Analysis of the Higher Education Act Reauthorizations: Financial Aid Policy Influencing College Access and Choice

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Capt
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Financial Aid ◽  
College Access ◽  
Higher Education Act ◽  
Financial Aid Policy ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Aid Policy

Moving from the Status Quo to a 21st-Century Financial Aid System

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willliam Elliott ◽  
Melinda Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Financial Aid ◽  
Loan Repayment ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Financial Aid Policy ◽  
The Status ◽  
Education Act ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Aid Policy

With the creation of the first federal student loans as part of the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the US postsecondary financial aid system was set on a path from which it has not fundamentally deviated in the intervening decades. While college financing has trended almost inexorably toward greater reliance on student borrowing as costs have outpaced families’ incomes, the major components of the financing “mix” have remained unchanged. Financial aid policy is sometimes tweaked around the edges to lighten the burden of student debt, give colleges a competitive edge, or address undesirable disincentives. For the most part, however, these reforms bear more resemblance to the classic “shell game” than to authentic innovations. What American students need are more powerful tools with which to approach their futures—tools that help them prepare for higher education, persist to completion, and then leverage returns on their degrees. What they get, however, are repackaged versions of the same blunt instruments. While everyone wants improved outcomes from our financial aid investments, the nation’s apparent inability or unwillingness to innovate truly novel approaches to paying for higher education stands in the way of progress. The goal of financial aid policy has been narrowly framed as only helping young adults pay for college, a low bar that completely ignores the role financial aid could play in influencing early education, postsecondary completion, and post-college financial health. As a result, instead of receiving support at critical junctures along the opportunity pipeline to a prosperous adulthood, students are largely left to their own devices except at the moment when the tuition bill becomes due. To capitalize on the resulting missed opportunities, the United States needs more than different loan repayment schedules or loosened rules on grant disbursement. What we need is a fundamental shift in how we think about financing higher education and what we believe about why it matters.

Financial Aid: A Broken Bridge to College Access?

2007 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIDGET TERRY LONG ◽  
ERIN RILEY
Keyword(s):  
Financial Aid ◽  
College Access ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Financial Aid Policy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aid Policy

In this article, Bridget Terry Long and Erin Riley argue that in recent years, U.S. financial aid policy has shifted its emphasis from expanding college access for lowincome students toward defraying the costs for middle- and upper-income families. They explain how loans, merit-based aid, and education tax breaks are increasingly replacing need-based aid and discuss how the declining role of grants may disproportionately disadvantage students already underrepresented in higher education. They document the rise in students' unmet financial needs over the past decade, showing that low-income students and students of color are especially likely to face substantial unmet need even after taking into account all available grants and loans, as well as family contributions. In response to these trends, the authors call for a greater emphasis on need-based aid, especially grants, to reduce the role of cost as a barrier to college access.

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