Need a Little FAFSA Coaching? College Goal Sunday is Nov. 5

College Goal SundayOverwhelming is a good way to describe what it’s like to send your child off to college. Maybe you’re sad (or happy, no judgement) to have them out of the nest and discovering their first taste of independence. Aside from hoping they go to class and get an education that can set them up for a bright future, there are dorms to furnish and long-term decisions to make.

And all of that doesn’t include one of the most stressful aspects: how to pay for college.

One way to alleviate the stress of sorting through the financial aid process is by attending College Goal Sunday on November 5. Financial aid professionals will volunteer at 39 locations around the state to help students and families fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The document is required for students at most colleges and universities to be eligible for grants, scholarships and student loans.

While the FAFSA process can seem daunting or time consuming, students and families can fill out and file the form online in one afternoon with the help of professionals standing by.

College Goal Sunday is run by the Indiana Student Financial Aid Association (IFSAA) and is adding this November event in addition to its annual College Goal Sunday in February.

Interested? Here’s what you should bring:

  • Students should attend with parents or guardians (unless students are age 24 or older)
  • Parents should bring completed 2016 IRS 1040 tax returns, W-2 forms and other 2016 income and benefits information
  • Students who worked the previous year should bring their income information
  • Students age 24 and older should bring their own completed 2016 IRS 1040 tax return, W-2 Form or other 2016 income and benefits information
  • Students and parents are encouraged to apply for U.S. Department of Education FSA IDs at ed.gov before attending the event

A complete list of sites is available at CollegeGoalSunday.org. All sites will have online capabilities and many will offer Spanish language interpreters. Students who attend and fill out a completed evaluation will also be entered to win one of five $1,000 scholarships.

Time to Abide by New Rules in Indiana

More than 200 new state laws went into effect today. Unless you like to throw caution to the wind – which is not known as a wise tactic in the face of law enforcement – it’s a good idea to take note of what’s now on your to-do and to-don’t lists. Below are a few examples.

For Companies:

Verifying immigration status of new hire
Virtually all employers will need to confirm through the federal E-Verify database that a new employee is here legally. The penalty for employers failing to comply is loss of tax benefits. The E-verify system itself is free, but in reality employers will have internal administrative costs for running each employee check.

Machinery and equipment deductions
Businesses can now seek greater personal property deduction (abatement) from their local governments. On the table are significant tax deductions on new machinery and equipment purchases.

Union secret ballot election
Aimed at eliminating possible coercion tactics, this law requires all elections regarding employee/union representation to be conducted via a secret ballot.

For Citizens:

Don’t text while driving
This seems like a no-brainer, but apparently nothing really is. Only those using a hands-free, voice-operated smartphone can continue “texting” while actually on the road.

Drug testing before state workforce training
Unemployed Hoosiers who want to take advantage of various training programs offered by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development must be prepared to take a drug test. If you pass, you can sign up for the WorkOne training.

School choice scholarships
Low- and middle-income families unhappy with their child’s education can now apply for scholarships to help pay the cost at a public or private school of their choice. Only students who have spent at least one year in a public elementary or high school are eligible, and the program is first come, first serve (with a limited number of scholarships available).

Common sense liquor store ID requirements
No longer should stores ask to see ID before selling liquor to people who clearly were around before advent of the television. Only those who appear to be under the age of 40 will be required to produce their identification. For me, that means I will now consider it a compliment if I’m carded.

Child support before gambling
If an individual strikes it big at a casino but is also ignoring court-ordered child support obligations, those casino winnings will be withheld and applied to the outstanding support payments. It’s called prioritization.

Looking for something else? All 2011 laws and their summaries can be found in a report prepared by the Indiana Senate Majority.

California Still Not Learning Hard Lessons on Education

Oh, California. You gave us good wine, the Grateful Dead, and Reggie Miller. We should probably be a little kinder to you than we are. But you don’t make it easy. The Heartland Institute asserts the Golden State just isn’t getting it when it comes to education, throwing money at a failing system instead of letting the system work for the kids. Here’s an excerpt: 

Frustrated by some tough budget years, California public school officials want a court to declare the state’s Byzantine school finance system unconstitutional. The stated goal of the lawsuit is to circumvent lawmakers (and reality) by asking a judge to force billions of dollars in unaffordable education spending increases.

But the system isn’t "unconstitutional" so much as unworkable. The way to achieve an equitable and affordable public school system in the Golden State isn’t more funding to prop up a bloated bureaucracy. The answer is to fund all children equally by letting the funding follow the child. The answer is choice.

This is hardly a radical idea. Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, for example, offer tax credits to corporations and individuals who finance scholarships for children from low-income families. Even Sweden lets families choose the school they want, public or private, backed by a tax-subsidized scholarship…

The education establishment views the case as a bureaucracy preservation problem, which evades the real problem – the failure of that bureaucracy to educate California’s children. Students only enter the equation as a pretext for propping up the salaries and benefits of public employees.

The fact is, court-ordered school spending has never translated to academic success. A federal court judge ruled in 1985 that school officials in Kansas City, Mo., had to double local property taxes to fund $2 billion aimed at improving performance in low-income and mostly minority schools. In the blizzard of spending that followed over the next two decades, students got state-of-the-art science facilities, Olympic-size swimming pools, small classes – and no measurable improvement in academic outcomes.

Voters’ efforts to boost school funding haven’t translated to success either. Proposition 98, which Californians passed in 1988, locked California into a budget-busting mandate directing at least 40 percent of the state budget toward elementary and secondary education. Since its passage, California has seen negligible gains in academic outcomes and lagged well behind mediocre national trends.

What the California case needs is a second group of plaintiffs to intervene and argue the only workable way to secure the fundamental right to an education in a truly equitable fashion is to fund every child equally. The court certainly could declare the entire system unconstitutional – and then insist that funding follow the child to any school that meets California’s content standards.

Lasting reform requires shifting from the stifling chaos of the current "bureaucracy-based" system to the spontaneous order that will unfold as we fund the child. That’s the only system that comports with the spirit and the letter of the "equal protection" clause in any constitution.

Dollar Dilemma for Scholarship Programs

HOPE, "Bright Futures" and "Promise" are the names of three state-based college scholarship programs intended to expand higher education opportunities. Each effort, along with those in other states, may fall victim (at least in part) to a series of fiscal challenges.

It’s a combination of lower funding sources, higher tuition costs and expanding enrollments that are threatening the programs. The "solutions" vary, each with its own set of negative consequences.

Stateline.org has the interesting story, including this excerpt.

One possibility is to reduce the amount of the scholarship. Rather than guaranteeing to cover 100 percent of ever-increasing tuition rates, those states now offer students awards at a flat rate. However, it makes college less affordable for many families and disproportionately affects those with lower incomes.

The other option is to reduce the number of students who are eligible for the scholarships. That, too, has negative side effects. Upping academic standards steers awards toward students who are likely to attend college anyway. And it steers money away from lower-income students, minorities and those who are the first in their families to attend college.

Indiana, by the way, established the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program in 1990 to help students from low- and moderate-income families. In recent years, Gov. Daniels proposed privatizing the Hoosier Lottery and using the proceeds to assist all Hoosier students with at least a portion of their public education expenses. A Department of Justice opinion on such privatization scuttled that idea.

Córdova: Financial Aid, Lack of Direction Challenge Today’s Students

Today on higher education week on our blog, we feature guest posts from Purdue University President France Córdova. She answers:

  • What is the No. 1 change you would like to see in Indiana’s higher education system that would help serve students better?

Indiana is blessed with a rich array of opportunities in higher education. Students can attend community or regional colleges near their home, outstanding private four-year institutions, or world-class public research universities. The choice depends on their career plans, financial means, academic preparation and personal preference.

In spite of the choices, I’m hearing some common challenges that prospective students face when it comes to higher education: (1) the admissions and financial aid processes can be daunting, especially for those who are the first in their families to attend college; (2) students often do not know which college or university, or course of study, can best help them reach their educational and career goals; and (3) for a variety of reasons many students do not pursue their degree aggressively and fail to stay in college to degree completion.

At Purdue, we’re helping to answer these challenges in several ways:

  • We are employing more transparent online financial aid tools for students and their families. Also, we have launched a campaign to raise more scholarship funds for students who have demonstrable need for financial assistance, as well as for those who apply themselves in the classroom and show leadership potential.
  • To help students with college preparation and course selection, we are investigating the benefits of a campus-wide core curriculum, and we are working to simplify the transfer of courses among institutions, including from Ivy Tech to Purdue. Our regional campuses are looking at increased efficiencies in common credit transfer processes and shared resources, including a shared core curriculum to ease transfer among the campuses. Purdue’s campuses are working together to help power economic development across northern Indiana and everyone in the area will benefit.
  • Once a student enrolls with us, we work hard to help that student succeed. We have a large number of novel retention practices at our campuses, making use of experiential learning, information technology and social media.

We also encourage our students to be entrepreneurial through certification programs and through internships in our technology parks, Indiana companies and nonprofits; these learning experiences help the state keep more graduating students. 

Chamber Offers E-Learning Tools to Enhance Your Staff Productivity

What factor ranks at or near the top of the list for successful organizations? Our members tell us it’s a well-trained, qualified workforce.

The Indiana Chamber has provided information and instruction for years through its employee training seminars and regulatory compliance publications. Our Ready Indiana program (in the last three years) has helped make the connections between employer training needs and the available providers and funding resources.

Now, a new and powerful tool – the Indiana Chamber’s E-Learning Services – is available to assist Indiana companies and their employees. This nationally successful program comes to Indiana with courses focused on improving basic business skills (writing, math, communication and common computer applications) as well as more advanced topics like project management, human resources, accounting, compliance and top technical certifications.

Check out the informational page for course listings, pricing, scholarship details and more.

For more information, call Lisa at (800) 824-6885. Let’s work together to improve Indiana’s workforce.