There is a sense most of the college counseling world goes on hiatus after May 1. Not every college requires a May 1 deposit anymore, but there is still this feeling most of the decision making and form completing is done, and all that’s really left is to fill out the end-of-the-year college selection reports and get ready to enjoy an afternoon or two of mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers on the patio of a grateful senior.
Oh, if it were only true.
Eric Hoover gave the field a wake-up call with this piece, a rare but important look at the way college counseling works for too many students—an approach that has little to do with essay coaches or prioritizing activity lists. In the real world, where most parents are hesitant to send kids to college (largely because they haven’t gone themselves), forms that were due in December are now just being started, and families that managed to persist in completing financial aid forms have many questions, but aren’t asking them. High school counselors—and these tend to be the high school counselors who are in charge of everything, including getting students across the graduation stage—find themselves running out of time chasing down students who have outstanding paperwork, or who come to the office with a college’s request for proof of citizenship in order to qualify for financial aid.
If you’ve ever had to follow this paper trail, you know it makes Alice’s adventure down the rabbit hole seem predictable to the point of being boring—and remember, these are students whose parents didn’t go to college, who have doubts about their kids going to college. It’s not going to take much for them to give up and send Jimmy to the local sandwich shop for a job application.
This typically makes May and June that much harder for counselors, families, and students from urban, rural, and low-income communities—and this weekend, it got even harder. As part of their efforts to downsize the Federal government, the Trump administration cut all remaining funding for AmeriCorps for the rest of the fiscal year. These grants tend to go directly from the federal government to the states, which then distribute funding to needy schools and organizations. This money includes funding for AmeriCorps workers in high schools who assist high school counselors in the college section process, doing some, if not most, of the work with many students whose families have no history in college attendance or financial aid.
If there is any, the good news is that the funds are being cut with about a month left in the financing cycle—so any schools who want to find money to keep their AmeriCorps counselors on payroll have less of a burden. On the other hand, it likely means a lot—and I mean a lot—of AmeriCorps high schools will have to send those counselors home for a week or two before they find an alternative funding source—and graduation is just a week or two away as it is. Some states are suing the Federal government for the money, and past practice suggests they’ll win—but again, that takes time, and that’s the one thing in short supply here.
So, the Land of Opportunity that promises all things are available to all citizens are, in essence, telling families with no money or college experience they’re going to have to do without. Not quite what we’d hoped for last fall, or what the Founding Fathers hoped for. Here’s hoping the courts can limit the damage.
Sad..but true.
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