Joshua Skurnik

This last week I did a story on the credit crisis and how it is effecting the state subsidized student loans. I interviewed the the chief executive of Mohela (Missouri Higher Education Loan Association) and learned that the student loan business is in dire straights. The way Mohela is able to give out loans is that investors buy bonds from them with students loans being the asset backing the loans. Mohela then uses the investors money to buy up student loans from private loan companies, and uses the interest payments from those loans to pay dividends on the bonds and to offer their own low interest loans for low-income students. Traditionally, this has been a very strong enterprise, as students have been paying back their loans and investments have been stable. With the sub-prime mortgage crisis though, investors are afraid of any asset-based investments, including student loans. Now, Mohela is down on the year and hardly breaking even each month. I am on the wrestling team at Mizzou, and through small talk I told my coach about this story. He was really dismayed  by this news. Wrestling is not a full scholarship sport, with only nine scholarships for a team of forty. What coaches do then is split up the scholarships, giving one athlete a thirty percent  ride and another ten percent and so forth. Even with the partial scholarships, half of the wrestlers on the team need to talk out student loans in order to pay for school. If students aren't able to receive loans, a lot of my teammates won't be able to be here. It truly is amazing how a major problem in society can percolate into so many facets of our life.

 10/07/08

Last week I was introduced to a group called "The Silver Haired Legislature." This group is comprised of Missouri citizens over the age of 60 who run for an elected position in their district and reside in either a silver-haired senate or house. What the legislative bodies do is discuss issues pertinent to the elderly, and then pass legislation which is then given to the real house and senate for a vote. The issues of the day covered a wide array of subjects.Some of the most interesting ones were consumer protection and state guardianship. The consumer protection legislation focused on protecting the elderly from mail-ads that mislead them into signing up for long term contracts and entering into credit agreements. These mailings look like checks the elderly would receive from their bank or the government, and upon depositing them unknowingly enter into an unwanted contract. I never thought about this being a problem, as I throw away most of the stuff I receive in the mail except for pizza coupons. I can see though for an elderly person who sits down everyday and methodically goes through the mail how a seemingly innocent check could developer into a world of trouble.

State guardianship garnered a full half-hour of debate among the senators. The bill that was in contention would establish a state office that would provide training for guardians and hold a central registry of all guardians in Missouri. During the debate I heard much controversy over the pros and cons of the bill. The pro side stated harrowing anecdotes of elders being abused by their guardians, like one women who's son became her guardian and then pulled all of her money and ran off to Texas. Additional stories cited instances of elders unable to receive guardianships unless they had substantial savings; people uninterested in serving them unless there was a monetary incentive. The proponents felt that the creation of a council would help curtail these instances of abuse or the inability to receive care. Opponents of the bill felt that the council would actual be detrimental to the state guardianship program. They felt that the bill was unclear of how compulsory the training for guardians would be. Those speaking said that most of the time the guardians of the elderly are family members and offspring, and if they were to be forced to undergo training would be less likely to take on the responsibility. This would then increase the already large need for guardians. It seemed that the helpfulness of a council was not in contention, but rather the ambiguity of the bill in its actions. In the end the bill did not pass. For me, this highlights a constant conundrum within politics. It seems that when any legislation is drawn up, there is a constant battle for a balance between the ambiguous and the precise in order to attain the best possible chance of a bill passing. If  a bill resonates well with a body of voters except for one little stipulation that rubs a large amount of people the wrong way, an otherwise quality bill will fail because of the author's laying out of by lines that could be hammered out by the council that would supervise the bill's actions once passed. On the other hand, a bill that is devoid of precise language but encompasses a sound idea can be dismissed as not accomplishing anything, and so proving to be a waste of time and money.

10/23/08

I did a story on a decades old bill requiring the state to provide adult English language instruction through state agencies. The story had relevence because of the proposed English only constitutional amendment on the ballot this election. If the amendment were to pass, it would be pertinent to know how the state had been preparing the non-English speaking population, as required by law, to conform to an English only government. I talked to the department of education who had been required to give funding and support to English instruction programs. They said that they had been in compliance with the bill even before it was passed, always being avid supporters of teaching English as a second language. Representing the opposing side was the executive director of the Missouri Immigration and Refugee Advocates. She said that the quality of the programs is good, but that there are not enough programs to meet the demand. The real problem was the lack of assistance given to students while they were learning. What she meant by this was the students needed help functioning in society. This focused on having interpretors for political events, community events, or things as simple as understanding a teacher in a parent/teacher conference. I could never imagine moving to a foreign country with a different language and trying to just begin a new life. Yeah, I would probably pick up enough to get by, but to ever get involved in the community like the director of the MIRA was citing, I think the frustration would be unbearable. It's sad that a language barrier can cancel out an otherwise equal voice, especialy one that could give a whole other perspective as an outsider coming in to a community.