Grading Kerry’s Plan for College Student Aid

Re “Kerry’s College Plan Fails Poor Kids,” Commentary, Aug. 18: Contrary to what Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster imply in their piece, the $4,000 college opportunity tax credit is only one of several proposals that will help increase poor students’ enrollment in college. To name just one of several reasonable proposals, Sen. John F. Kerry would fund the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind that the president has shamefully imposed on states as unfunded mandates.

College students and their families recognize that $4,000 would go a long way toward offsetting both the huge tuition and fee increases of the last three years and the cuts in Pell grants and other financial aid programs that the Bush administration’s policies have brought.

David Schaberg

Irvine

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I see Kerry’s solution to getting the poor into college follows the liberal playbook, ignores the real problem and just throws more money at it.

As stated in Wednesday’s Op-Ed article on the subject, Kerry’s nonsolution does nothing to remove the real barriers that prevent poor kids from attending college: meeting the minimum academic standards that are required by virtually all four-year colleges.

Bob Franz

Placentia