An Art School in California offered my son $24,000 worth of financial aid, today, to go to their school. Only $7,000 of it was loans that he would have to pay back; the rest was scholarships and loans. I said to my son, "That is great. If you can go to a good art school in California and only borrow seven grand a year, you might should go. It would probably be an incredible experience."

My son left the abode in search of a sandwich for dinner. He's eighteen, now, an adult, which means that I no longer have to cook for him. I give him gift cards to the grocery store. He can buy what he wants; cook what he wants. He usually buys sub sandwiches or sushi. The grocery stores here in Atlanta have nice delis.

I looked at another page in the package that came to my son from this art school in California. This page said that the annual cost for this school is $49,000. If my math is correct, that leaves my son $25,000 short on cash for attendance.

My advice to him will be to not borrow $32,000, if it is possible to go to this school. Owing $148,000 to get an art degree in sunny California doesn't seem feasible to me. Warhol didn't go there and I can assure you that the school is not assuring its students of high paying art jobs once they graduate. The school is assuring its students of being saddled with huge debt in a lousy job market, while the school grows stronger and stronger gobbling up all that federally backed loan money that is making some millionaire banker in New Jersey into a billionaire.

The Big Art school in Chicago sent some paperwork, recently, also. They are trying to find out if I am as broke as I said I was in filling out the last round of papers regarding finances in the home that they sent us.

I am. I really am.

After filling in the numbers that the form required there was a space that said, "On the back side of this form, please explain how you and/or your family lived on little or no resources in 2006?"

I wanted to laugh.


Dear Big Art School:

There are a lot of people in the United States of America living on little or no resources. Do you not admit them to your art school? Is the ticket to becoming an artist at your art school having lots of money?

Something like that.

Anyway, I wrote them a basically nice letter telling them how my son and I have lived for the last year on less than $13,000.

Do you think that the Big Art School in Chicago will be any different than the Art School in California.

I don't.

I guess poor people can't go to art school. Maybe my son should just get a job at Mc Donald's, at the grocery store he goes to buy subs, or some pizza joint and give up the idea of a formal art education.

-----------------------

There was not a lot of father and son interaction, tonight. He called a few hours ago and asked if it would be ok if he stayed out for a bit more. It's a school night. I said, "I've told you the deal. I want you to enjoy your senior year of high school and I want you to bring home the Hope Scholarship to me, whether you wind up using it or not."

The Hope Scholarship is this thing that the state of Georgia has where all those broke ass people that clog the line in front of you at the "convenience" store are doing, when you want to pay nine dollars a gallon for gas. It's been called a tax on the poor. I call it a game for suckers. In Georgia, so far, its been paying the tuition and books for Georgia high school students to go to Georgia colleges, if they make the grades in high school that are necessary.