Sharing the Holiday Spirit

During the course of your holiday festivities please pause for a moment and remember the many men and women in the armed forces that can't be home for the holidays.



http://www.soldierworks.com/191/untilthen.swf



And if your heart leads please considering supporting the United Service Organizations' (USO) "Operation Phone Home". A program to provide phone cards to every soldier who wants one in time for the holidays. With just a few days left, the USO is still trying to hit its goal, and you can make the difference. To send a phone card, just go to:

http://www.uso.org/pubs/8_20_2733.cfm

Cutbacks College Support

 

 

	America's Future | www.ourfuture.org   Tell Education Secretary-Elect Margaret Spellings not to cut college support for 1 million students! Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Right Wing majority that controls Congress threatened the college dreams of more than 1 million American students. They authorized cuts to the leading federal college grant program (Pell Grants) that children of working families rely on to afford college. Those cuts would endanger the college education primarily of students whose families earn less than $40,000 a year, and who are already scrimping to put their sons and daughters through school. [1] After all of the conservatives talk about "family values," you'd never expect them to pull the rug out from under the feet of America's neediest students, but that's exactly what they did. They gave the Bush Administration's incoming Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, authority to cut tuition aid to more than 1 million students from working and middle class families. [2] But Secretary Spellings need not make these cuts. Please write her today to tell her not to slash Pell grants. No American child should be priced out of a college education if they have the grades and desire to pursue one. http://www.ourfuture.org/defend_Pell_Grants.cfm The right-wing majority in Congress preach about "morals," but what morals do they practice. Their latest outrage authorizes cuts in tuition aid to qualified students who lack the means to afford college. At the same time, this same conservative majority is hell-bent on extending tax breaks which -- in 2004 alone -- will put more than $30 billion into the pockets of America's wealthiest multimillionaires. [3] Where is the morality in that? If Secretary-elect Spellings exercises her new authority to cut this program, 90,000 of America's neediest students would completely lose the Pell Grants they rely on to afford college, and more than a million others would have their grants cut. [4] Fortunately, this travesty can be stopped because Spellings needs to hear from you along with thousands of other outraged students, parents and concerned citizens. Please write to her now, and ask that she pledge not to endanger the education of over 1 million students. http://www.ourfuture.org/defend_Pell_Grants.cfm Anyone who shuts the doors to college on the children of working American families shuts the door on America's future. Let's make certain that Spellings, the administration she serves and the Congressional majority who pushed this change into law know that we will hold them accountable for what they do. http://www.ourfuture.org/defend_Pell_Grants.cfm Thank you. Sincerely, Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director Campaign for America's Future [1] "US aid for college students slashed: Change in rules to affect almost 1.3m", Boston Globe, 11/23/04 [2] "ED to Revise State Tax Tables Used to Calculate Pell Grants and Other Aid Program Awards", American Council on Education, 11/23/04 [3] Isaac Shapiro and Joel Friedman, "TAX RETURNS: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Bush Administration's Record on Cutting Taxes", Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/23/04 [4] "ED to Revise State Tax Tables Used to Calculate Pell Grants and Other Aid Program Awards", American Council on Education, 11/23/04