January 28, 2022 marked my one year anniversary of paying off my student loans . Reflecting back on choosing to pay off my student loans leaves me with several take a ways that I want to share with you! In September 2020 I decided to become debt free by utilizing the debt snowball method to pay off all my debt. Before this I had struggled to save and really understand basic financial principles. As a first-generation college student, I received a scholarship to attend undergrad for free, but the scholarship did not cover summers. During the summers I took out student loans to cover costs without paying interest rates or how much I was taking out. By the end of undergrad I had amassed a little under $17K. Fast forward to graduate school I received another scholarship that covered my education. At the time I was a teacher in a new very expensive city and I had missed the cutoff to have my paycheck last me throughout the summer. So, I decided to take out a loan for two summers to ...
About a week ago, a colleague forwarded me an article
from Disability
Scoop regarding an update to President’s Biden budget regarding Special
Education and Disability Services. As you know, I thoroughly enjoy talking
about disability related concerns so I decided to take a look at the article. I
actually recorded a video on this topic in early January as Biden was taking
office that focused on his plans for the disability community. I was surprised to
find a comprehensive write up that focused on several pertinent issues related
to individuals with disabilities. Be sure to check out that video on my YouTube channel!
Figure
1: This is a thumbnail from my YouTube video on “Joe Biden’s Doing What for
Disability Services and Special Education?”
In the Disability Scoop article, I learned that Biden
plans to set aside 400 billion dollars for PWDs to live in the community and
not institutionalized settings like nursing homes or other medicalized facilities.
This is an important factor in that PWDs deserve to live amongst their nondisabled
peers in whatever setting that they choose. A portion of this money will also
be set aside for individuals who are on Medicaid waiting lists to assist them
in receiving services much quicker as these waiting lists can be 6 months or
longer.
Figure 2: This is a photo of a one hundred dollar bill.
16 billion is being proposed to fully fund IDEA or the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. If you work in K-12 then you know
this is what pays for most of our students services that are listed on their
IEP. An extra 250 million is also being proposed to go towards early
intervention. Early intervention services help the community we serve by
providing services early on to improve outcomes among PWDs. The new budget will
begin in October 2021 and I will definitely keep you updated on the proposed budget
changes. What are your thoughts on these large numbers? Is there anything else
you hope to see done? Drop down in the comments and let me know! Be sure to
check out my latest video on the subject below!
Figure
3: This is a picture with the letters I-D-E-A on a background with puzzle
pieces
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