Scholarship & Academic Achievements

(Reprinted from the Albany, N.Y., Times Union, May 26, 2002)

College Affordability a Public Policy Problem

By Sandy Baum

The problem of access to college made headlines recently with the publication of "Losing Ground," a report on the affordability of American higher education from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

As a nation, we should be ashamed that almost 40 years after the Higher Education Act of 1965 formalized a national commitment to college access without regard to ability to pay, policymakers, educational institutions and taxpayers all need the wake-up call that "Losing Ground" provides.

Despite billions of dollars in subsidies from state and federal governments, an elaborate system of student-aid distribution and frequent claims by politicians that educational opportunity is at the top of their priority lists, fewer than 60 percent of high school graduates from families in the lowest quarter of the income distribution (below $34,000) continue their education, compared with more than 85 percent of those from families in the top quarter (with incomes above $82,000).

The correlation between college enrollment rates and family income reflects a wide range of social problems, many of which won't be solved by lower tuition levels or by increased subsidies for students. The reality is that many young people face conditions in their families, neighborhoods and elementary and secondary schools that make preparing for college an unrealistic prospect. Unless we can improve these circumstances, many young people will be unable to take advantage of higher education.

Still, inadequate funds are a significant part of the problem. High school graduates with the highest test scores but the lowest incomes in the country are no more likely than those with the lowest test scores and the highest incomes to go to college.

In other words, many young people who have overcome considerable odds to reach high levels of academic achievement in high school are not continuing their education. They don't know about available opportunities; they don't understand the value of investing in themselves; they don't know how to navigate the financial aid bureaucracy; and they don't have enough money to balance the demands of paying tuition, buying books, supporting themselves and, frequently, contributing to their family's financial needs.

In recent years, the gap between available resources and the cost of college has grown dramatically for low-income students. For those at the top of the income distribution, income has grown rapidly enough to keep up with rising tuition. This is not the case for middle-income students, and the trend for low-income students is by far worse.

This bleak picture is partially the result of increasing inequality in the distribution of income. But public policy deserves much of the blame.

Both federal and state governments have been redirecting resources toward students who, while they may strain under the burden, would manage to go to college anyway.

Instead of increasing funding for Pell Grants, which are designed to help the lowest income students pay for college, the federal government has implemented tax credit policies. Although these credits provide welcome assistance to many middle-income families struggling to educate their children, they do not reach the most disadvantaged students, whose families don't owe enough to the IRS to claim the credits.

At the state level, the trend is to base more grant aid on test scores or grade-point averages, rather than focusing on financial need.

Whatever the motivation for these policies, their effect is to redistribute funds away from students who are least able to pay for college.

The media attention to the issue of access to higher education that has followed the "Losing Ground" report is encouraging. But the vital message about the need for an active policy agenda to reduce financial barriers to college must not exacerbate the problem it is intended to solve by increasing the perception of barriers to college among the most vulnerable populations.

The fact is that in addition to the Pell Grants and subsidized student loans available from the federal government, most aid dollars awarded by the states and most of the grants made by colleges and universities themselves are still based on need. Students with very limited financial resources can go to college. There are low-cost public institutions all over the country, and numerous sources of assistance are available.

Moreover, while grant aid is certainly more desirable than loans, any student who is in a position to benefit from a college education will be in a position to pay back some loans after making this unparalleled investment in the future.

We must provide as many students as possible with the incentives, the information and the support required to take advantage of the resources available to make a college education a reality, regardless of individual economic circumstances.

And we must do so while pursuing an aggressive policy agenda designed to close the educational gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Sandy Baum, a professor of economics at Skidmore College, is a member of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education advisory panel on affordability.

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