30,000 college students kicked out of food aid program in Michigan

[The Northerner]

Lansing — Michigan has removed about 30,000 college students from its food stamp program — close to double the initial estimate — saving about $75 million a year, says Human Services Director Maura Corrigan.

Federal rules don't allow most college students to collect food stamps, but Michigan had created its own rules that made nearly all students eligible, said Brian Rooney, Corrigan's deputy director. As a result, the number of Michigan college students on this form of welfare made the state a national leader. For example, Michigan had 10 times the number of students on food stamps as either Illinois or California, Rooney said.

Cutting off the students is part of what Corrigan says is an effort to change the culture of the state's welfare department and slash tens of millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse.

"Maybe (students) could go get a part-time job — that's what I did," said Corrigan, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court who attended Detroit's Marygrove College and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

"We want to encourage people to be self-sufficient, not to be dependent on the government," she said in an interview with The Detroit News.

Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20110808/POLITICS02/108080356/30-000-college-students-kicked-out-of-food-aid-program-in-Michigan#ixzz1USkxsuAc

[gkhouston]

1. Did 30,000 part-time jobs just magically appear?

I think Corrigan should be less dependent on the government, too. Someone should fire her sorry ass.

[The Northerner]

4. +1

[EFerrari]

11. Youth unemployment is the highest in the nation, 1 in 4.

This is criminal.

[DainBramaged]

2. "Maybe (students) could go get a part-time job — that's what I did"

Where the fuck are they going to get a job asswipe . There are NO JOBS AROUND CAMPUS where these kids can get jobs asswipe.

[WCGreen]

5. There will be less jobs now that there is 75 million less percolating

in the Michigan economy.

[Exultant Democracy]

10. +100... I was too poor to go to college rigt out of school so I got a job

and saved up for 5 years, left my high paying job for an Americorps gig for a year so I would qualify for good finical aid and then went to college. Even with money in the bank, financial aid and scholarships it was damned hard to make it through college and considering the job market if I had had to work I would have been screwed.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

3. I want to hear more of these mythical "jobs."

Especially in Michigan...

[Lars39]

6. In a sane country, letting people have the ability to eat is not a waste, fraud or abuse.

:banghead:

[suffragette]

13. + 1,000

[jwirr]

14. And getting them educated is a plus.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. +1000:

In a sane country, letting people have the ability to eat is not a waste, fraud or abuse.

[jtown1123]

7. Yes because jobs are so plentiful in the first place...why do you think we have food stamps?n/t

[Bozita]

8. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you ... *cough* ... to find Maura Corrigan in the Federalist Society

[dembotoz]

9. change the culture of welfare--college students????????

They don't want them to be dependent on the government

college students?????????????????

Has this chick had a lobotomy?????????????


Never really thought of college students as a bunch of under achieving welfare queens.

drug using
sometimes

drunken
sometimes

lazy
sometimes

maybe we ought to round up all the students at harvard and yale and drug test em all.
Check their papers
If they don't have valid id send em back to mexico......

[jwirr]

12. If I am not mistaken that part time job will then be figured in student

funding and that will drop. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[SheilaT]

15. The university my son went to only had

jobs for students on work-study.

I suspect that cities like Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located, could not possibly conjure up part time jobs for even a significant percentage of students.

On the other hand, Michigan is apparently the only state that has allowed students to get food stamps.

[Scout]

16. Michigan's rules were more relaxed than the federal standard required....

they are returning to the federal standards.

"Federal rules don't allow most college students to collect food stamps, but Michigan had created its own rules that made nearly all students eligible, said Brian Rooney, Corrigan's deputy director. As a result, the number of Michigan college students on this form of welfare made the state a national leader. For example, Michigan had 10 times the number of students on food stamps as either Illinois or California, Rooney said."

students who did not really NEED the aid were taking it anyway, simply because they qualified. thus ruining it for the students who really do need the aid.