I don't know much about Elements but you could certainly try that. You might also try Paint Shop Pro from Corel. Gimp also has quite a following...and, best of all it's free! I could never get into it much but I've been using Photoshop for a while now (since version 5 or 6) so I had to bite the bullet and get CS4 (which is totally awesome but ungodly expensive). If you're in school definitely look at a student discount - which is quite reasonable and not restrictive.
M