by Edwin Mora

(Second of two parts) Lending options for Latino college students are diminished as a result of the nation’s economic instability.

Even those non-federal lenders still remaining after some have abandoned the college-loan business due to the credit crunch are tightening the reins on their lending standards.

“Private loans are now charging higher interest rates, demanding higher credit scores and insisting on co-signers,” says Ronald Johnson, director of financial aid at the University of California-Los Angeles. “With tighter restrictions, students will find that their lender options have dwindled.”

Due to new demands by private lenders, it is anticipated that students without co-signers will not be eligible for private funding, Johnson points out.

Tuition fees for undergraduate students present the new scenario. At UCLA they add up to about $25,000. Latinos make up 14.1 percent of its 12,579 admitted freshmen for the fall 2008 semester.

According to a recent Pew Hispanic Center study, when compared to other ethnic/racial groups such as non-Hispanic blacks, full-time undergraduate Latino students receive the lowest amount of financial aid funds and take out larger federal and non-federal loans.

Private funding for college is a common alternative.

In some cases, it supplements federal student loans. In the last decade, more and more students have resorted to private lenders to cover their higher education costs, according to The College Board.

Of the estimated $62.3 billion in overall student loans in the 1997-98 school year, about $60 billion, or 96 percent, came out of federal loans. These include those provided through states and institutions.

A decade later, the same types of loans paint a different picture. Of the estimated $162.5 billion total in 2007-08, about $143.5 billion, or 88 percent, came from federal funding; the remaining $19 billion, or 12 percent, came from non-federal loans.

Financial aid advisors at both UCLA and the University of Texas-El Paso pronounce that at this point, those students in need of assistance will not find themselves in financial limbo. Federally guaranteed loans and grants are still available at institutions for students who demonstrate monetary need. State-sponsored assistance, on the other hand, is becoming less common as some states struggle to stay afloat during this economic downturn. Some have started reducing their higher education budgets. This could result in tuition fee increases.

On Nov. 4, a budget cut of $65.5 million for the University of California was posed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was in addition to a $48 million reduction already included in the state’s budget proposal.

As part of a contingency plan, UCLA’s Johnson says there are some limited types of funding that his offi ce can deploy on a case-by-case basis. However, he points out, UCLA cannot replace the money made available by private lenders.

Raúl Lerma, University of Texas-El Paso fi nancial aid director, cautions, “For the next year we will be ready for people who might have lost their job, but we may have to do some financial aid recalculations based on the applicants’ household ­income at the time.”

Both financial aid advisors say that they have not seen a substantial influx of students to the fi nancial aid offi ce this semester, but this may change in the upcoming year.

Details as to how the nation’s economic stimulus plan agreed upon by President Barrack Obama and Congress could affect the college aspirations of Hispanic students remain to be clarified.

Of extra concern to high school graduates with exemplary education credentials but whose immigration status remains clouded is whether The Dream Act, rejected by past Congresses, will finally become a reality when voted on by a friendlier Congress this session. It would not only provide them with more affordable higher education opportunities, but allow those who perform well a chance to adjust their status and remain in the country Hispanic Link.

(Edwin Mora reports for Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email him at edwin.mora@gmail.com). ©2009

by José de la Isla

José de la Isla

HOUSTON – How Latinos are perceived can no longer be ignored. The issue arises with the release of a book of essays, edited by former Clinton-era HUD secretary and former San Antonio mayor Henry G. Cisneros.

“Latinos and the Nation’s Future” by Arte Público Press, was released Jan. 26 in Washington, D.C. at the Center for American Progress, a think-tank closely associated with the Obama administration.

The dilemma is perhaps best illustrated by generalization in the forward made bt Janet Murguía, National Council of La Raza’s CEO. She says immigrants are assimilating well but Latinos as a group are below par on educational achievement, in wage earnings, have dead-end jobs, are growing in numbers exponentially and “put our entire country’s future at risk.” Say what?

To be perfectly frank, if the nation is hanging at the edge of a cliff you don’t want a blind cripple weakling coming to your rescue, as seems to be portrayed. And well-intentioned Latino advocates sometimes make paltry arguments for Latino strength. That is sometimes the case here and there throughout this book.

It does not give as much clear thinking and insight as it could. The audience is presumed to be naïve. More attention needs to go into highlighting Latino strengths. Less needs to go into pleading for government programs. But old habits are hard to break, I suppose.

If this book were a computer, its hard disk needs defragging. Regardless of its merits, this volume needs a spring cleaning.

The reason is that some of its 17 contributing writers — not all — as policy advocates have fallen into a groove that points out social failure as an appeal to caring and government intervention. The social work perspective comes at a time when organizing, democracy and self-help have already won the day. The essays sometimes use cowering language and statistics instead of the bold assertions that policy leaders could make.

Recently, anthropologist Barry Isaac told me, for example, that the Obama election, was not a paradigm shift, but an affirmation about what had already taken place in U.S. society.

In the same way, a Latino affirmation is needed here about the United States’ future. An inevitable Latino imprint is in the making. Basic demographics make this so, as well as the ascension of so many to the middle-income ranks. This inevitably means — as it did in the time of President William McKinley in the 1890s — that the nation’s cultural axis is changing too. And that means facing up to the real story about what is happening and how it is transforming the nation.

Raul Yzaguirre, the former executive director of the National Council of La Raza, writes an exceptional essay on civil rights (a story all citizens should know) and Tamar Jacoby should probably serve as the last word on immigrants and newcomers and the emerging new nation.

What’s frustrating about the book is that it has such a loose handle on Latino assets–as business owners, culture trendsetters and among the most aggressive computer and technology users or that Latinos will probably change the politics of the Old South.

If you heard Frank Sinatra doing hip-hop, wouldn’t you think an out of place old guard was pretending like it’s with it? That’s what seems to be going on here.

The tip-off came early. There were two references to salsa overtaking catsup as the number one condiment in the nation. That’s an old one, isn’t it? Meanwhile, they don’t seem to realize Anchorage alone has 30 Latino restaurants or that there’s a taco hut north of the Arctic Circle.

If I hear that line one more time about salsa and catsup as an indicator of change, I’m going to vomit.

[José de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. He is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (Archer Books). E-mail ­joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©2008