State financial aid programs across the country have varying levels of accessibility for students and plenty of room to improve, according to a recent report from The Education Trust.
Dr. Brittani Williams
According to "Who Deserves State Financial Aid?," insufficient state investments in higher education over the past two decades have led to significant increases of tuition rates and fees at public four-year colleges, leading to bigger hurdles for students looking to attend college, particularly for low-income students and those from marginalized communities.
State financial aid programs can help alleviate these burdens, but such programs in the current day are lacking, according to the report. Not only have state financial aid programs not kept up with rising tuition, but they are also falling behind compared to changing demographics and the needs of today’s students, which include returning adults, student parents, and working first-generation students.
“The ways in which requirements have been in previous years and throughout time, they do not account for evolving student populations in the ways in which students come into postsecondary education,” said report author Dr. Brittani Williams, a former financial aid counselor.
For the report – published this April – Ed Trust used state funding data from The National Association of State Student Grant & Aid Programs (NASSGAP) to assess the accessibility and fairness of 26 financial aid programs in 10 states spanning the nation, from California to New York.
The assessments were conducted using 12-point criteria that looked at various characteristics of these 26 programs, such as their program type, required applications, income thresholds, and award amounts.
California’s state aid programs exist on both merit- and need-based levels and are available to students without requiring standardized test scores, such as ACT or SAT scores, the acquiring of which can be difficult for students with limited access to test prep. But these aid programs were found to have low-income requirements, meaning students from middle-income households are excluded.
