This last year I have heard alot of talk about President Obama and how he is committed to education. I have of course heard about the Obama student loans bill that passed and will  take the loan process out of the private sector. I have heard about Obama Pell grants and I get emails all the time about Obama college grants and where to go to get them. I have also heard about the Obama moms back to school grants and other such things. All together, I have heard a lot of hype about this president and his desire for us as a country to be better educated.  

Where have I heard about all these things? I have heard about them on television, on radio, in newspapers, in magazines, in advertisements on the Internet, in my email box, and by word of mouth. With all this publicity, I had assumed that he had at least initiated something new for students or substantially increased the aid available to them.

An that is why I am confused. After looking into government Pell grants here at the ED.gov website, it seems that there really isn’t much new to talk about. The maximum amount you can get for an “Obama Pell grant” in the 2010-11 year has been raised from $5,350 to $5,550. That it? A $200 increase is all they have gone up? Does that even come close to keeping up with the amount tuition’s have gone up in a year?

From what I can tell, there is no new special Obama education grant of any kind and there is nothing set aside just for Moms, single parents, or women. Returning to school is admirable but all you will get this year is an additional $200 over last year and that is only if you are able to qualify for the whole amount.

If I am wrong about this please leave a comment and let me know. Point me in the right direction where I can find out more. It’s just that with all the hype, I had expected more.

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.

The cost of a college degree is simply not worth what it costs today and one can only wonder what it will cost in the future. There are Obama school grants that the President has proposed to the tune of 900 million, most of which would go as an incentive for high schools to get their acts together. In order to get any part of that grant money, schools would have to show that they are making a turn around in many different ways including sometimes firing the current staff. You can read about that story here.

Why is it that even with the help of stimulus money from the federal government, more and more high schools and colleges are having to cut back and increase classroom sizes? Our children are not getting the best education they could be and the price keeps going up! What has happened to our education system? Private colleges can charge what they want but there are hundreds of state schools that the government could lower the cost so that average people can pay.

The Obama stimulus grants that are being given out seem to be going just to big businesses to bail them out. Shouldn’t our education system be getting a shot in the arm as well? Every President seems to act like they are big on education but it keeps on getting worse and worse all the while becoming more expensive at the same time!

No wonder there is great interest for Obama back to school grants for moms and anyone else that can get them. Right now, you have to be rich to go to a good college or you will end up deep in debt. We can’t have all our college graduates be in debt from student loans for the rest of their lives and the Obama student loans proposal will not help very much if it is passed. While lower interest rates for student loans would be nice, what we need desperately right now is lower tuition for everyone!

That election has sent everyone in the news trying to figure out how things will change now that the Republicans can block most anything they want if they really feel like doing so. Many say that there will be no health care reform now or at least it will be much different than it was going to be.

The President has many things on his agenda such as his Obama student loans proposal that would shift college loans away from private institutions and into the domain of government control. Regardless of whether you think this would be a good or bad thing, one has to wonder how this change in Senate seats numbers will affect what he chooses to move forward with and what he chooses to abandon.

The Massachusetts election has shown first hand how people are upset with how things are going in this country. Some people think Obama is doing too much and others think he is doing too little. Many voted for him to end the war and to put money in people’s hands and get them back to work. None of those things have happened and so they are angry. Other people voted for him to push through health care, gay marriages, and other such things which haven’t happened yet either.

If you are looking for Obama school grants, Obama debt relief, or some other form of assistance from the government, you might be confused where to get it. Obama made it sound during the election that he was going to help the poor and the people who needed help but unemployment is now around 10% which is very high. People need school loans and debt relief to pay off bills and they are suffering badly. New jobs are needed desperately but they don’t seem to be coming and nothing seems to be being done about it.  

With the just completed election, one has to wonder what the President is going to choose to tackle in 2010 and whether Obama government grants and Obama money will ever be available to those who need it like single mothers. Will he try to get another stimulus bill out to the people or will he decide to take a different course of action? Are we going to see real change and real help from the government in 2010?

Why then, is there so much hype about this and how have women come to believe there is special school grant money set aside just for them? It turns out that President Obama did make a speech a while back where he emphasised the importance of moms going back to school. It was all part of his push to encourage students to study hard and do their best. In that speech he said many things and among them were encouraging words to women to return to school and complete their education. All presidents make speeches like this to appear as though they are pro education and to get good publicity.

Somewhere along the way, that speech Obama gave about moms returning to school has gotten twisted around to read that there are new Obama back to school grants for moms. Perhaps this has been perpetrated by advertisers or it has just happened because so many women want it to be true. Either way, we now have many moms and women going online searching for something that they have been lead to believe exists but doesn’t.  

This does not mean that there is nothing out there if you want to get money to return to school. It just means that there is no specific Obama school grants program that is new. What is available are the usual Pell Grants and the amount these grants give has been raised. Pell grants though, are rarely enough to pay the full price of tuition that colleges charge nowadays.

There are other grants and school loans that women, men, moms, and dads can apply for and many of them have gone up to match inflation. Going back to school is always a good idea if you can find a way to afford the tuition so you shouldn’t be discouraged from trying. Unfortunately though, there is no new grants for moms returning to school from Obama like you might have thought there was.

The Obama stimulus bill that was passed earlier in the year had about $5 billion in new funds earmarked for things like Head Start. Additionally it had about $41 billion in grants to local schools. The problem is that these Obama school grants are not things you can just go out and get. They are all divided up between the schools and in order to get them, the schools have to show a certain level of competency and achievement.

This means that someone hoping to go to go back to school or college on a new Obama school grant might not be able to get one like they hoped they would. Just like everything that comes from the government, these school grants are wrapped in layers of regulations and conditions which make them very difficult to understand. When was the last time you understood anything that came from a politician? Just renewing a driver’s license these days can be major pain.

You can enter  a free drawing though at Scholarships4Moms.net. It is free to sign up with no strings attached and you could get lucky and win the $10,000 scholarship. You don’t have to be a Mom or even female to enter as guys can win too. They have frequent drawings and if you should win it would solve most of your student debt problems.

Back to the Obama school grants from the stimulus bill: Some states may not even qualify for this school grant money because of the way they keep data. Being accountable is great but it is very frustrating for the common person who just wants to go to school and can’t because the state they live in does not have schools that keep their data just the way Obama wants.

President Obama also has his “Moms Return To School ” grants program which can give moms tuition money to go back to school. You can apply for that or any other school money that you can find and often you can do it through the Internet. Understanding exactly all the hoops you have to jump through might be difficult though.

Having the schools and states compete for this stimulus school grants money is a good thought but like anything the government does, do we really trust the outcome? For the single mom or dad that just wants some help with some back to school grants, it all doesn’t mean anything. People who want grant assistance for their education should be able to apply for something concrete and understand why they do or do not qualify. It seems whether you qualify for the new Obama school grants or any other kind of financial aid may depend a lot on where you live and how well your state’s schools are doing.