According to a recent article by The New York Times, the federal goverment distributes more than $1 billion in financial aid to colleges across the country. The schools receiving the most funding are often times the richest, those that students needing the money don’t attend.
At schools such as California State University at Fresno that attracts many students from field worker families, the university receives seven times less funding than Stanford, where fewer poor people attend.
The median for college aid is $14.38 per applicant. In 2000-01, Stanford received $211.80 for every student who applied for financial aid, while other schools such as Brown got $169.23 per student for running its low-interest Perkins loan. Out of 4,000 colleges and universities that receive government aid, most don’t receive funding close to that amount. More than 200 schools got less than $3 per applicant for financial aid in the same year. The University of Wisconsin at Madison is the saddest example at 21 cents per student.
And the numbers don’t get much better.
At Ohio State, more than 70 percent of students receive some form of financial aid and have felt the funding cuts burn through their wallets. As tuition increases and the amount of money available stays the same, students are forced to take out more loans to fill the gap. The Pell grant is an example of this. The federal government is expected to cut Pell grants – awarded by students based on family income – by $270 million. Because the Bush Administration is restructuring the guidelines for awards, about 500 OSU students receiving the grant are going to lose funding. Not to mention fewer poor students are attending Ohio colleges all together.
The gross imbalance between wealthier, private schools receiving more money than other universities can no longer be ignored. The students needing the most money aren’t always going to the colleges with the higher tuition costs. Yes, it is important students who have the ability to go to Harvard get there. But only a minority of students are accepted. The financial need for the majority who are not is no less diminished. The goal is for every student who wants a college education to be able to get one. In most cases, the people who are suffering are those who make too much money to be considered for financial aid, but don’t have enough to send their kids to college. The Pell grant recently made the family income cut-off at about $40,000.
The guidelines for determining federal financial aid is based on the family’s income, subtracting things such as taxes paid and the Expected Family Contribution. The lower the EFC, the more likely someone is eligible for financial aid. In theory, it shouldn’t matter what school the student goes to because the amount of money they need should be available to them based on their personal finances. But the numbers show otherwise. Often the determining factor for how much funding colleges receive is based not on the school’s/student’s financial needs, but how well the university can prove its fiscal case. Those who are more financially and politically savvy, tend to get more money.
Although the No Child Left Behind Act fights for equal education opportunities for students, once again a funding road block stands in the way.
