[Ward Smythe]

That is a bit higher than the average debt for all college graduates, which in 1999 was about $15,375 for graduates of public colleges and $17,250 for those at private colleges, according to the American Council on Education.

The bill for my alma mater (private, Christian college) is about $20K per year now.

[Hodar]

He also said black colleges need an additional $20 million to give laptop computers to low-income freshmen who receive the grant.

That's funny ... my step-son is going to college, pursuing a business degree and working 30+ hours per week. He's making the Dean's list ... and he can't afford a USED laptop. Now, the minorities are demanding that they get laptops at taxpayer expense? Gosh, maybe I'm blind, but where in the counstitution does it garrantee taxpayer paid personal computers, and free education for minorities? If you want to be treated as an equal, work as an equal.

[diefree]

"Black people are getting poorer, not richer in the country, and so we need a strong financial aid program," said Humphries, who now heads the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education."

Another liberal lie. Maybe poor black people are getting poorer, but there is certainly a large middle-class black population that the media, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton prefer to keep hidden.

[NativeNewYorker]

If they really want to be mainstreamed and accepted as equal Americans without prejudice, they should shut the hell up and work and save like everybody else in this country.

As long as they mope for special treatment, special treatment - the assumption they're stupid and lazy - is just what they'll get.

[mad puppy]

In this land of racial equality, what does it mean for a college to be a "black college"?

[Asclepius]

... Pointing to students' debt loads, presidents of predominantly black colleges asked Congress for more money for financial aid ...

I like subsidized student loans better than I like the notion of reparations.

[Bikers4Bush]

They can pound sand. Chances are that they're taking out the maximum they're allowed for their loans instead of what they actually need to pay for school.

Just because you get approved for $10,000 a semester when you may only need $6,000 doesn't mean you take out the max and then whine about it later when you've dug yourself a hole.

[joebuck]

Would it be too much to ask that these colleges consider lowering their tuition? Or are their concerns more about the institutional profits rather than any real concern for their students?

[F16Fighter]

..."Colleges cannot survive if students do not have adequate resources to attend them, " said Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind.

Earth calling Rep. Timmy-Boy. You're not exactly stranding the students with papyrus and an abacus. Of course "adequate resources" in this case is equated with the luxury of being able to pay professors $200,000 a year and provide brand new laptops to their students.

But anyway, why would we want to lend more tax money to U.S. colleges? They are nothing but Marxist indoctrination hot-houses for the pods, er, I mean students.

[BLASTER 14]

This is BS, BS, and more BS.

My wife and I both worked our way(s) through college when the wage for students was fifty cents/hour. At one time I held four jobs simultaneously, one of them for meals only (no money). We graduated debt-free.

My son-in-law worked every other semester to make money for his education. He graduated debt-free.

PLEASE don't try to make me feel bad about how tough it is to pay your way through college. Those of us who have been there know all about it. The point is: if you want an education, you can get it without legally picking the pocket of the American taxpayer.

[Irene Adler]

"Shirley Lewis, president of Paine College in Augusta, Ga., said nearly every Paine student either is working or has taken out loans."

Sounds just like the university where I teach.

"Many students end up graduating about $20,000 in debt, she said."

"Many" is a weasel word. What does "many" mean in this case (as in HOW many)? She doesn't say.