5-30-09

 
5-30-09
Merced Sun-Star
Cardoza was at fundraiser when he skipped UC Merced commencement...MICHAEL DOYLE, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/872985.html
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, missed UC Merced's momentous 2009 graduation two weeks ago in part because he was busy raising money.
While an estimated 12,000 students, parents and area residents were welcoming first lady Michelle Obama's historic graduation address on May 16, Cardoza cited "personal and professional" reasons at the time for remaining on the East Coast.
On Friday, responding to a reporter's questions, Cardoza acknowledged that he had been at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland hosting a previously scheduled $5,000-a-head fundraiser. The money raised during the famed Preakness Stakes event went toward Cardoza's Moderate Victory Fund, a political action committee that aids other candidates.
"That event had been scheduled for several months," Cardoza said Friday. "It was a long-standing event, which raised money for moderate Democrats."
The UC Merced graduation was the first for students who attended the new university for all four years. The May 16 graduation date was set at the start of the school year late last summer, university spokeswoman Patti Waid Istas said, although Michelle Obama's participation was only confirmed in late March.
Often billed as the first new research university of the 21st century, UC Merced is located within Cardoza's congressional district.
He and other lawmakers have made a point in the past of seeking state and federal support, including earmarked funding, as have other lawmakers, and the House passed earlier this year a symbolic resolution praising the university.
Nonetheless, the only House member to attend the May 16 graduation was Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, whose congressional district dips into San Joaquin County. Neither of California's two senators attended, although the state's lieutenant governor, attorney general and Assembly speaker did.
"Barbara Boxer was not there," Cardoza said. "Dianne Feinstein was not there."
Cardoza noted that he helped host a celebratory dinner to honor the UC Merced seniors a week before the formal graduation, adding that "it was unfortunate" that the timing did not work out for him to attend the graduation.
"I have hundreds of requests in a year," Cardoza said, noting that he must also make time for his family. "I like to go to graduations, but I don't make every one."
Cardoza ran unopposed for re-election last year, and through March he reported having about $264,000 in surplus campaign cash. The money raised at Pimlico, though, will go into a separate fund.
The Moderate Victory Fund is a leadership political action committee, which enables Cardoza to raise money separately from his own campaign account and then distribute it to other like-minded candidates. Traditionally, politicians use leadership PACs to build alliances and gain influence.
Cardoza said he didn't know how much money his Pimlico event raised.
Last year, the Moderate Victory Fund raised about $102,000 from entities such as Wal-Mart, Comcast and the National Association of Realtors.
In turn, the PAC contributes money to Cardoza's Capitol Hill allies as well as some challengers who align themselves with generally centrist views.
"I try to get moderate Democrats elected to office," Cardoza said, "and this is one of the ways to do that."
UC Merced expects fall class to grow 30 percent...DANIELLE GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/872988.html
The number of students expected to attend UC Merced next year jumped 30 percent from just a year ago.
The University of California is expected to release systemwide information on "statements of intent to register" next week, but UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang revealed in an e-mail message to students earlier this month that the campus had seen the 30 percent increase in expected enrollment.
Statements of intent are nonbinding forms which incoming students must return to the university they expect to attend.
The high number of responses at UC Merced means the campus could handily surpass enrollment projections that were created in 2008.
At that time, officials hoped for 3,418 students on campus next school year; initial calculations show the student population could be 3,585, even without including graduate students, who don't have to return their intent forms until later.
"This is extremely encouraging news and further evidence of UC Merced's growing stature and visibility throughout California," Kang wrote in his memo to students. (Keith Alley, provost and executive vice chancellor of the campus, also signed the letter, which was sent from Kang's e-mail address.)
Last year, 1,065 undergraduate students returned the form to the school; 1,385 are expected this year, given Kang's statement.
More than 58,000 offers of admission were sent to California applicants for the fall 2009 freshman class throughout the UC system this year; 7,851 of those offers were sent by the Merced campus.
Interest in the 10-campus system's youngest site may be the result of the 10,000 UC-eligible students who were not admitted to their first-choice campus and were lumped into a "referral pool." All pool candidates were offered admission to either the Merced or Riverside campus, on top of the admission offers already sent.
Some 100 students were enrolled through the pool process last fall, officials said in April.
Also in April, officials said they expected to enroll 1,200 new freshmen next year.
UC Merced opened on Sept. 5, 2005, with a student population of 875 students.
Over time, enrollment at the campus had fallen below projections.
For example, the school's second-year population was nearly 600 students short of projections.
Administrators first expected to add 800 new students to campus every year, but after the shortfall in the fall of 2006, scaled back the number to 675 students a year.
The university still expects to enroll 25,000 students -- 22,250 undergraduates and 2,750 graduate students -- within 30 years.
Letter: Invest in future...CHRISTIAN AYENI, student, UC Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/872990.html
Editor: Considering America's current global standing in the arena of education, it is hard to understand why any American would question the investment into the future of this country.
To quote the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota: "Everyone does better, when everyone does better."
Wellstone's philosophy should not be limited to the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party that he served, but should be applied to this entire nation. Certainly an agriculture-based town, such as Merced, should understand this.
Such skills are derived directly from material learned at universities like UC Merced. Most families are unable to pay for the entire tuition of their children, and frightened by the prospect of loans.
In many cases, students are afraid to take loans. And why should he or she take out a loan when other students have their tuition covered by wealthy parents? If U.S. citizens would take the village-approach and not the greedy-approach, it would be clear that the only way for this country to progress is if we invest in our young.
Now is the time to buy stock in our future. "When everyone does better, everyone does better."
Letter: Last option...JOSE GODINEZ, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/872984.html
Editor: While the voters decided not to raise taxes and the state continues to face budget problems, cutting Cal Grants is still too drastic a measure for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to take.
I have been a recipient of Cal Grants for two years now, in addition to taking out $8,000 in loans. Without Cal Grant, my loan total would easily be doubled.
For myself, I don't mind going into debt to go to school, but for many current high school students, $8,000 after even four years would be too much of a financial burden.
Cutting Cal Grants would only deter students from striving for a higher education.
Not making higher education accessible to underprivileged students would hurt the state for generations to come. Furthermore, the students of California should not bear the brunt of the government's financial irresponsibility.
I don't know what the solution should be, but I urge the governor and state lawmakers to make cutting Cal Grants the last option.
Letter: Work and study...JACK MOBLEY, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/872981.html
Editor: The state is in dire financial straits. Everyone agrees something must be done to restore sanity and fiscal responsibility. I find it interesting that so many of the legislators who got us into this fiscal pickle have "found religion" after the recent election and are committed to spending cuts.
The solution will not be easy and certainly not without pain.
One of the possible casualties could be the Cal Grant program.
As one of millions of Californians who put themselves through college by working one or more jobs, I can testify that getting an education can be accomplished without government help.
It was not easy, but it is certainly within reach of anyone who is determined.
While it is very nice of the state to help students, it is not the responsibility of the taxpayer.
Students worried about Cal Grant cuts need to know there are other alternatives. Parents, other scholarship programs, going to a less expensive institution, delaying the education until the tuition is saved and working while in school are all possibilities.
The loss of self-reliance and expecting the government to provide for our needs and desires is a symptom of a greater problem facing our society.
More government intrusion into our lives is not a good thing, and we, as citizens, are solely responsible for ourselves.
In times of plenty and the money exists, I believe government help isn't a bad thing but don't forget it is a gift from the taxpayers of California and not a right.
Fresno Bee
Cardoza ducked out of first lady's Merced speech to hold fundraiser at the Preakness...5-29-09
http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2009/05/cardoza_ducked_out_
of_first_la.html
Remember that Rep. Dennis Cardoza's spokesman wouldn't say why the Merced congressman wasn't attending first lady Michelle Obama's speech to UC Merced's pioneer class?
This is why there was such an odd response to a simple question: Cardoza was hosting a big fundraiser at the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Baltmore on May 16 for his Moderate Victory Fund PAC. No wonder he didn't want to admit why he was skipping the UC Merced commencement. The fundraiser is listed on the Sunlight Foundation'sWeb site.
Cardoza was among five Valley congressmen who did not attend the first lady's speech on May 16. I was highly critical of the snub -- especially by Cardoza and Rep. Jim Costa, who are both Democrats. After all, they are in the same political party as the president and first lady and should be making points to help their districts.
It turns out that in the case of Cardoza, it's worse than a snub. The Merced congressman didn't appear for the first graduating class at the UC campus in his hometown because he was holding a fundraiser at a race track across the country. Bad form, congressman.
Comment
Mike D....May 29, 2009  2:14 PM
It also goes to show (once again) how money distorts the political process, when a Congressman skips out on the first graduation ceremony of a new university in his district, and an appearance by the First Lady, of his own party, to attend a fundraiser. He may not have known Mrs. Obama was coming when he scheduled the fundraiser, but he surely could have known that the graduation would be on that date. But in politics these days, the pursuit of money all too often comes first.
Contra Costa Times
Delta report card for governor, Legislature mixed...Mike Taugher
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_12480194
Six months after recommending sweeping changes to address California's water problems and an ecosystem crisis in the Delta, a task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the governor has not responded to their report and lacks a comprehensive policy to address the problems.
The draft "report card" released by Delta Vision gives state leaders, including the governor and Legislature, mixed grades saying they have made only modest progress in following through on the task force's recommendations.
And it notes that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan being pursued aggressively by the governor and many of the state's biggest water agencies "would not satisfy a single one of the seven goals recommended in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan."
The Delta Vision plan called for comprehensive changes that would increase water storage, improve the environment and preserve the economy and lifestyle of Delta residents.
The final report card is expected to be released Monday.
The Delta Vision task force spent two years analyzing Delta issues and came up with a seven-point plan to make environmental protection a higher priority, improve water use patterns, build new water storage and aqueducts, and reform oversight of the Delta.
Its work completed, the task force has re-formed into a nonprofit foundation to continue to push their recommendations into actions.
Ignition facility finally a reality...Suzanne Bohan
http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12480167
LIVERMORE — The director of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory struggled with tears for a moment as he thanked the legions of lab employees who helped build the National Ignition Facility, the 10-story tall building behind him.
"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," said George Miller, a nuclear-weapons designer who assumed leadership of the lab in 2006.
Miller addressed more than 3,000 invited guests and lab employees who had gathered for Friday's dedication ceremony for the facility, known as the NIF. The event took place 12 years to the day after the groundbreaking for what is now the largest laser facility in the world.
The NIF is designed to achieve fusion ignition, a holy grail of physics that has been elusive thus far despite 60 years of worldwide efforts, and billions spent trying.
The project, six years late and four times the original estimated cost, has been dogged by enormous challenges, from technical problems, to resistance or apathy in Congress, to skepticism in parts of the science community about whether fusion ignition can be achieved.
Many times throughout the years, NIF's future was uncertain.
The dedication also drew protesters. Members of Tri-Valley CAREs, a watchdog group that monitors lab activity, demonstrated outside the northwest corner of the lab. Banners hung on a fence expressed opposition to the facility, which the group asserts will be used for weapons design work, upping the ante in the arms race.
The group displayed documents that it says back its case, but the lab insists NIF won't be used for that purpose.
Still, the day belonged to the legions of NIF enthusiasts. Eleven speakers, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, shared their enthusiasm for the project, and their optimism that the facility would achieve fusion ignition.
Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, described his earlier work in the wind energy field and the colossal failures he witnessed. Then he pointed in the direction of wind farms in the nearby hills of Altamont Pass.
"We persisted and made incremental improvements, and now wind energy is overlooking the distant and advanced cousin we see today," he said, referring to the massive green and yellow NIF building behind him.
Like wind energy, McNerney was alluding that the fusion energy quest has endured one failure after another to achieve "ignition," in which more energy is released by a fusion reaction than is used to create it. In an ignition state, the reacting hydrogen is at least as hot as the sun. In addition to potentially providing a virtually limitless source of energy, creating such miniature suns on earth opens the door to studying the fundamental nature of the universe, as well as nuclear material, hence NIF's application in testing the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile without underground testing.
Every year during NIF's development, funding was in jeopardy, said three lawmakers who spoke at the event — Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo; Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; and Feinstein.
Technical problems, skepticism over funding a long-shot success of fusion work, and competition for dollars from projects in every other state meant the annual request for funding to keep the project going was often in question, Tauscher said.
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab's operations, provided assurances that annual funding for the NIF's research work would continue.
"I plan to fully support this facility from an operational standpoint," D'Agostino said.
The crowd sat under the midday sun in chairs spread out over a large lawn ringed by conifers. Many donned hats and kept cool using cardboard fans provided by the lab, though a cooling breeze occasionally provided relief.
Lab officials opened the NIF to tours throughout the day, with technicians and scientists available to answer questions. A control room with seven consoles and five monitors serves as the "brain" of the facility, and was designed similar to NASA's control room in Houston.
"I'm very, very excited," said Jeff Atherton, project director for target experimental systems, speaking of the fusion experiments that will start this summer. "We've been working a long time to get to this point."
The eyes of NIF operations manager Bruno Vanwonterghem also lit up when describing the experiments that lie ahead.
"NIF is really the place where 50 years of fusion development and 50 years of laser development come together," he said.
Los Angeles Times
Livermore Laboratory shows off world's biggest laser gun...David Sarno...5-29-09
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/05/livermore-laboratory-shows-off-worlds-biggest-laser-gun-pic.html
Today, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dedicated the world's largest laser system. The National Ignition Facility, with its 192 giant laser beams, fills up an entire 10-story building in Livermore, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Francisco. 
No, all that laser power is not to shoot down UFOs or melt ice on Mars -- the goal is even more elusive: sustained nuclear fusion. 
When the system goes online in two to three years, the nearly 200 lasers will focus all their power inward at a tiny 2-millimeter ball of frozen hydrogen gas, zapping it with 60 times more energy than any laser system that's come before. How much juice is that? Try 2 million joules.
How much juice is that?
"It's never been done before under controlled conditions," wrote the lab's Bob Hirschfeld in an e-mail.  "Just in nuclear weapons and in stars."
If things go well, lighting a mini-sunfire inside that hydrogen ball would release far more energy than the already gigantic amount of energy the laser is putting in. The main goal of fusion science is, of course, to create a nearly endless supply of safe and carbon-free electricity without the need to create nuclear byproducts. But scientists hope it could also be beneficial for astrophysics, as well as inspection and explosion-free testing of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
San Diego Union-Tribune
Budget woes force pay cut for UC execs
$500 million loss in funding puts all options on table...James P. Sweeney, U-T Sacramento Bureau
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/30/1n30uc001012-budget-woes-force-pay-cut-uc-execs/?education&zIndex=108068
SACRAMENTO — University of California's president, its chancellors and other top executives will take a 5 percent pay cut as the university prepares a broader response to deep budget reductions imposed by the state.
The move, effective July 1, will trim probably less than $1 million from the salaries of about 30 ranking administrators, starting with UC President Mark Yudof, who announced the decision yesterday in an internal letter.
But it sends a signal to the balance of the 10-campus system that furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs may be inevitable as the university confronts a $500 million-plus cut in state funding.
“Given the magnitude of the budget shortfall, all options need to be considered, and, unfortunately it is likely that every member of the UC community will be affected negatively,” Yudof wrote in the letter to the university's senior management.
One UC campus, Berkeley, already has laid off about 80 employees since Jan. 1, and others are expected to follow suit. UC San Diego also has been slowly reducing its work force.
“We have had some layoffs in the last few months and expect more in the next couple of months,” UCSD Associate Vice Chancellor Stacie Spector said in an e-mail.
To minimize the impact, some vacancies – including the equivalent of 45 faculty positions – are not being filled, Spector wrote.
Charles Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, is planning to meet with CSU presidents next week to discuss their limited options to absorb a similar level of reductions in state funding.
Yudof, Reed and Jack Scott, chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, are scheduled to testify Monday before a legislative committee weighing another round of cuts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to close a $24.3 billion deficit.
The UC has taken a number of steps to minimize the impending fiscal crunch. About 600 positions have been eliminated from the UC Office of the President. The pay of 340 executives was frozen in January, and regents voted to cut freshman enrollment by 6 percent, or 2,300 students, in the coming school year. Student fees also were increased 9.3 percent.
But none of that will be enough to cover a staggering cutback from $3.3 billion to $2.8 billion in core state funding, UC officials say. The total UC budget is $19 billion.
The move to cut UC executives' pay comes a day after the Schwarzenegger administration disclosed that it will seek an additional 5 percent pay cut, for a total of 14.2 percent, from 235,000 state workers.
A state senator who this week introduced a measure that would for the first time give the Legislature direct control over the UC dismissed the executive pay cut as too little, too late.
“We still need to move forward with a ballot measure that will rein them in,” said Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who along with others has criticized the university's compensation levels. “We already have people who are being furloughed, who are taking pay cuts and (UC) should have led the way a long time ago.”
The CSU system faces a similar reduction in state support and also has restricted enrollment and raised fees. Like the UC, much of the CSU work force also is protected by collective bargaining agreements, which will make layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts more difficult to implement.
The 110-campus community college system faces a reduction of at least $825 million in state funding, a spokeswoman said.
7 pro-union protesters arrested in SoCal...The Associated Press...5-14-09
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/14/ca-wal-mart-protests-051409/ 
FONTANA, Calif. — Seven protesters have been arrested in Fontana while demonstrating for the right to unionize outside a warehouse under contract with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
San Bernardino sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers says the people arrested Thursday on suspicion of trespassing were among a group of 100 demonstrators carrying signs and marching outside the warehouse. She says they were expected to be booked and released.
Daniel Medress, a spokesman for Warehouse Workers United, which organized the demonstration, says the people were detained for blocking the facility's driveway. He says they were showing their willingness to put their bodies on the line for the right to form a union.
Protesters held signs reading, "Wal-Mart: Always union busting, always."
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore would not offer comment on the protest.
Infoshop News
Warehouse Workers Shut Down Walmart Warehouse in San Bernardino County...Contributed by: Dead End...5-24-09
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090524034802788
There is a growing movement of workers fighting for justice and good jobs in the warehouses of California's Inland Empire. On May 14th, they took the fight to America's largest private employer: Walmart.
There is a growing movement of workers fighting for justice and good jobs in the warehouses of California's Inland Empire. On May 14th, they took the fight to America's largest private employer: Walmart.
The Inland Empire has some of the highest rates of foreclosures and unemployment in the country, but the main industry of the area, warehousing for national retailers, is built on bad, low paying jobs. Most of these jobs are through temp agencies and, in addition to low pay and no benefits these jobs do not allow workers to have any job security. Jobs in the Inland Empire need to be good jobs with a living wage and affordable health care; this is the best way the region has to pull itself out of the Great Recession.
On May 14th, warehouse workers, clergy, community members, and area students staged a nonviolent civil disobedience outside a Walmart warehouse in San Bernardino County. The protest ended with the arrest of 7 people, including 4 clergy members, who had literally put their bodies on the line by blocking the truck entrance to the warehouse.
Over 200 people gathered in front of the Walmart warehouse, carrying signs with messages such as Warehouse Workers Want the Freedom to Form a Union. They were protesting Walmarts vicious anti-worker and anti-union policies and highlighting the need for the Employee Free Choice Act. Past attempt by workers at this warehouse to form a union were thwarted by managements harsh tactics of fear and intimidation.
The Valley Boulevard warehouse is completely dedicated to products destined for Southern California Walmart stores. The facility serves Walmart stores and supplies a significant percent of non-food goods to Walmart stores in the region. The facility operates 7 days a week, with three shifts running 24 hours a day.
New York Times
Was a Hispanic Justice on the Court in the ’30s?...NEIL A. LEWIS
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/
h/harvard_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org
WASHINGTON — While most people may believe Sonia Sotomayor is poised to become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court, there has been a rich under-the-radar debate for years as to whether the court had already had a Hispanic justice.
Several people have suggested that Justice Benjamin Cardozo might properly hold the title of the court’s first Hispanic justice. Prof. Andrew Kaufman of the Harvard Law School, who is the author of a 1998 biography of Cardozo, said the debate was esoteric, complicated and, perhaps above all, amusing.
“Was Cardozo Hispanic?” Professor Kaufman asked, noting that the assertion has been prevalent on Web sites and in articles for years. “Well, I think he regarded himself as a Sephardic Jew whose ancestors came from the Iberian Peninsula.”
He said the term “Hispanic” was not commonly used during Cardozo’s lifetime and would probably have been unfamiliar to him in 1932 when President Herbert Hoover named him to the court, where he served for six years until his death.
Professor Kaufman said that although there is no documentation, Cardozo’s family, which came to America in the 18th century, always believed that its forebears had come from Portugal, not Spain. And that raises an even more recondite question: are Portuguese people Hispanic?
Most Hispanic organizations and the United States Census Bureau do not regard Portuguese as Hispanic.
But Tony Coelho, a Portuguese-American congressman from California, was a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus when he was in the House, and Representative Dennis Cardoza, Democrat of California, whose ancestors came from the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago, is still a member.
The executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Arturo Vargas, said the contemporary political definition of Hispanic in the United States would definitely not include Cardozo. The practical definition he uses, Mr. Vargas said, includes people who are “descended from countries in the Americas” with a Spanish-language heritage. It does not even include those from Spain itself, he said.
Recession Imperils Loan Forgiveness Programs...JONATHAN D. GLATER...5-27-09
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/your-money/student-loans/27forgive.html?sq=glater and kentucky&st=cse&scp=3&pagewanted=print
When a Kentucky agency cut back its program to forgive student loans for schoolteachers, Travis B. Gay knew he and his wife, Stephanie — both special-education teachers — were in trouble.
“We’d gotten married in June and bought a house, pretty much planned our whole life,” said Mr. Gay, 26. Together, they had about $100,000 in student loans that they expected the program to help them repay over five years.
Then, he said, “we get a letter in the mail saying that our forgiveness this year was next to nothing.”
Now they are weighing whether to sell their three-bedroom house in Lawrenceburg, Ky., some 20 miles west of Lexington. Otherwise, Mr. Gay said, “it’s going to be very difficult for us to do our student loan payments, house payments and just eat.”
From Kentucky to Iowa to California, loan forgiveness programs are on the chopping block. Typically founded by their states to help students pay for college, the state agencies and nonprofit organizations that make student loans and sponsor these programs are getting less money from the federal government and are having difficulty raising money elsewhere as a result of the financial crisis.
The organizations say the repayment programs have been hurt by a broader effort by Congress to tackle the high cost of the federal student loan program by reducing subsidies to lenders.
Curbing the programs will make it harder to lure college graduates into high-value but often low-paying fields like teaching and nursing.
While few schools may be hiring now in this economic climate, there may be shortages later, educators say.
“You’re going to diminish the quality of the candidates who are thinking, ‘Do I take my skills in math and science into industry or do I take them into the classroom?’ ” said Tracey L. Bailey, who had loans forgiven in Florida and now is director of education policy for the Association of American Educators.
The Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation is at the extreme in cutting payments to people in midstream who have already finished their educations and are repaying loans, but organizations in many other states have curtailed their new offers to prospective teachers, nurses and others.
The New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corporation has suspended its program for teachers, and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority has done so for nurses and people called to active duty in the military.
Iowa Student Loan has reduced the maximum amounts offered to people in two of its three program categories, one for teachers and one for certain types of nurses, in an effort to ensure the programs will last. ALL Student Loan, which is based in Los Angeles, ended a program for nurses last year.
The changes leave students without a critical escape hatch from their federal college and graduate school loans, and they throw up a roadblock for those who dream of teaching but fear an oppressive combination of low wages and high debt.
“I remember sitting in the financial aid office and them saying, ‘Pay for every penny of it, pay for your books through loans, because they’re going to be forgiven,’ ” Mr. Gay said. And he dutifully did, using federal loans to cover some of the costs of his undergraduate degree in communications and all the costs of his master’s program in special education, which he finished in 2006.
If he had known the forgiveness program was vulnerable, Mr. Gay said, he would have chosen a different career, perhaps public relations. “Which I am actually contemplating doing right now,” he added.
Teachers in Kentucky are hoping to get financing restored for the program. But it is not clear where the money could come from.
“We’d obviously love to see something like that happen,” said Ted Franzeim, vice president for customer relations of the organization. He added that the group had never told participants that financing for forgiveness was guaranteed — a point that schoolteachers dispute.
About 7,500 teachers, nurses and public interest lawyers have benefited from the state’s loan forgiveness program since 2003, at a cost of $77 million, Mr. Franzeim said.
The federal government and some states continue to support their programs to lure promising young graduates to less lucrative jobs. The federal Education Department still offers up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness to math, science or education teachers who have worked for at least five years at an elementary or secondary school in a low-income area.
New Mexico, New Jersey and New York pay for their programs directly instead of relying on nonprofit organizations, and they have not been cut by lawmakers. In Oregon the Legislature is debating whether to suspend funding of a program for nurses.
Another problem for some of the nonprofit groups that rely on selling their loans in a secondary market is that financing has dried up.
The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, for example, has stopped offering to reduce interest rates for borrowers working in public service fields like teaching and firefighting, said Will Shaffner, director of business development and governmental relations. The only investor willing to buy its loans now is the federal Education Department, which purchases loans with standard terms only.
There is no clear accounting of how many people were swayed by loan forgiveness to pursue teaching, or how many might be deterred by the absence of such programs. But the anecdotal evidence suggests the programs matter.
Mark Henderson said he weighed a job as an auditor at Humana, where he worked as temporary help in 2005, against the chance to teach math, a subject he loved. Kentucky’s loan forgiveness program persuaded him to try teaching.
“I thought, at least if I have somebody repay it, I can last five years and get rid of this debt,” said Mr. Henderson, 26, a math teacher in Louisville. He enrolled at Spalding University and graduated in 2006 with a master’s in teaching; he is not yet in repayment on his loans because he is taking classes to improve his earning potential.
He has ended up teaching at the very high school he attended, Mr. Henderson said, and teaches geometry in the same classroom where he learned it.
“As it turned out, I really liked it,” he said, “and I’ll stick around for a long time.”
Students Relying on Loans Wonder Whether Forgiveness Will Last...JONATHAN D. GLATER, RON LIEBER, TARA SIEGEL BERNARD and PAUL SULLIVAN
This article was reported by Jonathan D. Glater, Ron Lieber, Tara Siegel Bernard and Paul Sullivan and written by Mr. Glater and Mr. Lieber.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/your-money/student-loans/30money.html?pagewanted=print
If you want to become a public defender, Georgetown University can be a great place to get your legal education. So Heather Gatnarek expects to take on well over $100,000 of debt to get her law degree there and hopes to graduate in three years.
Here’s the problem, though. She’s relying on a new federal program that forgives part of the student loan debt for graduates who enter public service fields. And she was scared out of her mind when she read a New York Times article on Wednesday on problems in Kentucky, where significant cuts in one of its loan forgiveness programs have put thousands of indebted public school teachers and nurses in a painful financial squeeze.
“I would be completely up a creek” without a loan forgiveness program, Ms. Gatnarek said. “I don’t know what I would do. Marry someone rich, I guess. People say that I could just do corporate law for a few years, but I wouldn’t last two days.”
The problem in Kentucky and another that emerged in Connecticut on Thursday raise a frightening question for millions of young Americans considering jobs like teaching or nursing: Are the state or federal programs that promise to forgive student loan debt for people in those or other public service professions backed by ironclad guarantees?
And if the forgiveness isn’t guaranteed, how on earth can anyone expect 18- or 22-year-olds to take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt?
Without such a promise, how can they know that they won’t one day find themselves in a police uniform or in a rural doctor’s office suddenly facing personal bankruptcy?
The good news here is that the federal Department of Education says that almost all its loan forgiveness programs are safe. “It doesn’t depend on some future Congress for us to come through on most of these,” said Robert Shireman, deputy undersecretary of education. “The majority of them get appropriations for the life of the programs.”
But many states say that financing their loan forgiveness programs depends on state budgets. Given declining tax revenues, that doesn’t inspire much confidence. On Thursday, for instance, Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut proposed cutting the state’s minority teacher grant program, which awards a stipend that is intended to help students pay off their loans, said Constance Fraser, a Connecticut Department of Higher Education spokeswoman.
The states’ changes — or the mere threat of them — are the latest of several ugly financial developments that have shaken individuals of all ages who thought they were playing by the rules. There are the investors close to retirement who thought they were being conservative only to watch their savings decline 25 percent before bouncing back a bit recently. And then there are homeowners in Miami and Las Vegas with plain mortgages who have found the value of their properties plummeting because of the bad behavior of many banks and their customers.
As for the loan forgiveness programs, they have been around since at least the late 1960s, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial aid site finaid.org. States sponsored them first, to keep residents from moving or to encourage graduates to enter careers where there was a shortage of professionals in particular locations or in certain lower-paying fields. Now, the federal government is involved, too.
The problems in Kentucky, Connecticut and potentially elsewhere, however, have an absurdist twist. Nonprofit state organizations and agencies say they do not have money for loan forgiveness programs in part because of cuts in federal subsidies for student lenders. At the same time, tight credit has also made it difficult for lenders to raise additional funds that they could then lend.
In other words, the college graduates from years ago who chose banking over teaching or nursing have now made such a big mess of the economy that the teachers who educate the bankers’ children have to worry about the status of the loans they took out to learn to teach. Pretty rich, no?
And so we’re left with the sad tale of people like Adam and Katie Thomas. Both Louisville, Ky., teachers of special needs children, the Thomases had a combined $85,000 in student loans. Partway through the payback period on those loans, however, the forgiveness program in their state cut its annual subsidy from 20 percent of the couple’s total loan balance to just 1 percent. That pushed them so close to the edge financially that they decided to sell their home and move in with Ms. Thomas’s parents.
We know, we know. How irresponsible of mere teachers to take on that much debt in the first place, right? Many of the online commenters on the article in Wednesday’s paper certainly felt this way.
But if education is a fundamental right, then it’s hard to argue against public policies that try to make sure there are enough teachers to provide that education. And if loan forgiveness is what it takes to get teachers to head to rural schoolhouses or poor urban schools, then that would certainly seem to serve the national interest.
So loan forgiveness programs are not some sinister form of social engineering. Nor do they encourage overindebtedness, per se. Education costs what it costs, and if you need to borrow to attend and intend to eat while doing so, then borrow you must. In fact, borrowing to prepare for a career in nursing or law enforcement makes perfect sense if governmental entities are promoting loan forgiveness programs.
The problem is that many of those running the programs also admit that there are no guarantees that financing for the loan forgiveness programs will survive the next state legislative session (or that the economy will improve enough for them to find other ways of financing the forgiveness). We found this so disturbing that we decided to call up every single entity, state or federal, that we could find that offered loan forgiveness programs. Then, we asked them point-blank if they would like to offer an absolute promise to borrowers or potential borrowers that the loan forgiveness programs would not go away while the borrowers were still using them.
Some states ignored us or didn’t call back in time. Some were stumped entirely and said the question actually raised Constitutional issues, which left us a bit befuddled (and there was a trained lawyer in our posse). A few insisted that theirs was not a Kentucky situation, so scared were they of being tarred with that state’s taint.
Also, we haven’t begun tracking down corporations that offer loan forgiveness to employees. But we’d like to.
So this is where you come in. We’ve created an interactive table at nytimes.com/yourmoney with everything we’ve found so far. If your lender (or law firm or other employer) is not there and you’d like us to ask them to state whether they intend to stand behind their loan forgiveness program, write to yourmoney@nytimes.com.
We intend to finish this database in the next few weeks and then leave it up, with updates, as a sort of reality check.
Meanwhile, a few tips for those of you who are thinking about borrowing a big pile of money or are in the middle of doing so. If you live in a state where loan forgiveness may be in jeopardy, call your state representatives and read them the riot act. It’s hard to imagine that the cuts in the Kentucky program, for instance, will stand. Ken Winters, a Republican state senator there, said he expected the issue of financing for the program to come up in January. We’ll be watching.
Also, ask tough questions when any program is making what seems to be a promise on loan forgiveness. Which loans are eligible? All student loans or only certain types? Is there a limit on the debt that can be forgiven? Is the program guaranteed? By whom? With what funds? For precisely which kinds of public service? Must you apply, and is it selective? And finally, is there a federal program that may make up for some of your state’s forgiveness, even if the federal benefits aren’t as generous?
We hate to get all “X-Files” on you, but Trust No One. Sure, The Truth May Be Out There, but it sure seems as if the truth can change in ways that can cost innocent public servants tens of thousands of dollars.