The Future Of America's Critical Jobs Under Fire As Assistance Programs Are Cut

Very few individuals can afford a full 4-year college degree, even working full-time. Former options were birth into a wealthy family or obtain a student loan. Now it looks like being born to a millionaire mom is the only way become educated.

The cycle of life varies for many households, but some simplistic similarities hold true: birth, education, job, retire and death. Now that the economy is heading down and the credit crisis is still on its ascent, this cycle may be destined to change in the area of education. Students are graduating high school only to find they still are unable to procure a student loan but what is more worrisome is in critical areas such as teaching and nursing, where there simply aren't enough employees to fill the demand, the lending programs are vanishing. According to a report in today's issue of USA Today, these programs designed to give tax breaks, loan forgiveness and repayment to students who pursue certain "career" fields are being cut back, or even dropped from lending companies. One lender spokesperson, Mike Reiber of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, said "The money has literally dried up", in reference to its program who is ceasing funding to programs for the United States Military, teachers, nurses and child care services. Other programs under fire according to the report are:

• The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority on July 1 will no longer offer reduced interest rates for teachers, social workers, nurses, law enforcement personnel, firefighters and National Guard members.

• The Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority folded a no-interest plan for engineering students in May.

• The New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corp. in February suspended a forgivable loan benefit for teachers.

• The Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp. this year will trim maximum benefits for new teacher applicants.

So what does this mean for students? It means that if students can get loans in areas of need, there will be no breaks for them when it comes to repayment. The programs were designed mostly by state governments in response to a high demand in areas such as teaching and nursing. Not-for-profit lenders, in a collaborative effort to help fill the needed positions, would provide different programs that make it easier for students who went into specified degree plans to obtain loans. Although the critical need in these areas still exist, as teachers and nurses across the nation are not part of the rise in unemployment, the availability in programs are going away. One 2008 graduate from a nursing program in Pennsylvania who expected the benefit is now strapped with a student loan in excess of $100,000 US dollars, and her expectation is one of many. With many exiting the programs, essentially being denied the breaks they had expected in the midst of a major economic crisis, it will be interesting to see if others are even able to afford to the gas to fill out the loan paperwork, only to be denied. It will be more interesting to see if the number of critical jobs will see an even greater decrease, causing more problems in the area of healthcare and education. The critical links and how they impact the "whole".