Everyone knows that college costs too much now days and President Obama is doing something about it. Proposing his Race To The Top program for colleges, he spoke on the campus of the University of Michigan to a packed house.

If colleges want to continue to get top level funding for aid programs, they would have to demonstrate that they provide an affordable education system that includes good value. Colleges wouldn’t be able to just keep raising their rates anymore without a subsequent reduction of grants and aids coming from the taxpayers.

Perkins loans would be increased from $1 billion to $8 billion under Obama’s proposal and there would be some grant competitions as well that aim to increase the incentive for colleges to keep their tuition down. Obama grants in the amount of $1 billion  and 55 million would be up for grabs in such a competition that would be similar to his Race For The Top program for the lower grades.

Another good thing he outlined was a requirement that all colleges offer a clearer picture of their costs and financial aid packages. One thing that is very difficult today for both students and their parents is how to accurately determine just how much each college would cost and the benefits of each. When you have a state college costing x amount of dollars and another costing double that, it is very hard to figure out what you get for your money. Obama’s new “shopping sheet” proposal will help make things clearer.

One bad thing is that all of President Obama’s education plans he laid out today must be approved by Congress. With the record Congress has of passing the President’s legislation, that makes it unclear whether they will go along and pass these important, long overdue changes.

Today’s colleges must start putting the students first and that means a return to the days when a higher education was affordable. If our future is going to be bright, we need to make sure college prices hold steady or start going down so that more students can get the education they need to be productive adults. Obama recognizes this and hopes his new vision will be shared by Congress so that these measures can be enacted.

Today President Obama is making more news by announcing new rules for student loans in this country which will be changed in 2012 to make things easier on the millions of students who have school debt. This was actually set to go into effect in 2014 but he wants it to start next year.

Under the plan, the maximum repayment amount will be reduced from 15% to 10% of a person’s annual discretionary income. Student loan relief is becoming a much bigger need in America as the cost of going to college continues to rise year after year. Students find themselves graduating with increasing amounts of debt into a world where unemployment rates are rising as well. In addition to lowering the percent that needs to be repaid each year, this new act will forgive the remaining debt a student has after 20 years instead of the 25 years set in place right now.

Additionally, any borrower that has a loan from the Family Education Loan Program (FELP) AND a loan directly from the government will be allowed to consolidate the two. This will result in a lower percentage of interest for the consolidated loan and will help millions of students pay less each month.

This new Obama student loan plan is something that is way overdue as our students continue to find themselves in a deeper financial hole each year. By giving them some loan relief, Obama is showing that he understands their needs and hopes that they will understand that he is doing everything he can to help them out.

The unemployment rate just went back up to 9% today and times continue to be tough for everyone economically. As long as the economy is down and people are struggling, they are going to be looking for relief from the government. A lot of people look for debt relief but even more are looking for help to return to college.

The Internet is the first place many go to do their research but that may not be a good thing. There are so many websites and advertisements that are misleading or untruthful and it is difficult to determine what is real. Often times people might be searching for things that they hope are real but really don’t exist. An example of that would be all the searches that are made for grants for moms, back to school grants, and free stimulus grants for school.

If you look for any of those types of grants or programs online, most likely you will be met with a maze of confusing articles, links, and advertisements that are full of double speak that leaves you shaking your head. Where can you go to get real information about school grants and scholarships all in one place?

You can buy The Ultimate Scholarship Book 2011 for just over $16 and this is a good source of information about scholarships, grants, and prizes all in one place. You can read the user reviews and while they are all not totally positive, you can get a good idea of whether this book might be able to help you track down grants and money you would otherwise never know exists.

Also included in this book is information about how to obtain grant and scholarship applications and how to complete them. With this guide you will be able to locate the ones you are eligible for and find out where to go to learn more.

While the things in this book may be available online somewhere for free, it is probably not all in one place. This type of information about the hundreds of education grants and scholarships is extremely time consuming to find and you would have to track down many different websites to find it. If you try to do this yourself, you risk the danger of being mislead and fooled by people that are trying to get your business and will charge you for things.

Remember, you need to be careful when you are looking for debt relief, stimulus grants, or school grants information online because there is a lot of incorrect things floating around that are designed to lead you in the wrong direction and get your money.

There is a lot of spam on the Internet as well as information that is not official or accurate. If you are looking for information on school grants or grants for moms going back to school, you might have noticed that it is hard to find any real information online. Most of the websites you click on when you do a Google search will give you the run around and you won’t be able to learn anything.

You need to find the official government websites and those always have end in “.gov”. Any website that has the URL that ends with .gov is an official government website and the information on it can be trusted. For instance, for school grants and federal student aid you can go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ where you can apply for the FAFSA.

If you want to learn anything about Pell grants or any other type of federal school program or aid, you should go to the department of education website that can be found at http://www.ed.gov/. Notice again that the link to that website shows it ending with “.gov” and that means it is an official government website and all the information on it should be trustworthy.

There are other websites that can be official that DON’T end in .gov such as https://www.salliemae.com/ for student loans. Not every website having to do with grants, school loans, or other government information has to end with .gov but it is a good thing to look out for and know that if the site you are on does end with .gov, it is the real thing.

In his State of the Union speech last night, it was clear President Obama was trying to unite the nation. There is a deep division in this country on what our nation’s policies should be involving taxation, debt, health care, spending, the military, abortion, and so many other things. But what most Americans do agree on is that they want a better FUTURE and that was the central theme of Obama’s address.

The most interesting thing that people are discussing the day after is his usage of the words “invest” and ‘investment”. Since President Obama only talked about spending in the context that it needed to be lessened, Conservatives are assuming he used the words invest and investment as a code for “spending”. They are saying that his reference to our country needing to invest in education, clean energy, information technology, and biomedical research is just another way of him saying that we need to “spend” money on more programs in those areas.

Also of interest was that he never once mentioned his 800 billion stimulus bill by name but said we must continue to keep rebuilding. He also said that we need the health care reform that he helped push through but he would be willing to listen to ways the bill can be made better.

There was very little mentioned about foreign policy and very few specific details about anything at all. This was a speech about the economy, our future as a country, and our need to work together. It was a speech meant to motivate and get the country back in the right frame of mind.

For the first time, both Democrats and Republicans sat together rather than on different sides of the isle as they usually do. This was seen by some as a genuine effort to show that all politicians are there to help America and should be united in that cause. Of course there were lots of skeptics as well that say that it was all a show for the public and things will be the same going forward between the two parties.

As usual, Liberals and Democrats were quick to praise President Obama’s speech saying that is had the exact right tone to help unite the country, especially after the election we just had in November where Republicans made big gains. Many even compared the speech to former President Reagan saying it was motivating and uplifting.

While some Conservatives and Republicans were generally pleased with the speech, many were as usual very hesitant to give Obama credit for anything. They say that anyone can make a speech but you have to watch what Obama does and not what he says.

What were your thoughts on the speech?

As people continue to search for how to get stimulus money, the question now being asked is whether the stimulus Recovery Act was a success or a bust?

When the stimulus grants bill was passed in February 2009, the United States had an unemployment rate of  8.1% and about 12,500,000 people were out of work. The latest data from September 2010 shows that we have an unemployment rate of 9.6% and about 14,800,000 people were without jobs! Why has unemployment gotten worse when President Obama sold the stimulus bill as the only way to keep unemployment under 8%?

Additionally it is reported by the Congressional Budget Office (which is non-partisan) that the final cost of the stimulus bill will end up being closer to $814 billion dollars instead of the original $787 billion. Other reports put the final cost even higher! So the stimulus package is bigger than what was forecast and things are still getting worse.

This is why so many Americans are wondering whether the Recovery Act or stimulus bill (whatever you want to call it) was a failure? They see their personal lives having not gotten any better and they are looking for all the new roads and bridges that were supposed to have been built with the money. Have you seen any?

It turns out that about 70% of the stimulus money has gone to the different state Medicaid programs and to public schools while only about 14% has gone toward infrastructure projects for transportation. This is what the Government Accountability Office has reported.

Many people will tell you that the Stimulus Recovery Act was a success and has saved a lot of jobs. They will tell you that things would even be worse than they are now if it hadn’t been passed. That may be true and it is impossible to know for sure what things would be like if there were no stimulus money.

But unfortunately, the unemployment rate has continued to go up and people are frustrated. Until that changes, people are going to be angry. The unemployment rate is the key as it is easy to get angry and upset when you can’t find a job.

Lots of people have directly benefited from stimulus money but this is a big country that has an awfully big population. The stimulus bill can’t help everyone and those that haven’t been helped will call it a failure even if it has done good things.

There is lots of news about the November midterm elections about how Republicans and conservatives are angry and there might be changes to the Senate and the House of Representatives. Right now, Democrats control everything: the Presidency, the Senate, and the House.

If angry voters come out and vote for Republicans, can that hurt the changes that have been made such as the Obama stimulus grants? Will there be less money going out from the government to the people who need it?

The answer is that even if Republicans win enough votes to take over both houses of Congress (unlikely) or just one section, there will probably be very few changes that you will notice. President Obama will still be the president for two more years and he will most likely veto anything they try to do.

Republicans and conservatives want to stop the government spending that they say is out of control. So, they will say no to any of President Obama’s ideas that require spending. But the 2009 stimulus bill has long been passed and nothing will change. The Obama student loans bill went through and that is not something that they would likely try to change either.

If conservatives win in November (big or small), it will just be a minor setback for Obama as he will still be in charge. He can block anything they try to do because they won’t have enough votes to override his veto. So, if you are looking for Obama grants for moms, back to school grants, Obama small business grants, or any other type of grants or financial aid from the government, it is likely that nothing will have changed after the November elections no matter who wins.

The important thing to remember is that President Obama will be in office for at least two more years and he could get elected for four more years after that. So, nothing drastic is going to change during that time. There will still be the stimulus grants money that is available and President Obama will most likely continue to try to pass government programs that are designed to help the people in need.

You should know that advertisers are not allowed to use President Obama’s name or likeness in any of their ads. There are many spammy emails that come to my mailbox that are trying to get you to click on the Obama grants link and it will take you to some online grant application website. Surfing the Internet will also occasionally uncover some sort of advertisement that either directly or indirectly hints that you can benefit from Obama’s stimulus grant program and they can show you how.

The FTC had to come in and stop a whole lot of these ads a year ago that were feeding off of the popularity of the new President and making it sound as though there were special grant programs and they could help you get free money. These ads were showing a picture of the President and using his name aggressively in their ads. People who didn’t understand that the grant programs are free to apply for were then being taken to websites that would charge monthly fees for their services.

There are many things today’s advertisers are targeting and they include aid packages that people think they can get from President Obama. They include things like:

Obama Pell grants
Obama scholarships
Obama college grants
Obama business grants
Obama education grants
Obama health grants
Obama school grants
Obama small business grants
Obama grants for Moms
Obama scholarships for Moms
Obama college grants for Moms
Obama single Mom grants
Obama school grants for Moms
Obama back to school grants
Obama back to school grants for Moms

While some of these are legitimate grant programs, in reality there is nothing here that wasn’t available from past presidents. These are all standard government grants that have nothing to do specifically with President Obama. Advertising with his name or hinting that he is somehow responsible and they are bigger and more easily available because of him is misleading.

You should also always read the terms and conditions before you sign up for anything and this is especially important if you are giving your credit card number out. The government grant process is confusing to many and there are some legitimate grant companies that will help you with the process. But you should do some research on the company first by doing an online Google search (for instance type in “scam” or “reviews” and then the company name) to see what people are saying about the service before you give your credit card out.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately with headers that look just like the one above (without the “not”). Usually they are in my spam folder but occasionally one slips through into the real folder. They seem to lead to different online colleges or some other college placement type website.

Is it true that you can really get $10,000 from Obama or an Obama school grant? Or are these emails just more of the same over the top advertising to get your attention and mislead you? I clicked a link that said “financial aid packages” on one of the sites and this is what I got:

I don’t know where they are coming up with the 10K number…perhaps it just sounds good. The numbers above ($5,350 and $2500) don’t even add up to $10,000.

Obama school turnaround grants have been in the news lately but those are grants that are going to be given to the schools that are successful in well, turning themselves around. They are not grants for individual people like moms who want to go back to school.

Advertisers continue to feed off of and use the public’s perception that there are real and new Obama debt relief grants, Obama back to school grants, Obama grants for moms, and any other kind of Obama government stimulus grants that they are now entitled to and can get. The truth is that there is very little out there for the average person that wasn’t there before Obama got elected.

There are new amounts available for Pell Grants but it is not that much more than before and it hardly keeps pace with inflation. Certainly the increase doesn’t match how much college tuition is going up across the country. Anyone can apply for these school grants and may even be lucky enough to get one. But is Obama just giving away $10,000 for anyone to go back to school like these ads want you to believe? Nope, not even close.

People may be wondering whether there are any new Obama grants or stimulus money that becomes available in 2010. Everyone is searching for Obama school grants and other things they might get from the government that will help them out financially. Times are tough for a lot of people and they are hoping that Obama and the government can help out.

To my knowledge though, there are no new Obama stimulus grants programs for individuals that kick in during 2010. Nothing has changed since 2009 and it remains very hard for individual people to get any kind of special financial aid from the government. Right now there is a lot of chaos in Washington as so much emphasis was made on health care reform and now it looks like that is on hold. Ever since the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, emphasis has shifted away from ObamaCare.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said he was going to concentrate on jobs as that is where the most need is. Of course he is right that there is a jobs crisis in this country but what can the government really do? Raising taxes on everyone who earns more than $250,000 means that taxes are being raised on most small businesses. Doesn’t Mr. Obama understand that small businesses is where many of the jobs come from and that raising taxes on those businesses will mean more people have to be laid off?

You still have to be careful in 2010 when you are searching for debt relief grants and any other information relating to back to school grants for moms and other things associated with Obama and the stimulus bill. If you have questions about grants you should go to Grants.gov as that is the official government website. Likewise if you are interested in the stimulus recovery you should go to the official website Recovery.gov. It should be known though, that those two websites might be hard to understand and navigate for the average citizen looking for any stimulus grants help.

2010 looks like it is going to be a rough year financially for many people in the United States just like 2009 was. Whether President Obama’s programs and policies will lead to more jobs and a better America has yet to be determined. Right now though, all you can do is be thrifty with your money and hope for the best.