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I think the
GOP should be worried about more than their linkage to ethics worries with Tom
DeLay in 2006. KwC Financial Aid rules for College change; families pay
more Greg Winter, NYT, June 6, 2005 Excerpts: The New York Times
did an analysis of the formula on middle-class incomes in more than a dozen
states to see whether families would have to spend a greater part of their
income and assets before qualifying for financial aid than they did five years
ago. Though the effects of the formula changes vary from state to state, The
Times found that families with the same earnings and assets as in 2000 would
typically have to pay an extra $1,749 before clearing the eligibility bar for
financial aid in 2005, after adjusting for inflation. Though the formula
will change in the future, sometimes to a family's advantage, the impact on
campuses now is obvious, many university officials say, and often cuts across
class lines. The University of California, Berkeley, for example, says that
1,000 of its middle- to upper-middle-class students will probably lose
eligibility for federal subsidies on their student loans in the coming year, a
change that typically means higher debts because of accrued interest. On the
other side of the economic spectrum, Northeastern University, in Boston, says
that 300 of its low-income students will not receive the federal grants they
would have been eligible for last year. Some economists
consider the administration's economic assumptions deeply flawed. The
department's estimates for inflation were, in fact, far enough off that it has
now revised the formula it will use for the 2006-2007 school year, much to the
benefit of families with assets. But the latest round of changes will not help
parents in the coming school year. Politics have also
come into play. In 2003, Congress blocked the department from changing how the
financial aid formula treats state taxes. That move would have rendered 92,000
students ineligible for Pell Grants, the nation's largest scholarship program at
more than $12 billion a year, and reduced government spending for the program
by $290 million, according to the Government Accountability Office. Last year,
the administration found support among Congressional leaders seeking to
constrain the growing cost of Pell Grants, and the changes have now taken
effect. When the bar for
financial aid goes up, students may also lose the state grants, sometimes worth
thousands of dollars a year, that are often tied to the federal formula.
"That's a huge concern," said Gerard Cebrzynski, director of
financial aid at Lake Forest College, outside of Chicago. "We've seen
several students who have lost their entire awards this year." Still, some college
officials say the hand-wringing is unwarranted. Whatever the changes to
financial aid, they say, students as a whole have rarely stopped pursuing
degrees and college attendance rates remain high nationally. "I would not deny that this has
impacted some people seriously," said Joe Russo, director of student
financial services at the University of Notre Dame. "But nationally, has
this caused enrollment to drop? It doesn't appear to have." What the changes
will probably do, many university officials and parents contend, is have a
disproportionate impact on middle-class families, especially when it comes to
tapping their assets. "For the middle class, it means greater pressure put
upon them to cobble together college funding at schools that are becoming
increasingly expensive," said James Boyle, president of College
Parents of America, an advocacy group. "It's another middle-class
squeeze." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/education/06aid.html |
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