Stop the Cutbacks

One of the more unfortunate results of the Reagan years is the growing deafness among Americans to the sound of the Presidential axe. Stunned by the harshness of the early Reagan budgets, the country has been unable to muster much opposition to successive plans, largely out of exhaustion. When the budget for fiscal years 1985 was released last week, attention focused on the ballooning government deficit and overlooked the guaranteed social inequality and demolished programs that can be expected from Administration policies.

The allocation, for higher education contained in the Reagan budget, should it be adopted, promises only to inflict further damage on our nation's universities. The budget calls for cuts of $300 million in federally funded, need-based student programs including the elimination of Supplemental, Grants for school financial aid programs and National Direct Loans.

At Harvard, financial aid officers are predicting a loss of one million dollars in supplemental grants if the proposals pass and increased difficulties for students trying to finance their educations due to decreased federal funds.

At a time of rising tuition costs, the loss of such funds can only serve to make higher education, an important ingredient to social mobility, more inaccessible to the poor. The drying up of federal funds will insure that universities remain homogeneous and the education they offer a privilege for the wealthy.

The cuts are not compensated for by increased federal allotments to work-study programs for which students are not asked to contribute $500 before qualifying for such grants.

For the past few years. Reagan has sought to transfer more responsibility for education to the states. This process will not be helped by the proposal elimination for the State incentive grant program in which states match funds allocated by Washington to set up scholarships.

It has long been known that Reagan values destructive weapons more than constructive social programs. The country can no longer expect him to understand that a better educated and more equitable society is an important step towards a sales America. Instead Congress must take it upon itself to reject the President's proposals lot higher education and resume actively aiding our embattled universities.