Under the current plan, OCOG provides financial assistance to all students, regardless of what kind of institution they choose to attend, whether a 4-year state university, a state community college, a private, non-profit college or university… or a career college. Now, the proposed budget bill would “separate out” non-profit and career colleges – and provide grants to students in these “categories” in the form of separate “block grant” programs.

Career college students and non-profit college students are somehow “different” than students who attend other Ohio colleges?

We don’t think it is fair to plug Ohio’s higher education institutions into “state-assigned categories” to determine “who gets how much.” We support a level playing field: student financial assistance should be available to all who qualify based upon financial need. We should be allowed to use financial assistance to earn a degree at any accredited college in the state, whether a public, private non-profit or career college.

We believe we have a right to choose whatever college or university we determine is best for each of us. We understand some colleges cost much more than others, and believe cost should be factored in to the financial assistance students receive. But the amount of financial assistance we can qualify to receive should not be determined solely by the “category” the state assigns to the college we attend, or by "whims and what-evers."