A major increase in need-based financial aid — plus more accountability for colleges — are among the major themes of a blue-ribbon federal panel’s draft report on higher education reform that focuses relatively little attention on diversity.
The report from the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education pulls no punches on many issues, calling colleges inefficiently run and poor at controlling costs and prices. It also calls for a total overhaul of the financial aid system, with more need-based financial aid to increase access opportunity.
As part of this financial aid reform, the report recommended a streamlining of federal programs but did not elaborate on the specifics. To promote ease of use by low-income students, the panel would replace the bulky Free Application for Federal Student Aid with a postcard-like application form.
For many families, the FAFSA is “longer and more complicated than the federal tax return,” read the 27-page report. With 17 separate financial aid and tax credit programs, the system is “overly complex and its multitude of programs sometimes redundant.”
The report sought a “significant” increase in need-based financial aid, noting a dramatic rise in unmet financial need for needy families earning less than $34,000 a year. Unmet need among these families grew by 80 percent from 1990 to 2004.
“Rising costs, combined with a confusing, inadequate financial aid system, leave some students struggling to pay for education that, paradoxically, is of uneven and at times dubious quality,” the document said.
Another theme is internal higher education reform to improve productivity and, as a result, help control costs. The draft was critical of university spending on athletics, housing and student centers, noting that many of these facilities are underused. Colleges also have a “disregard” for improving productivity, commission members said.
