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HSFPP Weekly Update # 179—If You Want a Longer Life, Then Continue Your Education

Message from Bob: We are doing a series on the importance of education and how to pay for it without going broke. This came about as a suggestion by a fellow educator. If you have suggestions for future weekly updates, please let us know.

Our next update will deal with why all teenagers going on to further their education should complete the FAFSA form; and the following update will deal with maximizing getting financial aid for their children going on to further their education. Please e-mail me your suggestions at rflashma@uky.edu.

 

Future in-service training:

The new HSFPP student guide and educators manual will be available for next school year. We plan to host a series of regional all-day in-service trainings this summer across the state.

4- H Agents, please e-mail me if you would like to host an in-service for your area this summer.

 

Web Site Pick of the Week:

http://www.kheaa.com/prog_home.html

The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA) was established by an act of the General Assembly in 1966 to enhance higher education opportunities for Kentucky students. This Web site helps students and parents plan for how to pay for education beyond high school.

 

Follow-up Activity:

This activity makes Kentucky students more aware that their first job now is studying and that it pays not only to learn, but also to get excellent grades.

Follow-up Activity – Answers:

1. Answer will depend on student’s GPA

2. Answer will depend on student’s ACT or SAT score

3. No

4. Any Kentucky college or out-of-state college if Kentucky colleges do not have the program of study the student wants

5. 2.50

6. You can use the KEES award to study abroad as long as you are paying a Kentucky school to study abroad.

 

In the New$… If You Want a Longer Life, Then Continue Your Education

by Robert H. Flashman, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension

It is commonly believed that money and health insurance are the most important factors in living longer; however, researchers now believe that education plays a more important role than money on how long you will live. Education is consistently linked to longer life in every country where it has been studied. It is not the only factor, of course. Flossing your teeth, which reduces bacteria, as well as not smoking also contribute to living longer. Maintaining health via exercise and diet from an early age makes a difference. And more recent studies show that exercising the brain by learning something new each day is also very important in staying healthy.

So why do education and learning make such a difference? Researchers believe that less educated people are less able to plan for the future and to delay gratification. This might explain the differences in smoking rates between more educated people and less educated ones. Smokers are at least twice as likely to die at any age as people who never smoked.

Study after study also shows that people who finish high school will make more money than those who do not; and those who go on to higher education will make more than those with just a high school degree.

You might say you can’t afford to further your education because you’re poor. But this is about to change in the state of Kentucky.

Beginning next fall, the University of Louisville promises “low-income students a debt-free path to a college degree ... Called the Cardinal Covenant program, it will combine traditional financial aid, work-study jobs and outright grants from the school to allow qualified but very poor students to get a degree.” (Lexington Herald-Leader)

“A student who is a dependent member of a family of four qualifies if the household income is less than $30,000 a year”; and “A self-supporting student qualifies if he makes less than $14,700 a year.”

The University of Kentucky will likely announce a similar program soon. Princeton was the first Ivy League university to offer full financial aid to needy students without recourse to student loans. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first public university to offer such a program, in 2003. “It has since been copied by about 30 schools around the country.”

Kentucky universities are to be congratulated for jumping on this bandwagon. Although we might not be the first, we can surely see the benefits for our state in higher incomes and longer lifespans for our citizens. It should mean a better quality of life for us all.

Sources: (1) “A Surprising Secret to a Long Life: Stay in School,” by Gina Kolata, Boston Globe, January 3, 2007. http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2007/01/03/a_surprising_secret_to_a_long_life_stay_in_school/
(Originally in the New York Times, but available free on the Boston Globe Web site)

(2) Give U of L an A: Extra aid a boost for poor students, the state” [editorial] Lexington Herald-Leader, January 6, 2007. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/16396596.htm

 

Discussion questions:

1. Are you aware of the types of financial assistance available to you? One example is the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship, which rewards students at Kentucky high schools for good grades and high ACT and SAT scores.

 

2. What do think of the University of Louisville’s decision to give needy students full financial aid? Do you think they should use the money that will go to these students for something else, such as improving facilities and/or lowering tuition for all students? Or do you think the University of Kentucky is right to consider taking a similar step?

 

Follow-up activity:

Go to the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA) Web site, http://www.kheaa.com/prog_home.html, and answer the following questions. The answers can be found by searching the links (in green) on the left side of the Web page.

1. Access your KEES account by using the link to see how much scholarship money you have earned based on your Grade Point Average (GPA). $_______.

 

2. If you have taken the ACT or SAT, what would be your financial award?
$_____.

 

3. Do you have to sign up to get a KEES award? Yes ____. No ____.

 

4. At what types of schools can you use the KEES award?
Name type(s): ___________, ____________, and _____________.

 

5. What does your GPA need to be to keep the award while attending post-secondary school?
GPA_____

 

6. How can you use the KEES award to study abroad?

 

 

Kentucky High School Financial Planning Program

http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/hsfp

The purpose of the HSFPP weekly financial updates and Web site is to assist county Extension agents, credit union educators, high school teachers, and parents who home school their teenagers so that they may improve the economic well-being of our teenagers; and also to show educators how the HSFPP and the weekly updates meet Kentucky core concepts. The Web site and weekly updates are provided by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and are free to all educators. The list of core concepts and order form for free program materials including the student guide and instructors manual can be found on the Kentucky HSFPP home page.