OCR Text |
Show OPINION . LAU RA ALBISTON COMMENTARY Student loans and the Republican plan Don't let the Democrats deceive you on the future of Student Loans! As of late, Bill Clinton and his fe llow Democrats have tried to care American College students as to the futu re of their loans by misrepresenting the Republican plan. Don't be deceived by their lies! The Republican plan for Student Aid does everal thing that directly benefit students. The first is that Pell Grant maximum awards will be funded at the same level as in years past with no cuts. The Democrats take this and say that the Republicans are culting student aid because we fail to increase it by th.e 10 and a half percent they suggest. Thi is NOT a cu t in student aid; this is an attempt on th e Republicans part to mak e the futu re of college students better by balancing the budget. The second thing the Republican plan does is preserve the in school interest subsidy for undergraduate and gradu ate students. The Democrats say that the Republicans are going to in crease the amount of interest a student pays in and out of school. All I ha ve to say on that comm ent is rea d the plan all the way through . Co nt rary to Democratic belief, th e origination fee paid by students will not be increased. The origination fe e is that fee the student pays to get the loan. The Republican plan will also not COMMENTARY increase the interest a student will pay on the loan after he or she has completed school. Students will also retain the six-month grace period from the . t i me they exit school until th ey have to repay the loan. Democrats would have you think that you will have to start paying the loan as soon as you leave school. Don' t listen to them! Get the facts on the Republican Student Aid Proposal before you make your decision on it. "Women, we might as well be great T he Democrats take the Republican ideal of balancing the Newfoundland dogs out baying to the moon as to budget and turn it around to say that we want to cut student aid. be petitioning for the passage of bills without the To me, this is admittiug that all of the Democratic plans are a power to vote." Those words roused the crowd failure. lf we don't increase each of the federal programs by a when Susan B. Anthony declaimed them more certain percent, the Democrats say the program has been cut. It than 100 years ago. It took another 26 years for cloesn't take a genius to figure out that something is wrong with women to get the vote she fought for so this way of thinking. steadfastly. The main gist of the Republican plan is that it puts more The politicians of 1920, convinced that women responsibility on private institutions in the student loan process. would descend on the poUs and vote as a bloc, This will help us balance the budget within the seven years we swiftly went about the business of trying to are aiming for. In turn, that will be the best for students now please them. They knew what these women AND in the future . were after because they had heard activist women "baying to the moon" for decades. "Most LaUia Albiston is a sophomore and member of th e College of the women who had been involved in suffrage Republicans. were concerned with reform issues, " says Radcliffe College historian Susan Ware. "They were concerned with women, with children, issues of poverty, issues of fairness . " So in response to the insertion of the 19th Amendment into the Constitution, Congress quickly passed the first major piece of family PROFESSIONAL STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: legislation. The Sheppard Towner Act of 1921. Editor Larry Baker 586,775 1 But politicians soon lost interest in the C.mpul Editor Jim Robin&On 586- 1997 Coruulting Spons Editon Neil Ga rdne r 586-7753 women's vote, for the simple reason that it did Bren Jewkes 586,7752 Kellie S. Leema n 865,8045 not materialize. According to political scientist Business Managa Lynn OcM ett 586-1748 Ruth Mandel, "Women were not ready to rush A11&Ut.ant to the Editor Jennifer Morley 586-7759 out of the house and vote, after centuries of being STIJDENT STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: told that it wasn't appropriate for them to vote." Auociate Editon Michelle Clegg 865-8226, ). Arthur Fields 586-7750 It took decades for women to show up on A.tis Editor Jennifer Du.rcan 586-5488 Opinion Dirtttor C urry Edwards 586-7757 Election Day in equal numbers to men. AP Wire Editor JoAnn LundgRcn 865-82.25 Advertising Manager T"""' Clements 586-7758 Ad Rtp~nt.ativt Cheyenne Lytle 586-7758 Copy Editor Amanda Packard 586-7757 Starting in the 1960s, as large numbers of Cl.usi6.d Ad A.v t Laquctt.a Carpenter 586-7759 Photo Editor Lonnie Behun in 586-1757 Circulation hbnagtr Dave Mcanea 865-82.25 Ant. Photo Editor Eric Roderic.I< 586-7757 women went into the paid work force, they Sporu Editor Tun Maxwell 586-5488 Ad Production Facilitator Micki Sellen 586-7757 started talking to each other about politics and making their own decisions about how to cast The Univzr1li y /ou.rmJI ll publilhed tvl!TY Mondty, Wednesda1 ind Friday of lhe ..cadcmk yur u • publiution of Soulhem UtAh. Uniwn.lry, lta drpartmtnt oi c:ommuniu tion and the SUU Student Auocw:ton, The wlc:wt &Cid Opiniom their ballots. In a recent poll in U.S. News and ap.-....d In the /ouma/.,. thme of lodlridual writ<n ond do ""' ~ ly rdka oho optn on of cho /oumal miy entity oi the univenity. Lctttn to die muse be typed and include che name and phooe numba. Ont, 1ht name will World Report, fully 72 percent of the women be printed. Names will not be Withhdd under any d ra.umunca. and lhe editQr maves edldng prtrikgt:,, Leners must be ...bmluod by nooa f ddays lor Monday edition,, Tucodo,s lor Watn..day od;tlDn> and Thu"'1ays lor Friday «lltioo>. reported voting differently from their husbands. Gric...acffZ Any tt.di-vfdu.al with a p1e; mu a_g,t,lnn the foanuJI should d1rec:1 ,ueh problem fim to the edJ tor. U (Only 55 percent of the men said they voted ulll<OOIY<d, that gri<vanoo ahould then be dl=tod <M /ouma/ Steerinl Comm!,.... whid, i, chaired by DJ. Frain C . Punon, S86-797L The .....,wy 15 1.oiJ 8ulloch, 586-1710. differently from their wives, which raises some Uolfwtlly , - _ Clffi<n In SUU Ta:!,nokv MldqOOl M,ol • SUU Bal 93114, CedorOty, u..b 84170. FAX IIICl] 586-5487. interesting questions about just what kinds of E..moll-~ political conversations are going on in American ' " 'RINTED ON 11£CYCUD PI\PEII. PLEASE P.ECYCL! nos COPY, households these days.) COKIE & STEVE ROBERTS Women are more than political 'dogs baying at the moon' ot ~tor ID I Since the 1980 election, women have been voting for Democrats by considerably higher margins than men- that's the political phenomenon known as t h e gender gap. Republican pollster Linda DiVall thinks, after 15 years, it might be here to stay: "What we're seeing now is that the gender gap is indeed becoming institutionalized in that almost any Republican challenger who runs will tend to do better with men than they will do with women, and conversely for the Democrats." That doesn't mean that all women vote for Democrats, or all men for Republicans, but it does mean that women tend to vote more Democratic, men more Republican. In the U.S. News poll, on the question about whether Republicans in Congress have gone too far or not far enough in cutting government programs, men and women again disagreed. More men (44 percent) said not far enough (42 percent said too far), whereas women by more than a 2-1 margin [56 percent-27 percent) said Congress has gone too far. Women's concerns haven't changed over the decades-children, the elderly, education, health and safety still top the list. Given the fact that women form a majority of the electorate, that could be a problem for Republicans. Not necessarily, warns Celinda Lake as she advises Democratic candidates, "Men are still more enthusiastic about Republicans than the women ate about Democrats." Still, "it's ironic that the biggest difference in the vote may actually be on the an niversary of suffrage." Pollsters like Celinda Lake find women worrying about the same things the women who fought to get the vote worried about: "It was a safety net vote, and it remains a safety net vote today." Cokie Roberts is a commentator Yor ABC's "World News Tonight" and "This Week With David Brinkley." Steven V. Roberts is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report. |