Scholarship cuts unfortunate, necessary

you are wrong, wrong, wrong!!! this investment will be paid back by educated people paying more taxes over their work life. there are lots of students that receive this money that would not attend MSU but for those dollars. but you think that it only goes to the rich like yourselves and you don’t need it. talk about elitist. the SN should be a champion of students, all students, and not be apologists for the legislature kicking deserving MI kids to the curb.

This is so completely wrong; I can’t even begin to explain. As someone who finds it only possible to go to MSU because “merit-based” scholarships, I think that the State News is completely backwards here. Yes, let’s take money away from those who have worked to receive it, and let’s give it away in “need-based” scholarships. This is bull, complete and utter bull.

As the founder and co-administrator of a merit-based scholarship for graduating high school students, I couldn’t disagree more with this callous and careless opinion. As a 21-year-old senior at MSU, my disdain for the ignorance of this piece takes on an even greater potency.

The need for sacrificial giving in order to sustain the quality and accessibility of education in this state has never been greater.

Since the State News obviously thinks this cut only affects the smartest students, it’s good to know the state is willing to alieniate its brightest students even further. What young person wants to stay in a state that clearly does not value them? In a state that can’t keep it’s college grads in the first place, this seems like a sure-fire way to send even more young people out of state.

“Ultimately, it won’t change much for students receiving the Michigan Promise” Really?

You guys are fucking stupid. Seriously.

The State News is better than this. Or at least I thought so. This paper is for the students, and partially funded by the students. Education is one thing we cannot sacrifice in today’s economy. I know cuts are being made. I know they must be made, but that doesn’t mean that it is right.

There will be people that will not be able to attend State. You are telling me that their opportunity to go to college is a luxury?

lets take all the scholarships away from those who can “afford” it, and give it all to the people who cant. utter bullshit. Lets punish those who have worked hard over their life to be able to afford to send their children to college, without forcing them to take out loans. If you start making these people pay for everything, because they can “afford’ it, they themselves will be poor pretty soon.

People attend college in order to secure jobs that pay well and achieve a higher standard of living than had they not attended college. It is not unreasonable to expect them to shoulder a bigger burden of the cost for said benefits.

I never received a scholarship because my parents made “enough money” together to get me through college. Funny thing though, they make enough money to put me through college, as long as they live poorly. I have to pay my own way through college, and the lack of scholarships is really taking a hit to my debt count.

I’m really glad that your daddy is paying your way, so you don’t have to worry about it.

P.S., “You can’t transform a state’s economy if you price the next generation of workers out of a college education”

my daddy paid for all undergrad expenses, living expenses, and is paying my grad school expenses, and living expenses. A nice life indeed

Are you the STUDENT newspaper? This is apalling, you dimwits can’t think of other ways to cut from the budget other the source of what helps students get through school? You all should be so very ashamed.

One way to partially solve this issue would have it be a “loan” for 4 years, if you graduate with a degree from the school you go to, the loan is forgiven, if not you then owe the state the money back and start accruing interest. This way the people who use it to go to party and drop out will not have the state pay for 2 years of drunkeness.

I’d love to see where your numbers on the 75% percent of students not “needing” aid come from. I know many college students that MSU decided did not “need” aid based on family incomes but those are rarely correct. Perhaps the editorial board is part of the privileged few who could afford to lose such a luxury.

Another great piece of research and journalism from the State News…

Why “invest in Michigan’s future”? most graduates will flee to Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. the day they graduate…

I put myself through college (via student loans) and I think more people should do the same. How sad is it that we now live in a world where everyone wants to be handed out an entitlement? It is not your right to go to college. It is not up to the state or the federal government to fund it for you. My parents are hard-working, middle class people but could not afford to send me to college and I was not eligible for financial aid because my parents apparently made too much. So I took student loans out. I am so sick of the welfare that our state and federal government give out to anybody and everybody. We are creating a lazy society and this truly saddens me.

Disgraceful.

You actually call yourselfs the “Student Voice”….Incredible

As one tax paying student (Yes we all pay fees to the State News each semester) I demand an explanation and retraction.

Otherwise, perhaps all “11,000” of us MSU students your article endorses taking financial aid away from can recoup some of that loss by refunding our State News taxes…

“Seventy-five percent of recipients don’t require any financial aid to attend college and the remaining 25 percent still can be eligible for need-based scholarships. It’s great the state awards money based on which students do the best academically, but it’s not completely necessary.”

Yes, yes. Let us punish our brightest – the ones that should be in college – and welcome to school the mediocre and poor.

This is a travesty, albeit an unsurprising one. As America continues down the “gimme, gimme” path and encourages the sense of entitlement that many young people have today, the bright and hardworking are going to continue to get screwed.

In addition to echoing many of the above comments, I would like to add that the Michigan “Promise” scholarship was established to ease tuition increases that were to come from the state funding cuts to higher education. Discontinuing the “Promise” scholarship would in fact, be a double hit to students.

Yes, it is true that funding has to come from somewhere. And yes, it is true that no one wants to see their “cause,” whatever that may be, hurt by the state’s budget deficit. However, as stated before, taking away this money can only work to alienate deserving students, just as this editorial surely does.

The State News has been awesome lately. I honestly dont understand why the state of Michigan even gives out scholarships. How is it the duty of the state (read: taxpayers) to pay for a private individuals education. Please some one enlighten me? Why should I, a hardworking tax payer, pay for somebody else to go to college?

Because, as an economist (and any of us will agree), society reaps a very large economic reward by having a highly educated workforce.

So, the state (and nations) GSP/GDP will increase and all of us will be better off if we have a highly skilled workforce. Investments in education are, generally speaking, good returns on the dollar.

And just plain WRONG!!!