WASHINGTON — In order to help more low-income students complete college, policymakers and higher education leaders must pay more attention to the gap between what financial aid covers and the true cost of attendance, a group of panelists argued Wednesday.
“Students can’t be successful if they are constantly in financially precarious situations,” said Rachel Fishman, a senior policy analyst at New America, a nonprofit thinktank.
At the same time, Fishman said that, the more she studied the problem, the more reluctant she was to prescribe any one policy solution around the federally defined cost of attendance (COA). The COA includes not only tuition and fees, but the total it will cost to go to college each year, including for things that range from room and board to books.
Fishman said she was more inclined to advocate for “universal basic income” as a solution but conceded the idea was beyond the scope of higher education policy.
