When Madolyn Okohson-Reb’s son Isaiah had a problem she couldn’t solve, she went straight to the top. She raised her hand and waited until Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged her.
“How can I keep my kids in college,” she asked Biden. “And how can I further my education …?”
Okohson-Reb’s work hours had been decreased at her call-center job and Isaiah, 19, was concerned that she could not afford for him to continue to attend Purdue University and for his 21- year-old sister to attend Texas A&M University.
Biden said that the Okohson-Reb family of Overland is exactly whom he plans to help with the announced federal plans to help make a college education more affordable for middle-class families.
Biden and the Middle Class Task Force members conducted a town-hall meeting at the University of Missouri–St. Louis last week titled “Making College More Affordable for Our Families” to announce the proposed changes. The committee is comprised of Biden, his wife Jill Biden, who is a college instructor; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; and Cecilia Rouse, White House economic advisor.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill and Gov. Jay Nixon joined the task force members at the event, along with chancellors of local universities and community colleges. About 300 parents, students and educators attended the meeting.
Biden and Duncan, who is a member of the task force, offered Okohson-Reb many suggestions, including having her son redo his financial aid paperwork to acknowledge his mother’s change in pay as a way to increase his federal aid. They also suggested she attend a community college as a more inexpensive way to continue her own college education.
“We are here to make sure every person who is capable of attending college has the opportunity,” Biden said.
He said the economic downturn has crippled the middle class and left many unable to afford college tuition. Biden defined the middle class as “anybody who can’t go two paychecks without being in trouble.”
“The economic downturn has devastated their savings,” Biden said. “And many who were depending on the equity in your home … you don’t get to borrow that money now.”
Biden said the Obama administration is proposing to expand low-interest loans for students, to increase federal financial aid, and to work to educate students and teachers about financial aid such as Pell Grants before high school. The administration is also asking the U.S. Treasury Department to study ways to strengthen the tax-deferred savings plans that many families use to save for college.
The plans, called 529 plans, are savings plans offered by states as a way to let families save for college. But the health of the 529 is dependent on the health of financial markets. “We need real substantive ways to reinvest in student aid and putting money directly into the pockets of students who need help,” Biden said.
Rose Bruce, a parent whose son is scheduled to attend the University of Missouri this year, attended the town hall meeting and said she is glad a task force has been created. Bruce and her husband Carl saved and invested in property as a way to ensure funding for their son’s college education. But the economic downturn has eliminated that possibility, she said.
“We are in a crunch,” she said. “We are in that group who earns too much to get financial aid.”
Biden said the plans are designed to help families such as the Bruces and people who are aspiring to be middle-class. “It’s not just a moral imperative,” Biden said. “It is an economic imperative.”
Biden said the reality is that incomes increase along with the amount of educational experience obtained. “We will measure success by the living standard of the middle class and those aspiring to be middle-class,” he said. “So we are working to find a way to close the gap between education and income. Education is the passport to the future.”
Kwame Simmons, principal of Imagine Academy of Careers Middle School, agreed. He brought students from his middle school to attend the event. He made a last-minute call to a friend in Washington to obtain tickets. He and the students sat behind Biden during the conference, and afterward Biden took photos with them and signed autographs.
“We believe for them to achieve, the answer is exposure, exposure and exposure,” Simmons said.
Danisha Hogue, a 14-year-old valedictorian at Imagine, said it was an honor to attend the event. “It was a very good experience because a lot of kids don’t get to see the vice president,” she said.
Berryman Rivers, 14, agreed. Rivers, also a valedictorian at Imagine, said the vice president helped him to understand that his college education can be affordable.
“I didn’t think it could ever happen. I didn’t think I could (afford) a good college and get a good education,” he said. “But now that I know that the U.S. will back me up, I’m confident.”
Box for Biden Story
Breaking it down
The government plans to invest about $225 billion in scholarships and tax credits for students over the next decade. Here are some of the plans:
• The American Opportunity Tax Credit is a $2,500 tax credit that can be claimed for four years of college. The tax credit is available to families earning up to $160,000 a year.
• The Pell Grant, which is the foundation of federal financial aid, will increase funding to $5,350 for the 2009-2010 school year. For the 2010-2011 school year, it would increase to $5,500.
• A Direct Loan Program would be created to expand low-interest loans by lending directly to students as a way to end entitlement subsidies to private lenders who act as “middlemen” for many federal student loans.
