More colleges and universities are using their institutional aid to woo wealthy students who can pay instead of using it to help low-income students to make up the difference between what their federal Pell Grants cover and what it costs to go to college.
That’s one of the key findings of a new report released this week titled “Undermining Pell: The News Keeps Getting Worse for Low-Income Students.”
The report—authored by Stephen Burd, a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation—found that “hundreds of colleges expect the neediest to pay an amount that equals more than half of their families’ yearly earnings.”
“Overall, too many four-year colleges, both public and private, are failing to help the government achieve national college access goals,” the report states. “They are, instead, adding hurdles that could stymie the educational progress of needy students or leave these students with mountains of debt after they graduate.”
The report drew mixed reactions among those who specialize in higher education policy.
Sarah Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, or NAICU, said that, while the report “captures the multitude of interrelated factors that affect the way in which each college sets its financial aid policies,” it also blows things out of proportion.
“Behind his somewhat sensationalist labels is the simple conclusion that there are a number of factors at work and those factors make each institution’s definition of fair pricing unique,” Flanagan said.
