Although state and federal budgets are battling large deficits and little help for higher education can be seen in the near future, presidential candidates are still promising assistance to students.

“If you look at the candidates’ positions on paper, everyone has committed to education, just like other general issues, such as the environment, the war in Iraq and health care,” said Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science.

Candidates can’t do much to decrease college tuition, because federal cuts didn’t cause university tuition to go up. Cuts at the state level caused that, Schmidt said.

However, according to Daily staff reports, Democratic candidate and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said the first step to curbing the increases in college tuition is to balance the federal budget.

Dean said revenue cuts made federally are being passed down to the state level, which are in turn being passed down to students and their families in the form of tuition hikes.

John Edwards promotes a “College for Everyone” plan that says if a student is qualified to work in college and can work 10 hours a week, then the student should be able to attend a community or public college tuition-free for a year.

Hannah Schoenthal-Muse, president of the ISU Democrats, said all of the Democratic candidates have great plans and policies for making tuition more affordable. She said she “loved” Kerry’s “Service for College” plan.

Kerry proposed the “Service for College” initiative to help make college affordable and strengthen America’s security. According to this initiative, for two years of service to the United States, every young person can earn the equivalent of the state’s four-year public college tuition. Students could also get two years of college tuition in exchange for one year of service.

“It is great because it offers tuition to students and at the same time helps out the whole country by getting students involved in service like AmeriCorps, Peace Corps or the military,” Schoenthal-Muse said.

Josh Reicks, president of the ISU College Republicans, said Kerry’s and Edwards’ plans would never pass Congress. He said there is not an unlimited amount of money the government can spend.

“The Democratic party just throws things out like that to get their base fired up when they have no idea of how they could pay for it or how they could ram it through Congress,” Reicks said.

“Bush has shown in the past that you can’t keep spending and spending.”

Since 2001, the Bush administration has worked to provide approximately $60 billion in student aid annually through grants, loans and work-study programs that went to almost 10 million college students.

In 2001, the budget for education was $40.1 billion, and under Bush’s proposed education changes, the budget would increase to $57.3 billion.

Bush proposed a $12.8 million increase in funding of Pell grants, some of which are primarily for college students who had demanding courses in high school.

Also, Bush aims to increase support for community colleges and increase the loan limit for first-year students.

Schmidt said each candidate has different methods for helping higher education, but tall are committed.

The real question, Schmidt said, is how they are going to fund it.

“They can promise you whatever they want, increase loans or grants, but they can’t decrease college tuition,” Schmidt said.