May 1, 2019
Page 11
O PINION
Affordable College for Students like Me
Debt can deepen
already stark
inequality
by a riel t omlinson
As a black woman
who was raised in pov-
erty, I understand what
it means to face constant
hardships.
I grew up in a single parent
household watching my mother’s
mental health deteriorate over time.
She relies on disability checks to
support herself, so hasn’t been able
to financially support me for col-
lege.
Attending college has always
been a dream of mine, but the road
hasn’t been easy. After dropping
out of high school at 15, I went
back to get my GED at 20. Even-
tually, I enrolled in the Community
College of Denver and graduated in
2015.
Currently, I’m pursuing my
bachelor’s degree at the Metropol-
itan State University in Colorado.
Pell Grants help finance my high-
er education, but there’s a lot they
don’t cover. I still have to take out
student loans to fill the financial
gap, which means I’m taking on
student debt to fund my ed-
ucation.
My experience might be
different if Congress acts
soon and reauthorizes the
Higher Education Act (HEA)
— by far the most important
law in higher education. The
HEA hasn’t been reauthorized in
more than 10 years, which means
the needs of college students across
our country aren’t being met.
That’s because the cost of at-
tending a 4-year higher education
institution has risen 1,122 percent
since 1978. Meanwhile, 95 percent
of jobs created since the Recession
have gone to someone with an edu-
cation beyond high school. Getting
yourself out of poverty basically re-
quires a postsecondary education,
which means taking on debt.
Still, many families like mine
fear that getting an education might
not be worth the debt they take on.
My two younger sisters, Des-
tiny and Kayla, have decided to
not attend college. They’re both
bright and talented individuals that
I know would succeed in college,
but they’re afraid of the debt they’d
incur. They’ve told me that watch-
ing me struggle to pay for school
has influenced them not to pursue
a college degree.
This truly breaks my heart as
their older sister, but I understand
student debt is a risk not everyone
wants to take. For many young
people who wish to attend college,
this debt can deepen already stark
inequality, especially for people of
color like me.
Pell Grants are among the most
common ways that low-income stu-
dents can afford college. But even
the maximum Pell Grant award of
roughly $6,000 doesn’t come close
to covering tuition, books, and liv-
ing expenses. That’s why many
low-income students are forced to
take out loans to finance the rest of
our education and burden ourselves
with debt we know we can’t afford.
Updating the HEA could help
ensure that Pell recipients are re-
ceiving the necessary financial aid
they need to avoid graduating with
crippling debt. And it could make
the financial aid process simpler
to ensure students are getting the
money they qualify for.
I intend to continue my high-
er education journey through my
Master’s degree, though I know
this will likely increase my stu-
dent loan debt. Frankly, the idea of
owing more debt terrifies me. But
like many other college students,
I have no other choice but to take
out more loans to ensure I get the
education I need to find a job that
pays well.
Maybe one day we’ll have debt-
free college in this country. Or
maybe, as Senator Elizabeth War-
ren recently proposed, working
people will get their student debt
forgiven.
Until then, there’s a simple step
we can take: Reauthorizing the
Higher Education Act and mak-
ing sure today’s students get a fair
chance at a successful higher edu-
cation experience.
Ariel Tomlinson is a mental
health and higher education ad-
vocate based in Denver, Colorado.
Distributed by OtherWords.org.
Didn’t Need Mueller to Tell Us Trump is a Skunk
Protect the
people and
impeach No. 45
o sCar h. b layton
No person in his or
her right mind will deny
that America is a thick-
et of racism, misogy-
ny, entitlement for the
wealthy, dishonesty and
a fictitious veneer of
meritocracy. So, it is befitting that
we have an occupant in the White
House who exemplifies all these
things.
Donald Trump clearly displayed
his many loathsome traits before
being elected to the highest office
in the land. He also proved that he
had neither the knowledge nor the
understanding necessary to compe-
tently lead a nuclear power.
The only believable aptitude
that his campaign presented to the
American electorate was his abid-
ing belief in white supremacy. And
he rode that one trick pony all the
way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
After occupying the Oval Office
for more than two years, Trump has
had his corrupt and illegal practices
laid out in more than 400 pages of
a government report produced by a
team of investigators and lawyers
led by Special Counsel, Robert
Mueller.
by
Political pundits have ex-
pressed their shock and surprise at
the depth of Trump’s immorality.
The legion of lies, his schemes to
overthrow the rule of law and his
constant efforts to obstruct justice
were revealed in page after
page of Mueller’s report.
But the most surprising
thing about this episode of
America’s history is not
Trump’s immortality, but
the sense of surprise – real
or pretended – expressed by
members of the major media out-
lets.
When you climb into a pigpen to
kiss a hog, you should not be sur-
prised by what winds up on your
lips. And many Americans have
been French kissing this swine for
more than two years.
The question now should not be
“How did things come to this?” The
answer is clear. We elected a villain
to the White House. The question
we must now answer is: “How do
we rid the American body politic of
this cancer?”
Some Democratic leaders in
the U.S. House of Representatives
are counseling against impeaching
Trump. Instead, they call for the
American voters to turn him out
of office in 2020. Fearful of losing
their seats by angering conserva-
tives, these shameful Congress-
members are asking voters to do
the job they were elected to do.
Cowering before small but vocal
segments of their constituencies,
these self-serving politicians are
willing, for the sake of their own
re-elections, to surrender the pub-
lic good to the worst elements of
our society.
When these politicians make
their next predictable pilgrimages
to black churches and neighbor-
hoods seeking what they believe
are “guaranteed” Democratic
votes, they should be pressed on
why they did not see fit to protect
the American people and move to
impeach No. 45. Every day Trump
remains in office is a threat to the
well-being of people of color.
His policies diminish our quali-
ty of life and the tone he sets in
the White House gives license to
those in America whose hateful,
racist inner demons have waited
decades for a chance to wreak
havoc on their victims.
For months, Robert Mueller
was hailed as the hero who had
ridden in on his white horse to
make everything right in Wash-
ington. But his report disappoints
by failing to call out Trump’s il-
legal actions for what they are.
Anecdotes in the Mueller Report
confirming already well-founded
suspicions and widely known vi-
olations of law that had been re-
ported in the media for months did
little to further inform the public
of Trump’s wrongdoings. And in
its present form, the report is sub-
ject to manipulation by Trump al-
lies to normalize his behavior and
anesthetize the American people
to the abuse heaped upon us daily
by this administration.
Anyone who cannot see an at-
tempted conspiracy between the
Trump campaign and the Russian
government is simply choosing
not to look. Anyone who is not
convinced that Trump clearly ob-
structed –and attempted to obstruct
– justice is choosing to abandon the
rule of law.
Trump committed his many
crimes in full view of the American
public, so the facts laid out in the
Mueller report should come as no
surprise.
Right-thinking
Americans
should not allow politicians to be
surprised at the contents of the
Mueller report. Any politician who
expresses such surprise is either
too dishonest or too stupid to be
returned to office.
Right-thinking
Americans
should not allow politicians to shirk
from legitimate efforts to impeach
Donald Trump. If they are too cow-
ardly to weather the turmoil of an
impeachment process, they should
pack their bags, leave Washington
and look for another line of work.
Oscar H. Blayton is a former
Marine Corps combat pilot and
human rights activist who practic-
es law in Virginia.
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