Applicants for Federal Financial Aid Increase; Obama Calls for Higher Education Reforms
DEBORAH CHEN
Copy Editor
Nowadays, students and their families are more willing than ever before to borrow money to pay for college, becoming more and more dependent on grants and loans to assist them with their tuition costs.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an increasing number of students from all income levels are currently dependent on federal financial aid to pay for college; an even higher proportion of students now take out loans. During the 2011-2012 school year, 42 percent of students received federal grants. Four years ago, that number was at 28 percent. Around 41 percent of all undergraduates took out loans, a six percent increase from four years ago.
“Federal financial aid is very important to me. It is the lifeline of many students who can’t afford to immediately pay off the high costs of college. It enables us to take care of our educational needs first, rather than having to face economical obstacles,” senior Jeffrey Lee said.
Though the federal government is gives out more grants to low-income students, colleges continually use their money on grants for students in wealthier families, according to The Fiscal Times. This has become a trend, causing concerns for people who argue that colleges should instead help students of limited means.
“As college tuition skyrockets, […] the fact that most colleges haven’t directed their resources towards lower-income students who need funding has only worsened the situation,” senior Bonnie Lam said.
However, on Aug. 22, President Barack Obama called for higher education reforms that aim to make college more affordable.
In the past decades, rising tuition costs have far exceeded income raises. This has forced students to take out loans to pay for college, which delayed goals such as buying a home, getting married and saving up for retirement.
By fall 2015, the president wants college ratings to be based on measures such as tuition, debt and earnings of graduates, graduation rates and the percentage of lower-income students who attend. Federal aid would be distributed based on where colleges stand by 2018. This proposal would give aid to schools that graduate employable students on time and also to those who keep tuition affordable.
Obama also encouraged institutions to make courses more accessible through the use of online learning. For instance, accessing higher education would be cheaper and more flexible if classes were streamed online. However, students that take out federal loans would be responsible for completing a certain percentage of classes before they can access more aid.
Nevertheless, there are potential flaws in Obama’s plan. Many feel that linking financial aid to graduation rates will cause colleges to either be more selective when admitting students or cause them to push out unprepared graduates. Also, Beth Akers and Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution feel that Obama needs to clarify what he means when he uses the terms “quality” and “value” speech concerning the college affordability plan, according to U.S. News.
Overall, students feel that Obama’s plan should be tweaked to address certain issues.
“Increasing available federal aid and mitigating the crippling effects that out of control student loans can have makes college more affordable and more appealing. But there are some flaws with Obama’s policy. For example, a part of his policy wants to rate schools based on graduation rates, among other aspects. This may have an adverse effect on colleges, causing them to pump out ill-prepared graduates in order to maintain their ratings,” senior Tony Situ said.
MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO