On Monday March 1, 2010, nine College of Westchester students travelled to Albany to speak with various legislators from Westchester, Rockland, Bronx and Putnam counties. Students from schools such as Berkeley, Monroe, LIM and The College of Westchester united to continue our student financial aid. Our goal was to join together to fight against cutting TAP (Tuition Assistance Program).
There are so many families that are struggling to keep their jobs and even find new jobs. However, companies are not hiring and many more high school seniors have to forget about earning a college degree because they cannot afford it. Today, times are getting harder and people are in dire need of financial assistance.
For this reason, I wanted to join my fellow schoolmates and speak with our assemblymen and senators. We wanted to get our point across and let them know how TAP has changed many lives. If it wasn’t for TAP, we would have less educated people and fewer taxpayers which help the economy thrive. The government keeps stating that it wants more educated people in the workforce, but how is that going to happen if Governor Patterson wants to cut TAP and make it even harder for certain families to consider college? They might as well say there is no chance!
There are outside scholarships that students can apply for, but the chances for the thousands of NY State students to actually receive the gifts are low. I believe we should continue to keep TAP intact and increase it, but that may be asking for too much right now.
Deirdre Aldana
