Most Americans have probably seen these advertisements by now. It goes without saying that the president of the United States probably does support American’s plans for higher education but sometimes the ads start to look a little, well, questionable. According to an article by Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times:
The online advertisements for the Web site classesandcareers.com beckon potential college students to “Go back to school and get your share of the stimulus money.”
To reinforce the idea that a federal windfall might be a click away, the advertisements featured three people in mortarboards flanked by a photograph of President Obama. At least they did feature the president. But Mr. Obama disappeared from the ad after the New York Times asked One on One Marketing, the parent of classesandcareers, if the White House had approved the use of the president’s image.
Unsurprisingly, the White House had not approved the image. So Obama is down but the promise ClassesandCareers.com makes—that potential college students can get “$70 billion to help low- and middle-income students”—is still up. Wow, $70 million?
It’s unclear where this number originated. According to the article, the Department of Education could find about $17 billion “to help low- and middle-income students,” mainly through boosts to Pell grants and federal work-study.
