Week 13 Reading

Many students are unable to utilize the assumed amount that parents are expected to contribute for their tuition and other needs simply because their families require that money urgently in their homes. Other families may be wealthy, but have lots of children and choose to have them pay for their own college expenses. The primary issue seems to be that the financial aid system makes assumptions about the extent to which families can contribute with no knowledge regarding whether they will actually contribute. This means that unaccounted for funds are factored into the aid a student receives before the student can establish whether or not they will have access to these funds. The system also fails to realize that a large majority of parents are dealing with their own financial struggles, which often includes loans from their own degrees. This is especially true for single parents and families of color. Economic inequality was exacerbated by the economic/housing crisis of the late 2000's/early 2010’s and has been consistent in putting Black and Hispanic families in difficult financial situations since. Because it has difficult for families to recover, the inequalities increase.

My personal family’s ability to help fund my education has been both serendipitous and unfortunate. I was fortunate to have a great grandparent put away money specifically to pay for college for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. However, being the fifth great-grandchild in line, the money was depleted by the middle of my program. A year before, my dad died and my family received life insurance. This is what paid for the rest of my education that my aid didn’t cover. I’m very aware that having generational savings and a good life insurance policy for my parent are resources that most commonly exist for white students. If I did not have these options, my college experience would be entirely different. My mom would’ve undoubtably been unable to cover what my and my siblings’ scholarships and federal loans didn’t cover. I probably would’ve had to begin working full-time much sooner and would be leaving school with an additional mountain of debt to accompany the one I’ve acquired through my federal loans.

Milwaukee seems to be neglected because it is implicated by the state’s issues with segregation. Other major cities have similar issues in which white, middle class students are provided plenty of money and resources to keep their schools running. In contrast, poor schools have very few resources or updates, and their students are disciplined harshly. Milwaukee shows evidence that the poor students implicated by underfunded schools are majority Black. The chapter also emphasizes that as time goes on and Black students continue to receive poor educations, it will be more and more difficult for Black community members to find jobs that will hire them. I see similarities about the difficulty of individuals being able to find work in their own city in Philadelphia. Gentrification is a widespread issue in Philly that has caused many families that have been here for generations to be forced out due to increased cost of living. It seems that simultaneously more people from other areas are moving in. This is a phenomenon plaguing many cities, but it reminded me of what the book had to say about Milwaukee since Philadelphia has a low college graduation rate, causing many jobs to be unavailable to its residents.