ALBANY, N.Y.--Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) 'charged Saturday night that President Reagan's proposed cuts in federal student aid would create a "two-tiered education system," dividing students not "according to their skills, their interests, or their achievements--but simply according to how much money they have."
But in her keynote speech to the New York Press Association conference and in a prior Crimson interview, the first woman vice presidential candidate said she feels that the current system is prone to abuse by the rich.
"Is it fair that [a taxpayer] making $20,000 a year, who has never seen the inside of Brown... could subsidize my childrens' educations?" asked the millionaire Ferraro.
Each of Ferraro's three children either plans to attend or is registered at an "expensive" school, and her older daughter is applying to Harvard Business School. However, Ferraro said none of her children receives federal aid.
alternative scheme for student loan allocation, she blamed the administration's over-spending on defense and short-sightedness for student and cuts and other social dilemmas.
"When we do muster the courage to cut the deficit, it seems that we usually cut those programs which do the most longterm good...Social spending is always the first to go," she said.
Rcagan's proposals would limit eligibility for Guaranteed Student Loans to students whose families make less than $32,500 a year and limit to $4000 the total yearly amount a student could borrow.
In her speech, Ferraro said she feels that she was generally treated fairly by the press during her historic campaign, although "certain newspapers published stories that were just not true."
Ferraro also said that she will announce whether she will run for senate late this summer. "The decision will be a family decision based on whether or not we are willing to put up with any of this silliness [facing the press] a second time