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NJ Politics---Midterm Paper

The rising college tuition has been a growing concern for recent years.

According to the Institute of Education Science of National Center for Education

Statistics, including public and private four-year universities, the tuition and the cost

of accommodations rised from $ 3167 in 1980 to $ 10430 in 2000, to $ 23872 again

by 2013. For the public section, the fees are from $ 2327 in 1980 to $ 8274 in 2000, to

$ 17474 by 2013; for the private, the fees are from $ 5013 in 1980 to $ 20737 in 2000,

again $ 35074 by 2013 (Snyder, Dillow, 2015). The cost of college education in the

United States continues to rise, causing a big problem to many families, particularly

the immigrant Chinese families who attach greater importance to education. Even

while oil prices continue to fall, the college fees never decrease, which always go

straight up. The New York Times reports that the debt of students of the United States

has exceeded the $ 1.2 trillion mark (Dynarski, 2015).

In general, people think the U.S. public colleges and universities have a much

lower tuition than the private. However, for now public schools are not immune; the

speed of tuition rising has been accused by many students and their parents. Most

people believe the United States is facing a mounting crisis of education: the number

of students who come from low-income families that can afford the tuition fees of

higher education, is becoming less and less. The President of the United States

repeatedly calls for raising the percentage of students who attend universities to meet

national demand for talents.

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Most Chinese residents in New Jersey are middle-class families with low- and

middle-income, and high levels of education. They prefer to apply for famous

universities, such as Ivy League schools. According to statistics, the tuition,

miscellaneous fees, and cost of attendance of Ivy League schools and private schools

for one year are approximately 60,000 dollars. Based on the data from the website of

Princeton University, for 2014-2015 academic year, its tuition and accommodation

fees are totally close to $ 60,000 (Commoon Data Set 2014-2015, p.16). One of my

friends, who lives in East Brunswick, got the admission letter from the Princeton

University last year. His parents were happy and excited, but soon they realized they

could not afford it. In his own Instagram, he did not share the admission notice, but

only posted a simple sentence, "Princeton is so expensive."

In additional, as a result of the financial crisis, in the whole United states, from

the federal to states and local governments, they keep cutting down the funds in

education, then public colleges and universities have to raise their tuition and

miscellaneous fees in order to maintain the daily operation of school administration.

According to Rutgers website, the tuition and accommodation cost for the academic

year 2014-15 for New Jersey students and students from other states are respectively

$25561 for in state and $40340 for out of state, on the New Brunswick Campus

(2014-2015 Tuition Rates). Even though the Chinese-American residents in New

Jersey are mainly middle-class families, this amount of money is still quite a burden

for them. So, most of the parents wish their children can get financial aid and

scholarships from the university, and somehow release the economical pressure. Due

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to figures on the Rutgers University Financial Subsidize Brochure, in the year 2014-

15, 77.3% of the student got some supporting money from school, the individual

average was $17910 (Financial Aid 2014-2015 Annual Report, p.1).

The financial aid of the United States university includes four parts: low

interest loans, the Federal Government and institutional grants, scholarship and part-

time work study. Financial aid cover loans, grants and work-study programs. The

allocation of grants for applicants is need-based, depending on the family income and

assets; and scholarships depend on whether the applicant is in an outstanding

performance which means merit-based. Across America, there are three sources of

grants, one is the Federal Government that parents and students applying for the

federal financial aid must fill out a form, named FAFSA; the second one is the State

Government, which is also attached to FAFSA; CSS Profile, provided by private

sectors is the last one.

Those grants have no need to be repaid, but they are difficult to get. Generally,

students from low-income families can seek more grants, or even using the grants to

cover all tuition. Such a way of subsidizing is particularly unfair for students from

middle-income families and low-middle-income families because they will not

receive this benefit, and this group of students has occupied the school's mainstream.

In order to reduce the financial burden, I find many people begin to find means

to solve their problems. Such as tax refund, if the taxpayer did not claim the right

amount under the step and rules, then it is very likely to lose that refund money. Many

tax drawbacks directly relate to the income of individual and family, because

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calculation methods and terms are very complicated, claims for tax refunds become a

skillful thing. Recruiting accountants to accomplish the annual tax report is much

wiser than do it by a new hand which may make mistakes causing inspection by IRS.

Many Chinese students would take the risk to pay less tax, or even use fraud and

deception. By doing this they could not only get the chance to do more tax drawbacks,

but also fake their income for the chance to get financial aid, especially those grants.

Certainly, some experts suggesting the Chinese-American residents to reasonably

reduce their assets by purchasing life insurance or any other kinds of annuity because

these two measures are not included in the FAFSA form.

The more important problem I find is most of these people are new immigrants.

As tens of thousands of United States citizens and legal residents who already have

lived here for a long time, they are unable to repay large education loan, new

immigrants can get grants , even excess grants, more easily. When I was in Middlesex

County College, I asked many of my friends who just immigrated to the United States

with their families about how they get their financial aid. They told me that their

parents actually didn't have a real job or only have a part-time job and they didn't pay

tax normally. What they should do is to find their bosses or their friends who have a

company to help them produce a fake proof of income, like giving them a Form 1099,

and hire an accountant to do tax at the end of the year. They also suggested only save

a little money in bank accounts in case the government checks them, keeping most of

their money at home. Since they became low-income people, they got grants from

federal government and state government. However, the most ridiculous thing is they

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received 5000 thousand dollars of grants per semester, about 2500 dollars by each

grant, but all their tuition in Middlesex County College was only about 2000 dollars

depending on how many credits they had. After two or three years, they could earn

more than 15000 dollars for no reason when they graduate. Same thing happened in

Rutgers, though the grants are not enough to cover all fees of attending Rutgers, still

making those new immigrants pay much less than other students. I think this situation

is unfair for many reason. The money governments give to those new immigrants

without seriously reviewing is collected from taxpayers of the United States. I

question that why the newcomers can enjoy such welfare when responsible American

people are still suffering.

New Jersey is more racially diverse than most states of the United States. In

recent years, foreigners are glad to choose New Jersey as their immigrant destination.

According to NJ.com, between 2013 and 2014, at least 55,000 local people chose to

leave New Jersey to other parts of the nation; however, this population loss has been

offset by immigrants from other countries (Stirling, 2015). For example, traditional

Chinese students want to immigrate after they graduate. Such "after-studying

immigration" seems to have become a routine. Nonetheless , the convenience of

"immigrate before studying" has been noticed and accepted by more and more

Chinese people. Experts predict the "immigrate before studying" will become a new

trend within next few years. Not only because international students have to pay three

times of local students, but also immigrants as domestic students can apply for grants

and more scholarships. Therefore, as an immigrant in the United States, one student is

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able to save more than $ 300,000 from primary school to university education. It is an

important reason that why more and more people want to emigrate to the United

States in a variety of ways.

If the increasing new immigrants all follow the similar wrongful way to get

welfare from both governments, who is taking care of the benefits of local taxpayers?

Whether local taxpayers are raising the new immigrants? When new arrivals begin to

consume large amounts of public resources in the opportunistic way, it will cause

conflicts between the new immigrants and native Americans, disrupting the original

order of the United States. It is also possible to breed local xenophobia, leading to

social instability and more racial discrimination.

For achieving the goal of reforming financial aid policies in New Jersey, I will

do the follow things: the first is to promote the reform in different colleges and

universities of New Jersey, especially to those students who come from middle-

income families, organizing students' groups in each place for supporting my idea and

asking them to collect signatures for our campaign. Second, each group should

contact their local Board of Education, persuading the members of BOEs to give a

word of advice to the mayors of municipalities with our students. Third, we collect

signatures in municipalities around every campuses on this issue, drawing those

parents of students who are under pressure of tuition fees over to our side. Next, with

those supports of common people and local leaders, we, as a whole, will write letters

to or call the district offices of legislators (senator or assembly members) who are

most possible to agree with our idea, and the offices of freeholders in counties; the

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reform suggests the state government work together with local governments. After

that, if any legislator decides to sponsor the suggestion, he or she may ask other

legislators to join as co-sponsors and work on the bill in proper procedure. At the

same time, our support groups will inform the Governor about the reform, drawing his

attention. Finally, I hope this bill can be passed in the Senate and Assembly, becoming

a law after the Governor signs it in New Jersey.

State Government need to approve an expanded tuition assistance program to

help eligible taxpayers to repay their tuition fees, but rational allocation of grants is a

matter of urgency for using the tax it collects for public good. If I am a legislator, my

draft bill will be that, the financial aid by New Jersey government is totally

independent of the system of the financial aid by federal government. The state

government with local governments have its own application and review process

which is much stricter than the federal government's. For the new immigrants, in the

first three years of immigration, if the financial aid of federal government for them

can cover their tuition fees, state government will not give any financial aid to them;

if the financial aid of federal government for them can not cover their tuition fees,

state government will provide a no-interest loan to those them; state governments will

provide more kinds of scholarship to new immigrants based on their performance in

communities or schools, encouraging local government and schools to do so.

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Works Cited

"Common Data Set 2014-2015". Princeton University.

Dynarski, Susan. "New Data Gives Clearer Picture of Student Debt". The New York

Times. The New York Times Company. September 10, 2015.

"Financial Aid 2014-2015 Annual Report". Rutgers University.

Stirling, Stephen. "Immigrants filling the void as residents flee N.J. by the tens of

thousands". NJ.com. Web. March 27, 2015.

Snyder, Thomas D. Dillow, Sally A. "Digset of Education Statistics 2013". Institute of

Education Sciences. U.S. department of Education. May, 2015.

"2014-2015 Tuition Rates". Rutgers University.