is next week), summer, and 2008-09 applications. I'm already feeling the stress of doing 1 1/2 jobs, and it only got worse when I looked at FAFSA results for a few students for 2008-09.
I reviewed a FAFSA application that was selected for verification, meaning I had to collect the family's tax returns and the Dependent Verification Form. To make a long story short, the family didn't qualify for the maximum Pell Grant to begin with, and when I had to add in the tax breaks the family received which totalled about $2500, the family fared even worse for financial aid. This family consists of three in the household and one in college. It's single parent household, with the mother making $24,000 and the student not working. I double checked the calculation because I couldn't believe a family with that income wouldn't qualify for full Pell Grant. I immediately went to a close co-worker, closed her door, and proceeded to verbalize (with explatives) my feelings about how this is so wrong. All she could do was agree with me. I was so upset that I had goosebumps all over me. Puhleeeze! This is what I consider a low-income family---and it's worse for middle-income families! But, my hands are tied, and I will have to explain to this family how the student can take private alternative loans to attend our college.
The next FAFSA application I reviewed wasn't any better. Still a single parent family, the parent made more money ($40,000), but had two in college. The Pell Grant was even worse than the situation above. Figure this- income is $40,00 but the parent is trying to put 2 children through college, so spliltting the annual income is really $20,000 per child. And the financial aid package is worse. Helloooo! It makes me wonder why I stay in this profession.
As a result of my job today, I've started documenting situations where families are getting the shaft because of income or tax breaks. I've also started working on documenting national averages for living expenses, so I can contact my federal legislators with hard-core data to wage my own war against the injustices in funding an education. I used to believe that families should help in their child's education. Of all people, I should be able to save for my child's education, right? WRONG!
We, being adult students or parents of students, have so many other things that are sucking up our savings, that it's impossible to save for education. For me, it's been heating bills, electricity, gas, and general living expenses.
To top it off, my counterpart stopped by my office after hours, and I proceeded to tell her my frustration. I explained that I had plenty of fire for my post tonight. She added fuel to the fire by adding that our legislators will not be increasing Pell Grants, as I outlined in legislative updates the last couple of posts. They're reasonging is because they are increasing the Unsubsidized loan limits. Goosebumps and anger again! I have at least eight messages in my email regarding legislation that I haven't had time to read. Granted, I will be reading those emails ASAP.