The soon-to-be executive editor of The American Prospect has a theory that a goal of the right wing has been the politicization of American life. He cites faith (God-fearing Christians), love of country (dissent equates to a lack of it), geography (Northeastern elites), and now sports, as exemplified by ESPN's hiring of Rush Limbaugh for its NFL pre-game show. It's an interesting idea; he may be mistaking the symptoms for the disease, but it ought to be good for an argument in a bar.
Leave no child behind, huh? Except for the 84,000 or so who won't get Pell grants any more, or the thousands of others who will have their grants reduced under a new formula. The Administration argues that the pool of money will rise, conveniently forgetting to mention that it will be spread more thinly as the number of students rises.
I don't have a dog in that fight, by the way; I paid my way through my last two years of college with savings and a job as a work-study student. But it seems to me that these days the college degree is nearly as much a requirement for a good middle-class life as a high school diploma was 50 years ago, and limiting the number of people who can get financial aid, particularly when state college tuitions are rising and state aid is falling, in essence shuts the door to some low-income kids and their families. Given the targeted tax cuts we've seen, that shouldn't surprise anyone.
Posted by Linkmeister at July 19, 2003 08:36 AMAMEN. *sigh*
Posted by: JeanNINE at July 21, 2003 08:56 AM