LANSING – As Michigan workers continue to lose their jobs and look toward re-training or additional education as part of their next career move, there are not many options for those people to receive financial aid to achieve their goals, says a new report by the Michigan League for Human Services.
The league’s report, released Monday, shows that the bulk of financial aid is geared toward the traditional high school graduate who is going off to college and not an adult who faces child care, transportation and other barriers to going back to school.
The report also found that demand for programs aimed at those non-traditional students, such as No Worker Left Behind or Jobs, Education and Training (JET), is higher than what’s available.
On top of that, the league notes that median income has declined between 2005 and 2007 while tuition continues to climb in Michigan, eating up larger portions of a family’s budget for traditional and non-traditional students alike.
“For a low-wage working parent who is juggling a job or maybe a couple of jobs along with family responsibilities, trying to pay for and schedule the education they need to improve their employability becomes a Herculean task,” said Sharon Parks, league president.
While the league notes that the main financial aid assessment tool commonly known as FAFSA is streamlined under new legislation, it argues more can be done at the state and federal level in terms of funding non-traditional student financial aid programs, as well as at the workplace through the establishment of lifelong learning accounts.
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