If you have any suggestions, regarding  health care, rehabilitation,  compensation, outreach, and other programs and activities administered by VA designed to meet the needs of women veterans, forward them to this Committee,  which  makes  recommendations to the Secretary, regarding such programs and activities.

Written statements must be filed before the meeting, or within 10 days after the  meeting.

The contact address is :

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS  AFFAIRS

Advisory Committee on Women  Veterans;

Feb 9-11, Time : 8:30 until 4:30 p.m. each day

Room  230  VA Central Office,

810 Vermont  Avenue, NW.,

Washington, DC. 20420

Tele (202) 461 6193

Fax (202) 273 7092

From what I understand, the students who Obama has in mind are shirkers and duffers or people who are otiose or dumb to get to attend a college and America has no dearth of them! Although Obama isn’t bothered if they are lazy or dumb, what he cares is the vote bank.

I don’t want to spend a penny of my tax in proving or providing education to adults who cannot attain a degree in an age where grades seem to touch the sky. I have an intelligent and economical plan for such a population that is currently under merited by such colleges. What we really need to do is to enforce the Five-minute University, first proposed by Father Guido Sarducci.

If you think that I am kidding then I am not. There are plenty of people who attend colleges but it’s very obvious that President Obama cannot notice that. I have a better proposal for him, let us make such people attend such colleges for less than two weeks and give them important pointers to keep in mind and grant them a degree and they can carry on with their life! My plan would not only save the student his money but time as well.

If you think that, these students wouldn’t learn much then it’s no different from those students who spend a lot of their time and money learning anything that’s of significance. Father Sarducci says that one can learn in five minutes which all students remember post 5 years.

What do those students who study in specialized subjects like film, communications, or any other subject that has a study attached to it exactly remember and learn? Even if they concentrated and preserved such knowledge in their minds as memory then what’s its value? All I feel it’s worth is about five minutes of tuition. Studies reveal that 31% college pass outs are capable of reading and comprehending a composite book.

More such studies reveal that only 62% graduates were working in jobs that require degree and just 55% were working in a job pertaining to their specialization. Wonder why, at all such students even attempt a college degree? This data tells me that a fast course degree is much better and I can put these graduates to some productive purpose like mowing my lawn!

There is one substantial advantage that these Five-minute graduates get over a normal college graduate and that is a six-figured loan. In addition to this, the graduation rate of students of my five minute university is 100% compared to the pathetically low graduation rate of 56.1% of college graduates.

If you agree with me then do call the Congressmen and pursue them to pass a bill that routes a few millions that it’s currently extending to the federal student loan policy to fund my Five Minute Universities nationwide and printing diplomas. What, about the remaining money you ask? Well I propose that it can be returned to the rightful taxpayers.

The president would be happy and so would we! What say people?

The following information is about the Income Based Repayment plan for the federal student loans. The information includes the eligibility criteria, calculation of payment and benefits of the plan with some examples to make the understanding easier. Some common questions answered;

What is the Income Based Repayment?

As the name suggests, Income Based Repayment is a new scheme of repaying the loans taken by the students. Under this scheme, the student can repay the loan as per his monthly income and family size. For example, if your income allows you to pay only $500 a month towards repaying your loan, your loan repayment will be capped at $500.

What type of the federal student loans can be repaid under the IBR scheme?

GRAD plus, Stafford or Consolidation Loan made under either of the FFEL or Direct Loan program come under this scheme. Besides, these, the EXCEPT loans under default, consolidation loans that repaid a parent PLUS loan will also come under the IBR scheme. The student loans can be for any level of study) under graduate, graduate and even for job training) and can be new or old.

What is the eligibility criterion for IBR?

You may be allowed to enter the IBR if your student loan amount is higher relative to your family income. The IBR department provides a calculator to determine if your loan amount qualifies to come under this scheme. The factors taken into consideration while applying for the IBR include family income, size of the family and the loan amount. The table below shows the calculation briefly for the year 2009.

After it has been determined whether you are eligible for the program or not, the initial payment will be calculated. The repayment amount will be adjusted each year with changes in the income amount and family size. The amount that is required to be paid will not be more than the standard 10 year amount.

How do I benefit from thee IBR?

What could be the disadvantages of this program?

* You can pay as you earn. This simply means, if in a month, you earn 100 dollars, your repayment amount will perhaps be $10 and when you are earning $500. Your repayment amount will be $100. As you can see, with increase in your income, the percentage of income that goes into the repayment has also changed from 10% to 20% of the total income. The monthly payments under such schemes are lesser than those in the standard 10 year plan.

* Interest Payment Benefit: Suppose you are unable to part with the repayment amount in the first two years due to some reason. In such a case, if the reason for non repayment is valid, the government will pay the interest amount and after the three years of having entered the scheme,  the government payment will be added to the principal amount that you need to pay from the start of the fourth year onwards.

* Benefit of 25 year cancellation: If you have regularly paid every installment for 25 years toward repaying, any balance amount at the end of 25 years will be waived.

* 10 year public service loan forgiveness: If you have worked in a public service job for 10 years and have made a repayment every single month while at the job, the loan balance at the end of the 10 years will be waived. This benefit has some exceptions. This rule is valid only for people who have Direct Loans and make 120 monthly payments (10 years) under this program.The public service loan forgiveness fact sheet can be referred for a more detailed information on this.

If you drag the time for repaying the loan, you may end up paying more than the actual loan amount in interests. Apart from this, annual documentation giving information of the family size and income amount needs to be submitted failure of which will revert you back to the standard 10 year repayment scheme.

How is the IBR amount determined?

Under this scheme, the repayment amount for each month is based on the borrower’s Adjusted Gross Income and family size. The annual IBR amount works out to be 15% of the difference between the borrower’s AGI and 150% of the Poverty Guidelines set by the Department of Health and Human Services, adjusted as per the family size.

But with recession looming large, just hard work alone is not sufficient as money appears to be the reason many high schoolers are letting go of their dream schools and settling for second best.

A survey predicts that 71% of the high school graduates ruled out their choice of getting into a grad school of their choice because of money or the lack of it! Even parents who would pay any amount for prestige are doing a re think.

Every crisis teaches mankind a lesson. A lesson that these smart students have not been too slow in grasping is the fact that ‘you cannot always get what you want in life and that there are a million things in life that are beyond your control’. And just as any go getter of this generation would do, these students do not waste too much time brooding. Instead, they are quick to think on their feet and settle for a school that is a lot more economical and hence within reach.

In the light of the economic slowdown, with more focus being bestowed on companies going bankrupt and unemployment cases, sadly, little attention has been given to students. It is at this time that the National Association for College Admission Counseling which comprises of officials from the financial aid office from various universities conducted this survey. The aim of the survey was to bring forth the choices of the students in the face of recession.

Take the case of a student, Laura who will be graduating this week and knew all along that she wanted to go to the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Impressed by the campus’ conversations on intellectually stimulating topics as well as the faculty members, she had worked doubly hard to get a letter of acceptance.

However, when she got her financial aid letters, her parents were not too happy to know that the fees that they would have to contribute would be more than their capacity as they had lost most of their savings in the bearish stock market. Laura has now accepted an admission into the Boston School which has offered her a full fee waiver but is disappointed that her hard work has gone waste.

As the survey does not all include a proportionate number of public and private colleges and with only 85% of the total number of students responding, the accurate number will only crop up when the students arrive on campuses this fall.

Meanwhile, education counselors advice parents not to act in haste as they feel that even private grad schools are trying their best to offer financial aid to as many students as possible. Giving both parties, (the school and the student) sufficient time will help their children make an informed decision avoiding too many tears and disappointments.

All a student need to do is get a form from the educational Department of US. The form is of free application for Federal Students Aid and in a short span of time, you will become eligible for loans at astonishingly low interest rates.

In these federal loans, the repayment terms are generous in nature and moreover they do not have even a glance at your score in credit.

The Two Magical Wands

There are two easy ways of channelizing these federal loans to students: Firstly, through the medium of Federal Direct Students Loans (FDLP) in which funding is basically the function of U.S. Treasury and is accomplished by the public capital obtained.

The treasury dept. flow the funds to Education Dept. of U.S. and further it reaches the destination i.e. to the university or college. Secondly, the other way out is Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) the funding of which is done through private banking institutions and moreover due to the usage of private capital, the customers get similar benefits as in case of home or consumer loan.

Beware! Don’t Fall a Prey of the Private Loan Scenario

The private loan scenario is quiet contrary to the private loan givers in the market, who posses a keen eye on the amount of credit, you have taken from the market and are highly cautious about their repayment terms. The rate of interest, which is charged by these lenders, is also on the higher note and above it they are the ones who have a sick habit of touting discounts.

The tools they use to entice students are to waive the fee of origination or a slight drop down (which is near to insignificant) in the rate of interest to be paid back. To top up the situation, they compel the tender school goers to pay the amount within their school life which indeed creates a traumatic state of mind for these blossoming buds.

Keep Your Data Updated Before Stepping into the Market

To keep the knowledge updated, one should also know that other advantageous loan schemes available to help the students are Federal Family Education Loans, Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Students Consolidation and Ford Direct Student Loans. So, check out the details of each of them to locate what perfectly gels with your aspirations. Moreover, these loans get the authorization of Title IV of Higher Education Act after the amendments.

The data’s speak that nothing less than 6000 technical schools, colleges and universities actively participate in FFELP which is a major figure, representing around 80% of higher educational background. So where does you preference graph takes you. Are you still limited to the private loans or thinking smart for the federal loans?

Though the earning people in the middle-class seem to be the major beneficiaries of the fiscal stimulus plan, there are some benefits in store for college students too. Provisions have indeed been made to offer tax credits and grants to students.

For all the college students who are earning less than $80,000 a year, a $2500 tax break from college fee is being offered. This would encompass most of the students as most college going students do not make $80,000 a year. So a $2500 tax credit is what every college student can look forward to.

Stimulus Check Student Loan

The above tax break also holds good for students belonging to families earning less than $160,000 a year. So even the children who don’t get a stimulus check, are in a way stimulus check students. Another advantage provided to the student community is the relaxation on limitation of amount a student could receive from Pell grant. It has been raised to $5350, which is the maximum amount that can be granted to a student.

The college students who hold student loans and pay high interests on them can now heave a sigh of relief. If a stimulus check comes their way, it would indeed head towards the payment of a part of the student loan. However the bad news is that if you are in debt of a student loan, you cannot make any other use of the money. So students who have other plans in mind need to check out their loan status.

The best part about the stimulus check packages is that, you don’t have to queue up for it. Neither do you have to fill up forms, and not even call and contact people from the IRS. All a student has to do is file his income tax return as applicable and the student automatically qualifies for the stimulus check. The amount can be calculated using the official guidelines of IRS.

College Students Stimulus Checks

The stimulus check received by students is going to benefit them in multiple ways, the most important one being the reduction of the heft of student loans. The tax credits on college fees and money from Pell grant are a motivation for people who want to pursue education in the present hard times. The college students who do not have a soaring high student loan waiting to be paid, have reasons to smile, for there is some money coming there way. And the ones submerged in debts needn’t lose heart, who knows, Mr. President may come up with another plan very soon.

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) into law. While he was in the signing ceremony of the Stimulus Bill at Denver, Obama described this package to be amongst the ‘largest educational investment in US history’.

Education Stimulus Package Facts

Surprisingly, the House-Senate Conference bill came with a smaller price tag ($787 billion) than what was originally passed by either chamber, $820 billion (House) and $838 (Senate).

For achieving this compromise, there were significant cuts made in the House count for the State fiscal stabilization fund. The information has been provided to the respective governors, so that they can cover some of the shortfalls in their budget.

This ‘Stimulus Plan’ is going to provide US Education Department with almost $100 billion over the coming two years for saving education jobs, sending young individuals to colleges, modernizing classrooms across the nation and getting reforms in the school & college education pattern. This number has come down from a proposed figure of $145 billion, which were to be provided by the Original House Bill. Still, if you consider the amount, which the department received in 2008 ($59.18 billion), the change has been quite significant (almost double the previous one).

Stimulus Bill Effect on US College Education

The stimulus bill has billions to fund several aspects of education, even though some experts believe that the fund may not be enough for paying all the projects. Amongst the provisions in this new legislation are Pell Grant enhancement, tax credits, funding IT education and regulatory charges for College Saving Plans.

Education tax credits are going to be cut by $2,500 in the costs for tuition fees in college education to eligible families. However, experts are worried that households with low incomes may not feel the impact of this difference.

The encouraging fact is that starting July 1, the minimum Pell grant level is now going to increase from $4,731 to $5,350. In 2010-11, this figure is going to be further increased to $5,550. Thus, there is a possibility of another 800,000 students to be eligible for this scholarship grant. Apart from this, families are now going to be allowed for buying computers and similar technological gadgets by taking funds as loans from College Saving Plans (Section 529). However, final version of the stimulus bill has reduced the support for IT education by 35% (from $1bn to $650 million).

All and all, the stimulus bill contains a probable $32bn for higher education in US.

Merits of Education Stimulus Bill

• Taxpayers, who earn up to $80k (or $160k in case of joint filers), will find their tax bills reduced, dollar-for-dollar on the first $2,000 of books and tuition.

• Taxpayers, who do not have to pay taxes, are going to get refunds through these bills.

• Apart from providing affordability to the college education, students will be allowed taking either deductions or education credits every year.
• Student loans for those students who perform community service or national service.

Demerits of Education Stimulus Bill

Struggling families, especially the ones that have faced the impact of the economic meltdown, may not be able to make full use of the tuition fees reduction, as the sum only gets increased over a period.

Again, IT Education, International Society for Technology Education & Consortium for School Networking are aggrieved with what the bill has got for them.