You left out the part about how your taxes are also supporting the guy who makes $1000 an hour to your $1an hour. Even if only one cent of your taxes go to that guy, shouldn't it be just as outrageous to you as the two cents that go to the other guy?

Yep.

special as in corky special or sugar on top special?

i see that way too much at work. i work in a really shitty part of town. like it's not uncommon to hear gun shots on any given night. hell i don't even duck anymore i'm so used to it. anyway, it's not uncommon to see some woman, not married mind you, with 6 or 7 kids. sad. see it way to often. they squeeze'em out just to get more $ from the state.

but at the same time not all people are abusing the system.

from Wikipedia

And this is why I hold onto my liberal ideals. We have to allow that there will be abuses (though this doesn't mean it couldn't or shouldn't be improved) because of the "greater good."

People will argue with me about the pell methodology (I can figure pell grants by hand with the worksheets and the right information) and I try to explain that its intention is to help the most people, though there will always be exceptions. Then I ask if they have extenuating circumstances for possible appeals. I urge them to write their congressperson explaining the gaps in the system. They're changing things all the time: to help the most they need to hear from the most.

But it is so sad that people are raised in ways I couldn't fathom: that to pop out kids for tax deductions and money is so far down Misguided Alley I can't even see it...but I can't possibly know what their lives have been like.

My ideals are in constant battle.

i tried to get a pell grant to go to school and get my flight instructor ratings. got approved, then two people later on the phone i find out that no. i can't get the grant because the school is not approved. but wait! i can go to cosmetology freakin college with a grant! wtf? something is not right with this picture.

A school needs to participate in Title IV funding (certified by the Dept Of Ed.) It doesn't have anything to do with accreditation, really. I'm not sure what all the school has to do to participate, but I do know it adds a LOT of overhead and costs to the school. Some types of schools just won't or can't do it.

Yes, Marcia's Make-up school might get Title IV funding, and be accredited, but accredited by whom? (Just a cautionary tale: there are lots of kinds of accreditation and many of them don't mean squat for transferring credits, etc.)

yeah i see what you mean it just seems that perhaps the gummint should make it a little easier for schools and/or people to participate. a trade is a trade is a trade imo.

Seriously? If Marcia's Make-up school can do it, I think it's probably the school that either didn't bother or mucked it up. I don't think it's that hard, but they don't hand it to you on a platter. You have to follow strict, and I mean strict, regulations...subject to yearly intensive audit...constantly changing regulations: schools don't just fill out a FAFSA equivalent and wait for word.

I'm sure Embry-Riddle participates in Title IV.

yeah they do. problem is that their tuition is sky high! (pun intended) :)

but schools such as ATP have a fast track program where they hit you with a fire hose and you get your ratings in 2 weeks. provided you can pass the test of course, for a fraction of what embry-riddle charges.

Ahhh. See, even here one must have declared an 'eligible program' the Dept of Ed (I mean, you taxpayers) doesn't pay for short-term certificates, for instance.

In our neck of the woods $10,000 for preschool or childcare is pretty standard. The cheepest I've found is $7,000 a year and provided to students as availible through the community college. I guess you could pay less for a non licensed person you pay under the table... if you want to trust your child to them.

This is why I stay home... we cannot affor to pay to send 2 kids to preschool. I'd literally be paying to work.

Isn't it NICE that people who work their asses off and make careful decisions and put off instant gratification so they can earn a decent living and put money in savings are constantly made to feel guilty about how "lucky" they are? Yep, that's really NICE, too.

And ditto what Pooka said.

OK, so you mean more what we call day-care than preschool here. That I can understand. And yup, that's one reason I stayed home too.