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Struggling students get Castor's backing

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published December 22, 2005

As you move further away from college, your memory begins to play tricks on you.

Nostalgia makes some of your difficult days seem halcyon. You look back with a smile about that week you and your roommates survived by eating corn flakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal.

Everyone gets sentimental about Steak-umms, and there is a degree of whimsy about those winter days when you slept in your clothes because you couldn't afford to turn on the heat.

"Wow, wasn't it great?"

But if you're honest with yourself, you must admit the only greatness springing from those difficulties is that you lived to tell about them. Sure, you laugh now when you see ramen noodles, but it wasn't so funny back then.

Truth be told, those days were so stressful they played havoc with my grade point average and caused me to have nightmares about missing final exams long after I had left school.

I sympathize with college kids facing a similar plight today, and so does County Commissioner Kathy Castor.

In her bid for the U.S. congressional seat held by gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, Castor is reaching out to an oft-ignored constituency:

College students.

On Wednesday, Castor came by the Times' office with University of South Florida student Jill Mitchell and University of Tampa student German Castro to voice her concerns about a proposed $12.7-billion cut in federal student loans.

The House has already approved the cuts, and the Senate was debating the budget late Wednesday.

Castor was not holding out hope that the Senate would alter the House's decision regarding the student loan cuts.

"Couple those cuts with the congressional freeze of the Pell grant for the fourth year in a row and a rise in education costs of 36 percent since 2001, and it is obvious that the Republican Congress is out of synch with a main priority for families," Castor said.

Castro, an economics major at UT, is worried he may not be able to complete his education without student loans. After all, the annual tuition at UT is $18,000, not including room and board.

"Even if Bush succeeds with (No Child Left Behind), we're going to have all these people finish high school who can't go to college," said Castro, who is working two jobs. "We can't compete in a global economy if we don't have people graduating from college."

Castro noted that many of the students who have to work full-time jobs end up making bad grades. Bad grades result in a loss of scholarship money and eventually they have to drop out.

Mitchell's challenges at USF are not quite as intense, but she too worries about being able to complete her education without having to take a full-time job. Her parents live in Orlando, so moving back in with mom and dad isn't an option unless she's going to commute 90 miles every day.

She is hoping to make ends meet with a part-time law firm job while helping with Castor's campaign.

"If they shortchange us now, they're going to hurt our future," Mitchell said.

Even if Mitchell and Castro find a way to balance work and school, they may not end up gaining the kind of practical experience needed to add value to their degrees. This isn't merely about a financial solution, it's about putting college kids in a position to succeed.

It's interesting that Castor is choosing to champion this cause. After all, one of the reasons Congress is so willing to cut student loans is because they don't believe students are going to rise up and become an influential voting bloc. The numbers are there for students to be a force, but apathy has generally won out over activism in recent years.

Still, Castor has chosen this to be a major campaign issue.

It may not resonate with all voters but it should. I'm certain there are plenty of college graduates who can wax eloquently about how they worked double shifts at Denny's to get through school. But once you've made it, shouldn't your mission be to help others succeed without enduring the same hardships?

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 00:58:15]